Beautiful, solid piece of kitchen furniture but the directions are frustrating!
I needed more storage and counter space in my kitchen. This is a nice piece of furniture and I really like it. The only downer was that the directions stink. The truth is that only the directions for the first step are totally and absolutely useless because the pictures give you NO idea which end of the pieces is up or down, inside or outside facing. It isnt obvious to non/cabinet makers and IT REALLY MATTERS.
Ive put together several pieces of furniture, so Im not a complete Tyro, but Im also no expert. The first step took well over an hour because not only was it nearly impossible to guess which way the pieces went, but I lacked the experience to just know. We ended up having to take it apart and the ONLY reason that I eventually figured out step one was because I looked at every single photograph of the inside of the cupboard on a fully assembled piece that I could find in the reviews. That was where I finally found the clue to doing the first step correctly. The whole thing took me about 3 1/2 or 4 hours and I was mightily frustrated with the process. A more experienced furniture builder may have just known what to do.
Now Im enjoying the cart and I really love it. Its sturdy, maneuverable and very nice looking. All it really needs is someone to include a more detailed first picture, and possibly a FEW words of explanation. I write training and help systems for medical research software for a living. I get a piece of software, figure out how its supposed to work, and tell people who are not software experts the things they need to know to make it work. Im NOT a software engineer. Im a curriculum designer! Someone like ME should have written the directions and drawn the pictures, not a design engineer who thinks that everyone has the same background knowledge that he or she does. (Sorry programmers, but the same thing happens when you guys write the help. It borders on useless!)
Its really not a hard piece of furniture to put together IF you know which way the pieces fit in the first step. All the other steps were pretty self/explanatory, even for me.
Beautiful, solid piece of kitchen furniture but the directions are frustrating!
I needed more storage and counter space in my kitchen. This is a nice piece of furniture and I really like it. The only downer was that the directions stink. The truth is that only the directions for the first step are totally and absolutely useless because the pictures give you NO idea which end of the pieces is up or down, inside or outside facing. It isnt obvious to non/cabinet makers and IT REALLY MATTERS. Ive put together several pieces of furniture, so Im not a complete Tyro, but Im also no expert. The first step took well over an hour because not only was it nearly impossible to guess which way the pieces went, but I lacked the experience to just know. We ended up having to take it apart and the ONLY reason that I eventually figured out step one was because I looked at every single photograph of the inside of the cupboard on a fully assembled piece that I could find in the reviews. That was where I finally found the clue to doing the first step correctly. The whole thing took me about 3 1/2 or 4 hours and I was mightily frustrated with the process. A more experienced furniture builder may have just known what to do. Now Im enjoying the cart and I really love it. Its sturdy, maneuverable and very nice looking. All it really needs is someone to include a more detailed first picture, and possibly a FEW words of explanation. I write training and help systems for medical research software for a living. I get a piece of software, figure out how its supposed to work, and tell people who are not software experts the things they need to know to make it work. Im NOT a software engineer. Im a curriculum designer! Someone like ME should have written the directions and drawn the pictures, not a design engineer who thinks that everyone has the same background knowledge that he or she does. (Sorry programmers, but the same thing happens when you guys write the help. It borders on useless!) Its really not a hard piece of furniture to put together IF you know which way the pieces fit in the first step. All the other steps were pretty self/explanatory, even for me.