Casual Home Mission Style 5-Shelf Bookcase, Espresso (New)

Granted, not made of walnut, cherry, a fine hardwood --- but this bookcase is made of 100% real wood. NOT particle board, not particle board covered in some kind of industrial contact paper. Real wood. Easy to assemble. Took me about 35 minutes without stopping. Sturdy for what I'm using it for --- a bookshelf (imagine that!?) and I have it filled with hardcover and softcover books. Of course, using sense, you're going to want to have all the heaviest things placed on the bottom shelf and then the one closet to the bottom. I had ordered a different bookshelf that cost more than 2 times the price of this one. From a furniture store. When that bookcase arrived? Which was a self-assembly unit? It was constructed from very low quality particle board, covered in contact paper, and the vertical pieces, the longest pieces which made up the sides? They were broken in half upon opening the box on delivery because the particle board was so thin, so cheap and could not stand up to the handling in shipping. So I bought this bookcase and am glad I did. If I need another bookcase I'll order another one of these no hesitation.

I'm very satisfied with the bookcase. Under $100 it's quite a bargain.The Good:-Solid pine-Sturdy, but not heavy-Stain (walnut) is classy-Arrived without any sort of damage with all parts necessary-Instructions are clear-No nails-Assembly was a medium/light challenge (I've seen way worse)The Bad:-Big screws have square holes requiring allen wrenches (much more awkward than using a screwdriver)-Assembly time is pretty long - mainly because they only include 1 allen wrench-(Two people with wrenches would easily shave off 30 mins or so)-And the short "L" side is too long for turning 360 if you assemble it on the floor (you'll see what I mean)The Ugly:-Cranking the screws to maximum tightness can really tax the wrist and caused quite a bit of discomfort to fingers-But careful use of a power drill fixed this (dangerous)Tips:-Use T-handle allen wrenches-Really, it's worth buying them just so you don't scratch the furniture when they (will) slip out of your hand with that primitive tool-Or a screwdriver if you happen to have a changeable-bit screwdriver and the appropriate square bits***REALLY IMPORTANT***If you find it's very difficult to twist the big screws when they're halfway in - stop.Difficult screws didn't start going in "straight." But, there's an easy fix for that.The reason they don't go in straight is the shelves don't exactly line up with the holes if you stand them up off the floor (as pictured in the instructions.)The shelves need to be elevated off the floor slightly.Take the styrofoam padding from the box (the thin long sheets of it,) and slide it underneath the shelves to lift them slightly up off the floor.(But don't put it under the side panels.)That should be about perfect height for the holes to line up.Shine a flashlight in the hole to confirm.If not perfect, use more packing material to "shim" the shelves up off the floor until the holes are perfectly-aligned.Hand-insert the screws so they go in straight.Use tool to finish the job.When it comes time to attach the shelves to the other side, have your helper stand next to the opposite side and apply pressure with their ankle/leg as you push with your knee to screw in the other side.Viola. You've got something that looks soooooo much better than that particle-board junk.

The good news is that this is real wood, not MDF or particle board. Its not a good grade of wood, and its certainly not real walnut, but at least it doesn't crumble when you touch it. Understand however that what they've done is spliced and glued pieces together so I'm not sure how much those seams will take before they break.The seams are only part of the strength issue however. The way this is assembled, and you do assemble it yourself, is that bolts are inserted into the shelves from the side panels, the bolts are the only thing that holds the shelves up. I wouldn't put more than about 25 pounds on each shelf. I recommend using a good wood glue during assembly, hopefully to make the shelves a little stronger and also to keep the whole thing from getting wobbly.Assembly was not too difficult, it took about an hour. As expected the instructions are not very good.The finish is crude, a rough coat of wood stain with no sanding or finish coat but on the other hand at least it looks like real wood, not wood grain vinyl laminate. This piece isn't furniture grade by any means but it doesn't look cheap either. A nice touch is that they include a bag of real wood plugs to cover the bolt holes. Most products these days just leave them visible or cover them with printed vinyl stick on tabs.I think for the price you get something more pleasing to look at than pressed board furniture and the assembled bookshelf is adequate for curios and a few lightweight books.

This unit is good if you put books on the bottom shelves and plants or ornaments on the upper shelves. You definitely can't load this with books. There is also a big white sticker on the bottom of the top panel that is very difficult to remove.

Picked this unit as a replacement fopr a smaller 4 shelf bookcase. It turned out to be perfect. Its a beautiful color in Expresso. It assembles easily. Its sturdy and holds a number of books as well as treasures you may want to show off. Highly recommend a similar unit.

Nice but it’s very thin and fragile looking. Shipping took over a month! Hope you aren’t in a hurry

Looks nice, very sturdy, and easy to assemble. Great quality, especially for the price point. Would definitely buy one again.

Love it