Open-cabinet Coffee Table

I am a petite female and prior to this month(March of 2012), I never assembled any furniture in my life. Because of all the horror stories on this website about the assembly of this product, I almost did not buy it.ALMOST. In the end,I decided to take my chances because I liked it too much.I was fully prepared to bite the bullet and pay for return shipping because I wouldn't be able to put it together right.Anticipating that this would be the DIY project of the century, I had it shipped to my previous landlord James' house because James is hands down the handiest guy I've ever known. Even so, I made an appointment with him to make sure that he wouldn't just attempt taking on this coffee table monster by himself. I figured two people putting their heads together would have a better chance of deciphering the notorious wordless schematic drawings. On the day of the big coffee table assembly event, I told my bf not to come over to my apartment that night because I thought I would be home late. I was so WRONG. The assembly process took a whopping 30 minutes. 40 minutes in total time spent, including the time for James to set up his work bench, getting all the pieces unpacked and laid out on the padded floor and then cleaning up afterwards. There are ONLY 6 steps in total. I was involved every step of the way. The drawings are very EASY to understand. The wood pieces are ALL labeled, and labeled Correctly! The hardware pieces were easy to tell apart because..well...they were in individual packaging. No pieces were missing or damaged in any way. The only discrepancy between the assembly instructions and my actual product is that at step 3 (or 5,can't remember), the schematic shows that I need a wood peg when in fact either they forgot to drill two holes or decided that was unnecessary. It doesn't matter though because it really is unnecessary. Every piece came together perfectly. The finished project is in NO way wobbly, unstable, or one side heavier than the other. The color and style are perfectly to my liking and matches my living room furniture nicely. It's a perfect size for an apartment, not huge, but not tiny either. IT's not very heavy(I was able to carry it to my 2nd floor apt), but it seems quite sturdy. I don't know why people had so much negative stuff to say about the assembly. Maybe they improved their schematics after so much negative feedback on that?? In my case this was the EASIEST to piece together out of all 5 pieces of furniture i bought online this month. Granted we used a power tool, which saved a bit of time. And two people are faster than one. However, had I not enlist James' help, I would definitely still have been able to do it myself, albeit maybe spending 60 to 90 min instead of 30. This is totally a one-man(or woman) project, no heavy lifting or trying to hold 4 pieces with 2 hands. If you are wondering if you should buy because the assembly sounds so daunting, don't hesitate, buy it! It's so very simple. In short, I am so very happy with the coffee table.

• How did the color on site compare with the actual product? Matches very well
• Please tell us about the quality of the product. Very good quality
• How accurate was the on site description of the product? Accurate
• Would you recommend this to a friend? Yes