This is a cute bench. I think its going to work good for what I want it for. My problems are in the assembly. It comes with these black plastic brackets, step 6, that youre supposed to hammer in to each piece but then in step 7 it says not to hammer it into the part of the bench thats already assembled. It was very difficult to get the pieces in all the way. I ended up having to hammer it but in order to not damage the bench, I put a towel in between the hammer and the bench. Same black brackets are used in step 5B in order to secure the top of the bench onto the cubby dividers. Even using a towel and hammer I was unable to get the pieces flush together. In the process of trying to get the pieces flush, it cracked the bottom decorative piece ( see pictures ). The decorative piece at the bottom definitely needs something to secure it in the middle because once it is sat on that piece sags down to the floor. This is made even worse now by the fact that mine has a huge crack in it. I guess I will go to the hardware store and try to find some brackets in order to fix that. When hammering the back panel onto the rest of the bench there are no guidelines when youre hammering it into the cubby dividers. This caused me to be off center and the nail splitting the wood that you can see from the front. The overall look is nice but Im not sure about how sturdy its going to be. The point for our bench just to have it in our entryway so when people come in they can sit down and take their shoes off. Im interested to see how this bench holds up over time. Poor construction.
3 and a half stars?
This is a cute bench. I think its going to work good for what I want it for. My problems are in the assembly. It comes with these black plastic brackets, step 6, that youre supposed to hammer in to each piece but then in step 7 it says not to hammer it into the part of the bench thats already assembled. It was very difficult to get the pieces in all the way. I ended up having to hammer it but in order to not damage the bench, I put a towel in between the hammer and the bench. Same black brackets are used in step 5B in order to secure the top of the bench onto the cubby dividers. Even using a towel and hammer I was unable to get the pieces flush together. In the process of trying to get the pieces flush, it cracked the bottom decorative piece ( see pictures ). The decorative piece at the bottom definitely needs something to secure it in the middle because once it is sat on that piece sags down to the floor. This is made even worse now by the fact that mine has a huge crack in it. I guess I will go to the hardware store and try to find some brackets in order to fix that. When hammering the back panel onto the rest of the bench there are no guidelines when youre hammering it into the cubby dividers. This caused me to be off center and the nail splitting the wood that you can see from the front. The overall look is nice but Im not sure about how sturdy its going to be. The point for our bench just to have it in our entryway so when people come in they can sit down and take their shoes off. Im interested to see how this bench holds up over time. Poor construction.