****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
For the price, you know that the wood is going to be cheap. You're right. It's still very attractive, but it's a cheap stain on cheap wood. Oh, well. This was easy to install. It took about 40 minutes from start to finish, which for us is fast.I needed a narrow storage unit for my underwear and socks. This is less than a foot wide. I live in a 650-square foot apartment in a converted house built in the 1880s. The closet is incredibly small and the bedroom isn't very large, either. I have a queen bed and therefore I can't just fit any old dresser in the space and still expect to walk around the room.My socks are in one bin, my underwear is in another. My boyfriend's underwear and socks take up two bins. The lowest bin (twice as wide) fits his folded-up t-shirts.The only part of this I don't like is that the wicker bins. They're good quality, better than you'd expect for the price of this unit, but they scratch the wood as I slide them out. I'm going to need to put some kind of sticky pad underneath them so they'll glide over the wood.I like the bookshelves. They look nice for what I bought them for. I needed a place to store little man's toys in my living room to hide them. The shelves are a great height for an 18 month old. He can reach the top of them to grab the few toys off the top and can pull the baskets off the shelves himself. I gave it a 4 start because the espresso color is nice and dark like I wanted and it matches the other Winsome furniture I bought. The only problem I have is that some of the baskets have rough edges on the weave, but I tucked them in so he wouldn't get scratched. They show wear and tear very quickly from little man pulling the baskets off the shelves. The finish scratches easily and has rubbed off in some spots on the shelves and on the front of the shelves. It's not avoidable considering it's used for a toddler's toys. It wouldn't look as rough if it was used for other items and not frequented by a toddler. I would recommend this to a friend.I put this together in 20 minutes. The directions say you need two people but you really don’t. Only 3 stages on the directions. It comes with the Allen wrench if you don’t have one. Very sturdy and solid. Plus, you don’t have to worry about polishing it, and the baskets we sturdy and deep. I love the fact that all I have to do is dust it and not polish it. I’m glad I bought this. It looks exactly like the picture. No scratches or anything. It’s a bit expensive, but being that it’s already polished so it’s low maintenance, I’m fine with it. Good quality. I’m glad I didn’t listen to some of the reviews. They had bad luck. I was going to post pictures but the lighting wasn’t good. It would have been a disservice to post. I love the fact that it matches my dark wood (not black) perfectly. Non regrettable impulse buy.This was my first winsome wood purchase... and am very pleased. The shelf unit was VERY easy to assemble...took about 30min and was sturdy. I am using this as a TV stand on the very top shelf...and loaded up books on the bottom two shelves...with rattan baskets on the shelf just under the TV. I used the remaining baskets with another winsome wood shelf unit that I bought from amazon.The color of the expresso is very dark brown, but looks elegant with the rattan baskets which have a cedar/cherry type weave to them. I have cherry wood in my bedroom and this was a great way to bring in the dark brown expresso wood without clashing since the baskets had a cherry weave in them.The baskets are sturdy and seem to be strong enough to hold everything from jeans to random lighter items.The wood itself was not as smooth/sanded as I personally would have liked... so after the expresso staining by the manufacturer it had the duller appearance in the places that the wood was rough. This was easy to adapt to by turning the wood piece over to hide it. For the price it was worth every penny... I prefer solid wood over particle board any day of the week!This does come with the 5 rattan baskets - kind of confusing because at the bottom of the picture of the shelving unit, only the large basket is highlighted. I contacted Winsome Wood directly for clarification on the baskets and they were courteous and prompt in getting back to me. This is a really good price. On Overstock and Wayfair, this is more than twice as much as this is.Assembling the unit went very smoothly. I am a single woman and it took me 1.5 hours to assemble. One of the reviewers had suggested using felt strips on the bottom of the baskets to prevent scratching the shelves.This unit looks really nice and fits perfectly in the space I have. The baskets are quite roomy and holds more than you would expect.The wood shelf is really nice. I would have gave 5 stars for it because I almost love it. The baskets are a reddish sort of rusty brown color, but that might be okay if you are matching this shelf with cherry furniture. My other gripe is that although baskets tend to vary in color a bit, 1 of the 5 baskets is much darker than the others and the stain even turned black on parts of the basket. I simply turned the darkened side toward the back of the shelf so it's not noticeable. Otherwise, I am very happy with this shelf and overall I am happy I purchased it.Arrived today in 3 boxes. Our handy man put it together in about 1/2 hour. He asked were I bought it, as he wanted to buy one for himself. We have it the dinning room. Thought it would be good for holding dog leashes and dog treats. The large basket is still empty. I decided to add felt circles to the bottom of the baskets to prevent the baskets from scratching the wood. Also added plastic liners to the inside bottom of each basket. Then inside each basket I put another plastic holder to protect the basket. The wood is more of a deep cherry to me, as it has a reddish tone to it. That is ok. It goes well in my dinning room. I really like it.This was exactly what I needed. It's sturdy, easy to put together, and attractive. It's also flexible, since you can use it with some, all, or none of the baskets as your needs dictate. I came across this on some random blog post about "great furniture finds on Amazon" and I have not been disappointed.Baskets are not rattan but rather a cheap wicker. The shelves were scratched on arrival. The baskets are rough and they further scratch the shelving. Very disappointed.Exactly what I was looking for to "capture" all the random items in my house. It looks good and is very sturdy. We had no trouble assembling it.Great cherry color, fairly straight forward to assemble, wood looks great in the livingroom.Baskets also look good in the light brown color.This is a great value! Very solid. One of the baskets is a different dye lot than the rest and that may be an issue for some, but not for me.
