Sauder Orchard Hills Library With Doors, Carolina Oak finish

This bookshelf was the closest to what I was looking for. My current bedroom theme is sort of a cross between medieval castle/Hogwarts mixed with Disney and anime. The bookshelf has the “fancy library” feel that I was going for and the nice rich color of the brown goes so well with the grey stone background of the wall. I would love to order a second one but my room isn’t big enough. The top half I use for the small handful of my favorite books “since I have a lot of books in storage” and the lower half of the shelf, behind the doors, was supposed to be for movies but I decided to store my video games there instead. There’s also plenty of room at the edge of the shelves in front of the books for small knickknacks.The shelf is decent in sturdiness and weight and the wood is typical particles but still pretty thick. The cardboard backing was also easy to hammer on.However, I do have a couple of complaints during assembly.1) The cupboard doors need to be held exactly where you want them and either you need to have something hold them in place, or else have a second person hold them in place for you. Otherwise one door will scrape against the top or bottom edge of the frame, or there will be a weird gap between the doors when closed. Also, the back of the door handles have two little pegs sticking out and the cupboard doors have a little hole where the pegs should go. However, the holes are not aligned and the first time I attached the handles, one handle ended up being higher than the other. After a while, I had the idea of removing the handles and switching the doors. Once I did that, the handles were aligned correctly. But neither door or handle is marked, so there’s no way of knowing the handles won’t line up until you try putting the handles on. Bit annoying.2) One of the final steps is to attach the trim to the individual shelves. If you look at the front of each of the two top shelves in my pictures, you will notice the thickness of the front edge. That is actually a separate piece of wood that needs to be attached. However, there are no holes to put the screws through. Instead there is a narrow opening that runs along the entire length like a thin trench. The screw goes through the opening until it reaches the bottom and then goes through the wood. Once they are attached, you can wedge the shelves into the bookshelf. However, if it turns out that the trim is uneven and there is an annoying gap on one side (which there more than likely will be) you CAN NOT unscrew it, readjust it, and screw it on again. That will split the wood. It happened to me with both trims. Now both trims tilt downward a tiny bit.Other than those two issues, this shelf is great. I managed to assemble it myself but it took me nearly 3 hours and I was assembling it in a narrow hallway. Definitely would have been faster if I had help and more space to work but was still doable alone. Despite the setbacks, I still give this 5 stars. Mostly for aesthetics, sturdiness, depth of the shelves, and the ability to assemble it alone.

I was skeptical because the piece of furniture was priced so reasonably but we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of construction, the ease of assembly, and the finished appearance of the unit. We also have solid oak legal bookcases in another room that cost six times what these units cost. If you stand three feet away from both, they look almost identical. The graphic designs of the thin "oak" shell is very well done. The construction material is dense composition board and carefully assembly is required. The two doors for instance require patience and a willingness to make needed adjustments until the doors fit perfectly. Unlike wood, the texture of this material is unforgiving. The admonition against power tools should be heeded -- do not over-tighten the hardware.. Be sure to read ahead in the directions because the placement of the pre-drilled holes is critical, especially the initial alignment of the two side pieces and the tri-fold back sheet. This is not a piece of furniture that you would want to move around often because of the fragile nature of the composition boards and the thin exterior shell. But, if assembled and left in place, it is a good looking addition to a home library or office.

I bought a matching set several years ago, and replaced them with the same set when the original ones were damaged during a move. So, I obviously knew what I was buying and thought they were worth the price (again).Appearance is good at first blush. If you adjust everything nicely, they will stand straight, be reasonably sturdy, and add a classy/expensive look to your room.However, upon close inspection some flaws in construction quality are easily observed. For instance there are extra drilled holes so that the wood pieces are reversible. That's convenient for assembly but detracts from appearance (random unused holes). Also the non-door model comes predrilled for door hinges which are clearly not applicable there. That said, if you have friends over and they make fun of your shelves, get better friends, not better shelves.Assembly time is VERY LONG... about 4h for me. The unit without doors has 205 pieces (184 hardware + 21 wood pieces) and the unit with door has 212 pieces. There is a lot of "play" in the assembly process. For example the pieces are held together with about 30 plastic right-angle brackets -- and these brackets have slots, not a holes, to screw into. This is good because the wood doesn't need perfect tolerance. It's bad because when you want things to be aligned and straight, you need to perform a lot of post-assembly adjusting.Quality is mediocre. This is particle board covered with veneer. The backing is cardboard also covered in veneer. I stored heavy textbooks on my old shelves and after a couple years they showed minor sagging in the middle. The shelves won't be well suited for anything over, say, 25lb.Delivery: there were a couple minor scuffs, but fixable with the included varnish marker.

I mean, it's really nice for the price. No it's not solid wood. It's what you would expect for the price, but it really looks pretty decent, actually nice for the price. It's very sturdy. You do have to put it together and it is a little tedious, and you really need 2 people to put this together properly.

The manual may need to be updated somewhere, it may be easier to tighten the angle brackets screws from the rear side.

Sorprendido! El producto llegó en un empaque súper maltratado, le pusieron cinta en el empaque para poder tapar lo mal que estaba el empaque. Al abrirlo el empaque prácticamente se deshizo, además de que traía piezas raspadas y no traía nada de tornillos, manual, ni nada para armarlo. Pensé de regresarlo pero la verdad ya no había empaque! Trate de buscar ayuda para que me enviaran lo faltante pero nada.. hablé a Sauder EEUU (porque en Mexico no hay) y le dijeron que me podrían enviar lo faltante, pero que no embarcaban a Mexico.. tuve que pedirle a un conocido en McAllen que lo recibiera y luego me lo enviara.. mala experiencia

Excellent product with fantastic instructions both with video and paper. A bit tricky at some points, but looks absolutely amazing!!! We actually bought the whole set and then for another room 2 of the 2-door bookcase. Very elegant!

Exceleent

Took awhile to assemble; I’m not handy like that😳 Thanks to Brett at Sauder for advising me with the shelf mouldings! It’s a sturdy and good looking unit.