Customer Reviews

Contemporary Home Office Cube Bookcase Display Shelves

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As echoed by other reviewers, this was the most frustrating piece of furniture that I've ever had the displeasure of putting together.

Material quality is middling, instructions are poor, end product is middling, but it ends up looking pretty nice.

I'm the type of person that other people come to when they can't put furniture together and I still had MULTIPLE problems putting this together.

1) For the descending pyramid shelves, there are 3 shorter pieces of varying sizes and 3 tall pieces all the same size (for the two left shelves).

2) These three tall pieces have a "left-right-center" relationship that is not labeled, not clear, not indicated in the instructions.

3) Furthermore the "center" piece has a "north-south" orientation that is not labeled, not clear, not indicated in the instructions (this is the inexcusable one)

4) The screw-holes are not counter-sunk on the bottom or the top. I ended up partially counter-sinking the top screw-holes so I didn't have dumb screws sticking 1/16" out of the top with a sticker on top. On the bottom, I covered them with felt and plan on not dragging it across the floor.

IF YOU DO BUY THIS:

1) Separate the 3 tall pieces. Determine "left-right-center" by looking at the unfinished *back* of the bookshelf. There is a lap/groove that the cardboard back fits into. Make sure that the center piece has no raised lap/groove protrusions.

2) Determine the "north-south" orientation of that "center" piece. I think the only way to determine this is with a damned tape measure. Make sure that the height from the bottom-most holes to the ground are consistent otherwise you will be disassembling the whole thing, popping the nails out of the back, forcing the glue off the top and bottom dowels, flipping, regluing, renailing the center piece and generally getting a lot more frustrated than necessary.

There are similar products by IKEA that can get you a similar effect and are of a much higher general build quality.

All that being said, the end product ends up looking fairly nice.

It would be easy for this product to get four stars:

1) Label the pieces vertical pieces: 1,2,3,4,5,6.

2) Put an "up arrow" on piece #2.

For five stars it would have to be made of more solid material and the shelves would have to fit better between the vertical supports.

If you'd like to continue the pyramid effect, you can get the IKEA "Billy" 15" wide shelf (these shelves are ~10" wide) and slide to the left. There is a slight color variation but it's in the same general tone and not very noticeable. This approximately doubles the amount of linear-feet of shelving if you have a lot of books. For *yet more* storage, you can make sure your ceiling permits it and get another Billy with the extra ~15" tall top-extender. I haven't had the need to go that far but it's good to know there will be a good-looking option for expanding.

I've seen this exact same bookcase go for $400. It is beautiful, sturdy, and contrasts wonderfully against my eggshell colored wall. I love it! The pieces weren't always labled clearly so be careful when building. Also, make sure all the holes are level before you nail the back on! The middle of the three tallest boards have the same number of holes on the ends so just be careful. Instructions were fairly straight forward. Again, great price. Love it! :-D

This piece looks nice once constructed. The dark brown finish is great!

However from the description and pictures online, I was under the impression that the shelves were screwed into the walls of the unit- they are not. They simply rest on pegs. The shelves do not fit tightly- they slide in an out without any resistence.

Also, the pieces have no sort of labeling system. You have to guess based on the pictures in the diagram which piece is which. The instructions have diagrams and they label pieces as "1,2,3" etc, however the actual pieces are not labeled, so it's a guessing game.

Hardly enough glue to properly secure the dowels. You really have to think ahead to make sure you don't use up all the glue before finishing.

In all, this piece could really scare a person upon arrival. I let it sit under my bed for 2 weeks and then I had my dad help me put it together. It really takes 2 minds to figure it out. Once you get going though, it's easy to visualize. If you don't have an eye for geometry and puzzles, this will be more than a challenge. Also, pay attention to how much it weighs. If you are aren't used to moving heavy, awkward boxes, it will be difficult to get it to the room where you want to assemble it.

The piece was put together with no problem, although the instructions were mostly in pictures. Just lay out all the pieces first and decipher them from each other, and you should be fine.

I was going to leave the backings off and have hollow cubes, but the backs turned out to be necessary if you want any kind of stability. The shelves are slightly adjustable with 3 holes positions for each, so you can get one or two extra inches in certain cubes if needed. The shelves could have fit better as they just set in place and slide left to right about a quarter inch.

If you are placing this bookshelf on bare floor, you will want to have felt sticker pieces prior to building it. The screws at the bottom do not set in deep enough, and they will scratch your floor if you are moving or sliding the piece ever. Penny or nickel size felt sticker pieces do just fine.

For the price, this piece does its job and it provides a good bit of storage. Overall, it looks nice with its unique shape, and its dark color hides its minor flaw of the shelves not fitting as snuggly as they could have.

This is a very nice, well built, sturdy shelving unit! Just like IKEA, but way better because it wasn't outragously priced! I had read the reviews and saw that many felt it was pretty difficult to put together... and they were sort of right. It took my husband and I about30 minutes to put together, but we didn't really use the directions at all. We laid the whole thing on the floor as it would look assembled, making certain that all the holes were in line and whatnot before starting. This helped a lot! Plus, due to the reviews also, I had my glue gun all ready and it was a good thing because the glue included was worthless!
I love the shelf and it exceeds expectations 100%. Don't be too scared off by the assembly, especially if you are good at visualizing the finished product. The directions weren't great though, thats for sure. Pieces were not marked well either so you do have to sort of 'see' what it is supposed to look like to determine where things go. But, of course, the unit is stepped down, so it doesn't leave much to figure out.
Overall, LOVE IT! Directions are D-, but don't let that stop you! It is worth the effort!I would certainly buy again, and probably will the next time it goes on sale. I paid $101.00.

