This dresser is gorgeous, solid and looks more expensive than it is. I love the clean Mid-century feel and the colors of the wood blend nicely with different decor. Now that it's finally put together, I'm very pleased with the purchase. With the consistent reviews on the terrible assembly process, I had braced myself for what I knew would be a frustrating experience. But I was pretty confident in my abilities to tackle this with a fair amount of ease.
Let me just say that the reviews are not exaggerating. Putting this together was horrible! Almost comically bad at some points. I’m not a handyman but I'm pretty decent when it comes to following directions and have successfully assembled a number of furniture pieces in my house. The directions are not good, to say the least. Delivery consists of 2 heavy boxes of meticulously wrapped wood and a huge bag of hardware. You are also presented with 36 drawer slides, of 4 different types. These unmarked demons are referred to, in the directions, only as #11. It is now your job to figure out which slide goes where and intuit on which side, since the directions abandon you at this point in the process. Later, when you near the end of this harrowing process and are putting the drawers in, you may discover, as I did, that you put 1/2 of the slides in on the wrong side, so have to unscrew and reassemble. When attaching the dresser top (which is HEAVY), it may not line up exactly, making you temporarily lose hope that this journey will ever end. Loosening all the screws to the dividers helps. By the way, using a drill rather than the suggested screwdriver is highly recommended as there are many, many screws to contend with.
The directions are very involved yet do not trust the drawings for accuracy. What looks like a piece that should face up, based on the alignment of the screws in the picture (but is indicated nowhere in the instructions), may not. You have to just hope that you're doing it the right way. Happily, each piece of wood and bag of screws is labeled (just not the sliders, which seemed bizarre) so that makes life a little easier. It would have been nice if the wood pieces came with the sliders already attached. Or at least differentiated in the instructions. For as involved as the instructions are, accuracy with the drawings would have been helpful. This is made in Malaysia and there is no number to call for assistance. You’re on your own, kid. Good luck. Eons later, when your hair is grey, your children are grown and your hands are mangled, you will put in the last drawer, look lovingly at your tremendous accomplishment and know that you can tackle anything now! Beautiful dresser but ridiculous process to assemble.