Customer Reviews

Winsome Wood Timber Storage Cabinet

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I ordered this because of the great price and the dimensions were perfect
for the space we had available in the dining room.
The top section is fully open so large items and linens can have the full
width of the cabinet if needed.
The drawers are nice for smaller items, candlesticks, napkin rings , etc.
The cabinet is very sturdy and well done especially if you take the time to
put it together correctly. Assembly was easy for anyone who's handy. Nice!

SUMMARY
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Well packaged piece, with some assembly difficulties. Looks very close to the way it is pictured online. Overall material quality is okay.

DETAILS
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Some of the parts of this cabinet aligned poorly and wouldn't sit quite flush. One of the side walls was missing two drill holes. I was able to put it together eventually and I think it is sturdy enough to last for a while, but I don't think it would very well be disassembled, transported and put together in the same shape again. When put together, it looks like pictured. Color is a shiny, deep black, as pictured. You are able to see the grain of the wood a little. I am not judging this to be good or bad, as it depends on personal preference for me, but quality wise one can probably objectively state that this is better than press wood with glued on panels.

Assembly instructions state that assembly requires two people. It took two hours by myself, with little trial and error. Tools for assembly consists of screws and a hex key. When using the included hex key, you often need to reach into places to tighten screws that only allow you to turn the hex key by less than 90 degrees, which consumes most of the time for assembly. Using tools that allows you to fasten these screws without removing and re-inserting the hex key would probably as much as half the assembly time.

Some of the boards are not very thick. The side walls and the board horizontally separating the drawers and the upper part of the inside are particularly thin; about 1-2/8th of an inch. When I applied little pressure on it, it would give off a crackling sound. The drawers' back ends push up against that aforementioned thin piece of horizontal board and I think, if they are loaded too much and drawn out would break or crack it.

The hinges come already screwed to the left and right boards making up the sides of the cabinet and are not adjustable as in some furniture in order for the doors to close tightly, so one needs to make sure that all other pieces sit perfectly flush and at 90 degree angles. As mentioned above, some of the pieces I was not able to align perfectly flush against each other.

The backside of the cabinet consists of two slightly flexible pressed wood sheets that the instructions ask you to nail against the back frame of the cabinet, as in many other furniture pieces.

The packaging of the parts seemed good. All of the boards were separated with thin foam sheets that kept the parts from being scratched well enough. Delivery was on time.

Here is a breakdown for the rating I chose to give this product. I personally don't care about the amount of effort I have to put into assembling a piece of furniture, as long as it is sturdy and looks good afterwards, if the assembly instructions are followed, so I did not include ease of assembly" in the assembly category.

LOOK + QUALITY (4/5)
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I will try to avoid going too much into matters of personal taste in order to keep this review objective. The assembled piece seems to look very close to the way it is pictured online. Online pictures, as often, did not allow a close inspection of the quality of the parts. After assembly, even though some of the pieces did not sit perfectly flush, one would need to take a very close look to be able to detect these flaws.

Quality of pieces and material seems okay. Some pieces are pretty thin. Wood appears to be solid (except for the back panels), not press wood, with some visible wood graining. Paint of the pieces was even and deep black, with the slight shine to it that is visible in the online pictures. Handles are metal.

ASSEMBLY (2/5)
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Assembly according to the included instructions had the obstacles of pieces badly aligning and two drill holes missing, as mentioned above. In many other reviews of furniture I have often seen a small portion of negative reviews mentioning missing drill holes such as these and I had my doubts, if the fault lay with the reviewers, but it does seem to occur. I cannot speak for how often it occurs with this manufacturer or this particular piece of furniture, but I did confirm that the holes were missing in my piece. I was able to assemble this piece, but I am a bodybuilder and strong enough to cleanly screw in the screws into the wood with the included hex key, without the drill holes. The alignment issues I mentioned above did not stem from these missing drill holes, as I was not able to cleanly align the pieces before putting in all but these particular screws.

After assembly, the doors were slightly off, enough to be noticeable when opening and closing, but not enough to detect by visual inspection when closed. Some correction of this issue was possible by adjusting the two magnets that hold the doors shut and are screwed into the bottom side of the top board.

PACKAGING (5/5)
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Packaging of the pieces was very compact and individual boards were well protected from damaging other pieces, such as scratching against each other during delivery.

