Customer Reviews

South Shore Axess Collection 4-Shelf Bookcase, Chocolate

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This bookshelf is serving as a backup in our office, since the main one in our living room was starting to overflow. It's a great product if you know what you're getting yourself into. It's not wood; it's laminated particle board. It requires assembly, which is easy because the directions are specific, and all of the pieces are labeled. As one who has assembled many pieces of furniture, this is always so helpful. The color on this piece is great (I have the dark brown). I can't say that I would make this my primary bookshelf, but in an office space, it's fine. It holds a lot! It really is a great piece for the price.

Though these shelves are, in fact, made of thick particle board with laminate, they are sturdy enough to hold a reasonable number of books with no difficulty. Assembling can be a little frustrating, and, as the instructions let you know, definitely does require two people. The shelves are deep and hold large books well and the shelves themselves can be adjusted to provide greater height for the larger books of your collection.

Some advantages:

1) The shelf looks fantastic once it's all put together and serves its purpose well.

2) It's a good sized bookcase with relatively deep shelves and is especially great at holding larger books for this reason.

My biggest complaints really are these:

1) With the exception of the centre shelf, which is screwed in place by necessity, the two floating shelves are held in place by plastic nubs (four in total each, two per side). This is really no issue for collections of a predominately paperback nature, but where the heavier hardbacks come in, you might be biting your nails a bit. It WILL hold... but there's always that thought in your mind - "for how long?" I'd've preferred metal nubs.

2) The two non-centre shelves really do feel as if they are not capable of carrying the same weight as the centre shelf and because of the plastic clips holding them in place, I feel leery of putting any of my heavier reads on anything but the centre shelf, which makes for some awkward book arrangement. Also, the backing of the bookcase is very thin - just barely more durable that cardboard. That said, you can only expect so much for such a low pricetag. For the US$60 I spent on this, I really can't complain all that much about the build quality. It's more than reasonable for the price.

3. The shelves come in pieces from the vendor. It would appear that the producer of the product doesn't really care too much about sawdust, because the pieces were covered in them. I had to take a dry wash-cloth to the boards to free them of their dusty blight. If you have allergies to dust or sawdust, you might be sneezing for a few hours after assembly.

I'm not good at putting stuff together so I had a friend come over and help me. Within 30-35 minutes we had it together. Easy to put together and the color and finish is nice. I have no complaints.

Overall, this is a great piece for the price. I plan to buy the matching shelves once I move into my permanent apartment.

Here's a breakdown:


ASSEMBLY: Easy!

The instructions are easy to follow, especially if you've ever put furniture together before. I recommend that you place all the pieces together BEFORE you screw anything together (just hand twist the screws to hold it in place so the pieces don't fall off)

The instructions recommend having two people help you, plus using a Phillips, Robertson and a hammer. I only needed the Phillips and the hammer, plus I assembled it myself while my roommate was outside cleaning her car (really, it was that fast).


QUALITY: The shelves are MUCH sturdier than another similar shelf I bought from Target for about the same price. This one is structurally sound even before you put the backing on and I've found a lot of other shelves are wobbly until you nail the backing so +stars for that!

Also, the extra support on the lower and upper shelves make it seem like a nicer piece that it actually is. The plastic caps to cover the screws aren't noticeable from even a close look and at first glance, it doesn't look cheap at all.

The Espresso/Chocolate is a great deep dark brown that matches my leather sofa perfectly and the veneer is glossy and looks great.

It holds ALL of my books, including some heavy text books, the shelves are completely full and no sagging or leaning. It even comes with felt squares for the bottom so I don't have to worry about scratching the hardwood floors when I move it around.


SHIPPING & COMPLETENESS OF KIT: Can't beat Amazon's Free 2-day shipping (It does take an extra couple of days to process, but it was still here a day earlier than promised) arrived with one minor scratch on the inside, but it's in a place where no one would ever see it, so it doesn't bother me. The box was damaged en route, but the product was untouched (save for the small scratch mentioned). All the pieces were included, plus some extra hardware. There are even extra shelf pegs if you wanted to add an additional shelf or if you lose/break the ones that are being used.

For the price you pay for this item, it's beautiful and easy to assemble. It's a fantastic deal too if you're a prime member. Only took about 30 minutes to put together for me and my husband to put together. No glue needed. All holes pre-cute exactly as needed so there was no forcing screws in or aching hands from having to work in the screws. Very sturdy. This piece should last us a long time. Far better than a more expensive piece we had been looking at in Walmart.

I'm not sure why this product has an overall decent rating. We used this shelf as a bookcase. I assumed since bookcase is in the name of the item, it could be used as such. We filled it with books and the same day saw all the shelves starting to sag. Within a week the shelves were sagging about an inch. I wouldn't recommend buying this if you plan on using it for a bookcase. Unfortunately, it's more work to disassemble it and find another box to return it in than buying wood, cutting it to size and painting it.

We wanted a nice bookshelf that had dark wood that could hold our books. The problem is that real wood bookshelves are way more expensive then we were willing to spend. This bookshelf looks quality despite being particle board. Unkess you want to spend 200+ for a real one. If not, choose this one - its better quality than anything else we found.

I purchased this bookcase in addition to the asymmetrical tv stand. It is a sturdy piece of furniture but not good for the long haul. For the price it fits my needs and budget for the moment. Surprisingly it was delivered without any damage to the box and it was packed well. Very heavy to lift, if you're like me and have to take it up a flight of stairs you will need another person or do like I did and just remove pieces and carry it up. Assembly was straightforward and easy, instructions are simple and easy to understand. The main reason this product only gets three stars is because the material it is made with is not very good and if there's even the slightest chip it is very noticeable. Also I think I got lucky that it was not damaged, there's some chipping on one shelf but I filled it in with a sharpie, but based on the other product I bought there is a big possibly that one or more pieces will need to be re-ordered. All in all it's an OK product and it'll serve it's purpose for now. Any Questions feel free to ask.

These bookcases are super-easy to put together and look great at first; however all three of the bookcases I bought are having issues with the shelves bowing. It looks ridiculous now that the shelves that are actually holding books (what I thought this piece of furniture was for) are noticeably sagging.

Be sure to read through the instructions before beginning to assemble the shelf! The top-most shelf can be installed upside-down!
I did not notice that the top shelf had set of holes on one side until the last step, when it was too late to fix it.
Other than that assembly is easy, you could probably do it by yourself, but its easier if you have a friend help.
Once assembled, it looks exactly like it is picture (unless you mess up like I did). It is a very sturdy bookcase. The case is not wobbly and unlike some bookcases, the shelves do not slide too easily in-and-out of place and do not tilt back or forward.