In summary, I love this bookshelf, now that it is all set up! But it took a TON of extra work that I feel could have been avoided.
Pros:
- Very nice looking and stylish
- Sturdy, just make sure to rescrew, and recheck everything before standing up!
- I am using this bookshelf as kind of a headboard for my full size bed in my tiny apartment. It's nice because it has so much storage space for blankets and other large items! I am using the whole bottom to store things that I don't use very often, but I can still use about 2 and a half of the shelves regularly because the pedestal is so tall.
- TONS of storage space which is really awesome for students!
Cons:
- At LEAST two people are required to put this together!! It took me and four of my roommates to put it together.
- Instructions are ridiculous. They ask you to assemble the sides first and then take the assembled shelves and lift them 2 inches off the ground and line them up with the tiny holes and then screw them in, WHILE HOLDING IT UP. It was very VERY heavy, it took 3 people to lift it. and 1 to line everything up and 1 to screw everything in. My advice would be to screw on the side boards BEFORE putting on the side pillar things. Read all of the instructions and then decide how to put it together. It was a lot of effort for something that could have been easy.
- Vertical shelves come in individual pieces. It took an hour just to assemble that part (by myself). The are wobbly until standing vertically and it was hard to keep everything straight to put into the tiny holes and assemble.
-Basically extremely difficult to put it together.
Other stuff to know:
- This is the first time I have put together anything like this, moving into college yay! (I am inexperienced, so maybe it will be easier for others to set up?)
-Requires a lot of space, just barely had enough room in my living room but did get it done!
-The pillar things add about 4 inches ( 2 in front and 2 in back) to the 10 inch shelves, so you will have space behind the book shelf and in front. This was pretty critical to how tiny my apartment is so it was kind of a surprise! It looks great though and its nice for large textbooks or deep boxes.