I researched a lot of these type of pieces for a few weeks, and I always came back to this one as the one that best fit in terms of color, size, and what I was looking for in this type of furniture. Even though years ago I used to work in a hardware store and often built this type of furniture, I was a little concerned about multiple reviews stating difficult to assemble even for experienced furniture builders. In the end, it fit what I wanted so I went with it.
I just received my item, and I have just started put about half of it together in about 40 minutes. A few items things that standout:
1. Maybe this item has been updated. Although the item on says it is a Buffest Server Sideboard, there is no labeling anywhere. My product says Costway, and, this might be a good thing based on some past reviews.
2. Dont be scared off by the difficult to assemble reviews. There are a LOT of pieces. Somewhere between 25-30 wood pieces that all need to be put together. But,thinking this is an updated unit, I found the instructions to be very straightforward. All the wooden pieces are labeled, as are all the bags of screws and hardware. Many of the pieces are held together with locking screws, where you have a long screw with no thread that inserts into a round metal piece that you turn with a screwdriver to lock in place. I had also seen some reviews that said the instructions were poor, and only one picture. With the Costway labeled product I received, the instructions are detailed. This definitely isnt EASY to assemble, but if you have put furniture pieces like this together before then I would just consider it time consuming because of the many pieces. If you arent very familiar with putting things like this together, then yes, it might be a bit more difficult.
3. I saw some reviews about the unit sagging in the middle after only a few months. I kind of chalked that up to people putting to much weight on the unit. However, I did notice that in the box, there is 3-4 inch long 1x1 inch square wooden block in the box. Looking at the instructions, that piece is intend to go on the bottom center of the unit to help prevent sagging.
The only reason I am giving it a 4 instead of a 5 is, the color is not exactly what I expected. I ordered the natural wood version, which I hoped would match my natural wood dining room table. Based on the picture, it appeared it would be extremely close. Once pulled out of the box, I would say the natural wood is more in-between the natural wood and grey wood color options. It might be due to the grain of the wood, but natural wood color looks more like a driftwood color than the color of a fresh untreated 2x4 piece of lumber.
Ill add some pictures of the true color, and some of the hardware pieces shortly.
Dont fear the assembly. Its not that bad.
I researched a lot of these type of pieces for a few weeks, and I always came back to this one as the one that best fit in terms of color, size, and what I was looking for in this type of furniture. Even though years ago I used to work in a hardware store and often built this type of furniture, I was a little concerned about multiple reviews stating difficult to assemble even for experienced furniture builders. In the end, it fit what I wanted so I went with it. I just received my item, and I have just started put about half of it together in about 40 minutes. A few items things that standout: 1. Maybe this item has been updated. Although the item on says it is a Buffest Server Sideboard, there is no labeling anywhere. My product says Costway, and, this might be a good thing based on some past reviews. 2. Dont be scared off by the difficult to assemble reviews. There are a LOT of pieces. Somewhere between 25-30 wood pieces that all need to be put together. But,thinking this is an updated unit, I found the instructions to be very straightforward. All the wooden pieces are labeled, as are all the bags of screws and hardware. Many of the pieces are held together with locking screws, where you have a long screw with no thread that inserts into a round metal piece that you turn with a screwdriver to lock in place. I had also seen some reviews that said the instructions were poor, and only one picture. With the Costway labeled product I received, the instructions are detailed. This definitely isnt EASY to assemble, but if you have put furniture pieces like this together before then I would just consider it time consuming because of the many pieces. If you arent very familiar with putting things like this together, then yes, it might be a bit more difficult. 3. I saw some reviews about the unit sagging in the middle after only a few months. I kind of chalked that up to people putting to much weight on the unit. However, I did notice that in the box, there is 3-4 inch long 1x1 inch square wooden block in the box. Looking at the instructions, that piece is intend to go on the bottom center of the unit to help prevent sagging. The only reason I am giving it a 4 instead of a 5 is, the color is not exactly what I expected. I ordered the natural wood version, which I hoped would match my natural wood dining room table. Based on the picture, it appeared it would be extremely close. Once pulled out of the box, I would say the natural wood is more in-between the natural wood and grey wood color options. It might be due to the grain of the wood, but natural wood color looks more like a driftwood color than the color of a fresh untreated 2x4 piece of lumber. Ill add some pictures of the true color, and some of the hardware pieces shortly.