We bought two of these for a corner where we had to work around a window and it's worked well for us. I have 5 kids who love to read and the shelf has been climbed on and re-organized plenty of times. The second one I turned around to go the other direction and lifted the melamine trim off with an iron to put it on the other side. It still looks great. I do with the shelves were a little more secure when placed. They rest on top of the pegs instead of locking in with a notch, but for the price and the effect, I'm thrilled with them 5 years later.

When I bought this I thought I was going to spend an entire weekend
assembling this piece of furniture, as I had read pretty much all the
reviews. But I said to myself that was not rocket science and started
by elimination to identify all the parts from page 2 & 3. Now if you are
looking very attentively, you may see on the side they are numbered -
at least some of them (red ink) If you're color blind, forget it...

The great disadvantage is that in the aseembly manual you do not see
the finished product numbered with all the parts - they are numbered
in steps, but not all together - so you have to figure it out yourself.
Here is how I got it.

*Ok, so parts number 10, 11, 12 & 13 are the back part and logically are
very thin - you can see that in the drawing, just one line, not double.

*All these checked, I looked for the three vertical pieces that have the
same size and I could identify the one that is on the side as on one side
had no holes in it. That is number 8. The other ones are number 7 and 4.
I could see no diference, except that number seven was numbered.

* Now I had four more pieces of different sizes and I could notice that
the longest of them had six pairs of holes on one side so I realized that
was the bottom - part number 6.

* Then of course you have three other vertical parts in descending order,
they are in order 3, 1 & 5, the last one being the smallest.

*I noticed three small parts having the same size. Here when I looked back on
the inventory list from pages 2 and 3, to see what number they are, I finally
realized that they numbered the pieced with the number that corresponds to each
one of them, no wonder is called parts identification, duhhhhh!!!

* Ok, so from then on it was pretty easy and obvious.

Anyhow, in order to make your job easier, I measured all the pieces. They
are as follows:

# 8,7 & 4 - 68 in
# 6 - 55 in
# 3 - 51 in
# 1 - 34 in
# 5 - 17.5 in
3 pieces # 2 - 11 in
9 pieces # 14 - they are the shelves, no need to measure those. They come
in a separate box, together with three pieces on the # 2.
# 9 the horizontal top - 22.5 in.
I did not measure the back parts as they are pretty obvius due to their thickness.

Tips:
- do not try to assembly them as you think, follow the steps.
- pay attention when you joint # 2 with # 1 from step 1; it
has to be like in the drawing that shows the big holes for
camlock on the front left side of the piece # 1 and the
plastic filled holes for the revolve screws on # 2 go on the
right side...

One more thing though, I have to warn you, you pay 60$ for shipping
and you expect the top service. Not this, I got the package on one
side opened and clearly damaged due to being moved from one Fedex
truck to the other. I would not have signed for it had I seen it, but
since I live in a gated community, they left the parcel at the leasing
office. But all is good when it ends good :).

Sorry if I did not express myself in technical terms, after all I am
a woman that had never seen camlock screws before. I just happen to
be very practical and have always welcomed whatever challenged my brain.

Good luck with your new acquisition!

I loved the way it looked in the pictures, and the reviews are pretty positive overall, plus the thing is pretty cheap. Overall, I think I'm pleased enough with it for the price.

It actually wasn't that hard to put together as some of the reviews say. The parts ARE labeled, but the numbers are so small that by the time we realized this we had already put 1/3 of it together. Once you put together the first 3-4 pieces, the rest is pretty easy, you just follow the same pattern. The middle long shelf.. I have to say... WHAT? I mean the thing has an arrow on it. No Arrow and "Down" or "Up" but just an arrow. We assumed the arrow meant up so we put the shelf this way, nailed on the back stood the thing up and the shelves were all crooked in the middle. Had to knock out the back (which we already nailed down)and switch the middle board. So that arrow means side DOWN. ^^ Otherwise it came out pretty nice. Can't really tell after it's put together and filled with a whole bunch of stuff that it when through some re-building. The material is flimsy of course but if you don't move it around too much it's OK. Just be careful knocking in those nails on the back so that they don't miss the solid wood - there's not a lot of extra solid wood there to play with!

The thing IS incredibly pretty!

The worst I have had. the pieces were not properly labeled - so it take a while of guesswork. then then drilled holes are not aligned so shelves can't stay even. Overall a big disappointment. And it is so heavy and so much trouble to take it apart and return. I guess i just created a junk for nothing. Terrible.

I purchased 2 of these units and once assembled, put them together to form a pyramid shape. The assembly wasn't that difficult-definitely took others advice about laying it out first, then putting it together. The pieces are labeled, but a little hard to see on some of the pieces. We tried to take the edge off the one side & put it on the other (since we turned it around), but it didn't work out too well. We ended up removing it and buying edging at Lowe's, which is fine. I would ask the manufacturer to finish both side edges so there is more flexibility in how the units are arranged and used.
When we put the shelves in, we noticed that the shelves were not all uniform-some fit quite tightly, others had gaps and they just set on the little pegs, so they're not really secure. I don't anticipate a problem with this, but thought I would mention it.
Overall I am happy with the quality (I've seen better, I've seen worse)& the look of the 2 units put together. I put them in my dining room instead of a china cabinet (not the china type) & they look great. They're not so large that they dominate the room, but they provide plenty of space for my books & other things. They are perfectly fine, especially for the price. I will probably buy at least one more set for my daughter's room.