First, it is my opinion (and I believe to be true) that across the board, furniture quality isnt what it used to be. That doesnt mean you cant find quality furniture, made with fine materials by skilled craftsmanyou certainly can. But generally speaking the quality of furniture you might see in your parents or grandparents house is more difficult to come by these days. And thats especially true of a 200/ish piece of furniture like this buffet/TV stand.
It is, however, machined well in my opinion. I know a few of the reviews mentioned parts not fitting together quite right. I didnt experience that. Things fit precisely the way as described, with very minute alignment issues on only a couple of the dozens of pieces. All in all Im very happy with the final product. The packaging was adequate, I saw no damage on any parts, the instructions were clear 99 of the time, and the final assemblage looks and feels as advertised.
Other reviews were quoting anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 hours of assembly time. I finished right at 2.5 hours, which I spent entirely on assembly with the exception of one bathroom break. Im a fairly organized person, so I laid out all of the hardware packages alphabetically to make things more efficient as I worked through the instructions.
Here are some of the reasons I wouldnt give this piece of furniture five stars. First, the quality (or lack thereof) of some of the hardware partsespecially the cam locks. Turn the screwdriver too hard trying to snug them up and the cam lock metal actually breaks! Second, most of the cam bolts dont indicate how deep you should be screwing them into the wood. I found myself having to back out quite a few of the cam bolts a turn or two just so the cam locks would grab them. This generally isnt a big hassle, except many of the dowels already have glue on them which means as soon as you take a piece apart to adjust a cam bolt, you inevitably get glue all over the place. The hinges were the other pieces of hardware which seem really poorly made. Im sure its just cost/cutting measures, but although they do the job and seem like theyll hold just fine, they just feel like lightweight pieces of junk when you pick them up. I guess its nice that the manufacturer gave you some little stickers to put over and camouflage the cam locks when youre fully assembled, but it would have been nicer if they provided enough of the little stickers!
Other lessons learned: 1) Careful leaving the little tubes of wood glue on the floor during assembly. Since youre moving all around to get to different parts of this piece, you may step on them (like I did) and make quite a mess. 2) If youre even a bit experienced with a cordless drill, dont hesitate to use it (even though the instructions advise against it) for screwing on the three cardboard back panels which in total have about 25 screws. I also used it to screw in the hinges. 3) Dont over/tighten anything. In fact, Id leave things a little more loose than what youd normally be accustomed to doing when assembling furniture. 4) They dont provide felt pads for the wooden legs. And although the leg bottom surfaces didnt feel too rough, if youre worried about scratching your floor when moving this piece around, Id recommend buying some and sticking them on the legs. Its a fairly heavy piece of furniture.
I could probably say more, but I think that suffices. You get what you pay for, folks. I think this is a fair price for what ends up being a pretty nice piece of entry/level furniture. Just dont expect a high quality heirloom worthy of passing down through the generations.
Nicely made piece of furniture for the price.
First, it is my opinion (and I believe to be true) that across the board, furniture quality isnt what it used to be. That doesnt mean you cant find quality furniture, made with fine materials by skilled craftsmanyou certainly can. But generally speaking the quality of furniture you might see in your parents or grandparents house is more difficult to come by these days. And thats especially true of a 200/ish piece of furniture like this buffet/TV stand. It is, however, machined well in my opinion. I know a few of the reviews mentioned parts not fitting together quite right. I didnt experience that. Things fit precisely the way as described, with very minute alignment issues on only a couple of the dozens of pieces. All in all Im very happy with the final product. The packaging was adequate, I saw no damage on any parts, the instructions were clear 99 of the time, and the final assemblage looks and feels as advertised. Other reviews were quoting anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 hours of assembly time. I finished right at 2.5 hours, which I spent entirely on assembly with the exception of one bathroom break. Im a fairly organized person, so I laid out all of the hardware packages alphabetically to make things more efficient as I worked through the instructions. Here are some of the reasons I wouldnt give this piece of furniture five stars. First, the quality (or lack thereof) of some of the hardware partsespecially the cam locks. Turn the screwdriver too hard trying to snug them up and the cam lock metal actually breaks! Second, most of the cam bolts dont indicate how deep you should be screwing them into the wood. I found myself having to back out quite a few of the cam bolts a turn or two just so the cam locks would grab them. This generally isnt a big hassle, except many of the dowels already have glue on them which means as soon as you take a piece apart to adjust a cam bolt, you inevitably get glue all over the place. The hinges were the other pieces of hardware which seem really poorly made. Im sure its just cost/cutting measures, but although they do the job and seem like theyll hold just fine, they just feel like lightweight pieces of junk when you pick them up. I guess its nice that the manufacturer gave you some little stickers to put over and camouflage the cam locks when youre fully assembled, but it would have been nicer if they provided enough of the little stickers! Other lessons learned: 1) Careful leaving the little tubes of wood glue on the floor during assembly. Since youre moving all around to get to different parts of this piece, you may step on them (like I did) and make quite a mess. 2) If youre even a bit experienced with a cordless drill, dont hesitate to use it (even though the instructions advise against it) for screwing on the three cardboard back panels which in total have about 25 screws. I also used it to screw in the hinges. 3) Dont over/tighten anything. In fact, Id leave things a little more loose than what youd normally be accustomed to doing when assembling furniture. 4) They dont provide felt pads for the wooden legs. And although the leg bottom surfaces didnt feel too rough, if youre worried about scratching your floor when moving this piece around, Id recommend buying some and sticking them on the legs. Its a fairly heavy piece of furniture. I could probably say more, but I think that suffices. You get what you pay for, folks. I think this is a fair price for what ends up being a pretty nice piece of entry/level furniture. Just dont expect a high quality heirloom worthy of passing down through the generations.