OVERALL RATING: 3.7
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First, let me just say that I've ordered plenty of furniture and put it together and am somewhat of a handy man for doing things around the house and working with wood tools, etc. This was the first time that I've actually had to saw something off my self to prefabricated .furniture Basically the 2 pieces on the left and right with legs (the depth) were different sizes! One was short by half an inch so the legs would bolt on as I it would not match the existing bolt holes under the "top of table". I had to saw off about quarter inch from a piece of wood piece attached under "top of table" in order for my "shorter" side of leg to align with the bolt. So got through that- took me an hour to get the tools and figure out this issue.

Few minutes later, one of the doors will not fit in as the actual door height was taller then the opening for the door. I was very upset at that point but since I had modified the earlier, decided to same at this point. I had to SAND off the bottom of door to make the height shorter.

It is entirely possible that I got a real lemon here- but if 2 out of the 6 major pieces won't even fit- I gotta say I would not buy this piece again or recommend it to others. I bought one piece thinking I will purchase others in the set after I try this one. Needless to say, that will not be happening.

Bottom line: It was too late for me to put all this back together and ship it back to Amazon so I went though extra headache to make it work. If I had purchased it from a local store, would be going back for sure.

Talk about a major disappointment! It looks so good on-line and is so unique, but ... This item arrived with parts broken, and it took weeks to get the replacements. Many cracks in other wood parts and in finish. The over-all quality was marginal--nicks and scratches all over the very poor surfaces. Pre-drilled holes didn't line up and doors didn't close properly when mounted. My boyfriend is very "handy" and construction-savy, as well as very experienced in putting these kits togeher, and he found this to be the poorest quality and most ill-prepared of any furniture kit he's handled to date. A word to the wise: consider avoiding this piece and any others put out by this company--it will save you hassle AND disappointment!

This was a pain in the butt to put together. I had to hammer in the wooden dowels in order for them to fit, which caused the wood to split on some parts that you can't really see. I could not get the back on very well, but I managed to finally put it on. The finish was scratched in some places, but it was hard to notice because it is black.

On the positive side, it does look pretty good in my dining area, but I'm hoping that it will actually hold up.

The front doors were not the same height, and both drawers were 1-inch too long.

The doors come pre-assembled with the hinges and dowels already attached, you just screw them into pre-drilled holes. The right door has an extra wood flap to cover the gap between the center of the doors when closed, you have to close the right door first, then the left door. Well the extra flap on the right door comes pre-attached (glued and nailed), but it was assembled incorrectly at the factory and would not close. I had to remove 1/8" from the top of the flap so the door would close. Once I got the door to close completely I noticed that the right door is about 1/8" higher than the left door. Repositioning the hinges was not an option. The door was assembled poorly from the factory and could not be repaired.

When I assembled the drawers they would not close, they were 1-inch too long and back would hit the rear support for the bottom shelf. I had to cut 1-inch off the back of each of the drawer sides and bottom, and re-drill the holes and reassemble. What a pain.

I will not buy another product from this manufacturer!

Very nice piece. Solid with a beautiful color with a large interior space. Drawers stick a bit so be sure and install properly.

For $200 i would think the pieces of wood would match up and everything would fit together. Not so!! Screw holes had to be redrilled and the two drawers in the bottom do not fit into the openings - they are too long and in one case,too wide. Several pieces are not cut straight - the back is one of them. Bad investment; I guess you get what you pay for. No one can foresee most of the problems until the final stages of construction; then who is going to dismantle and repackage for a return?? Quite a racket!!

The night stand looks great in my son's room. I was worried it might look cheap like other ones I saw in Walmart and local furniture stores (with the same price range), but it looks really good and sturdy. I saw previous reviews saying it cracked. I was careful not to over tightening the screws and I had no problem. Assembly was easy. I am really happy with this purchase. I wish they have with other colors.

Lots and lots of pieces. Screw holes and dowel holes were completely missing from one of the end pieces making it impossible to assemble without drilling holes myself. The drawers do not close all the way leaving a quarter inch opening. One of the hinges (comes pre-attached) isn't attached properly and so the right door won't close (magnetic latch can't connect). With the right door not closing, that also means that the left door won't close either.

Needless to say, I am VERY disappointed with this purchase. Saw some reviews that were positive and a few that were negative when I purchased...must be hit or miss as to whether you get a properly made unit. Mine was an abysmal failure and I hope to get my money back.