Sauder Palladia Book Shelf, Bookshelf with Storage, Library Bookcase with Doors and Adjustable Shelves, L: 29.37" x W: 13.90" x H: 71.85", Select Cherry

I ordered 6 of these units as an alternative to built-in shelving for a room we are using as a library.3 out of the 6 units we received had a damaged "M" piece -- that's the rounded molding on either side of the open shelves. Two of them were entirely snapped in half within the box, and the third had been crushed such that its veneer was severely cracked. It was very easy, however, to order replacements for these parts via Sauder's website, no questions asked, and the replacements arrived within a few days. I had considered docking a star for the sheer rate of damaged units (50%, in my sample), but I think Sauder made it right so quickly and easily that they deserve their star back.The shelves themselves look fantastic. They are a little darker than we were expecting based on the pictures, but they are indeed a very dark cherry, with a slight red hue. We have them arranged in two rows of 3 on opposing walls, and they look very good side-by-side. They are able to sit flush next to each other because there is no top or bottom molding on the sides of each unit.The main material used is pressboard, and the moldings are little more than dense cardboard with a veneer, but you wouldn't know it to look at them. The assembled units are very sturdy, and we have each shelf entirely filled with books with no problem.Assembly wasn't bad; it was about average for ready-to-assemble furniture. Sauder's instructions are always accurate and easy to follow, and this was no exception. Almost all of the pieces, however, were missing their labels, and this made the first unit harder to assemble than it needed to be. With my second unit, I started using a drill to fasten wood screws, against Sauder's instructions. This sped up assembly a fair amount, but I wouldn't recommend it until you learn which screws may strip their holes, how tight they need to be, etc. The longest single part of assembly was hammering all the tacks into the backing. The most frustrating part was attaching and aligning the door hinges.Note there is a slight design flaw with the shelving. For the lower shelf in the top, open area, a bracket holding the front piece to the side piece blocks the shelf from being slid into place on its support pins. This means you have to hold the shelf in midair while you remove two of the pins, slide it into place, and replace the pins. Pretty annoying, but nothing major.

This is a great product! I was so impressed with the packaging. Lots of styrofoam cradled the parts, hard cardboard corners were on the outside of the box to protect the edges, and the whole thing was wrapped in plastic. Some reviewers said they received damaged boards, but mine came in perfect condition. All of the wooden parts are well-made and heavy! The instructions were easy to follow with written instructions as well as picture diagrams to follow. The whole cabinet took me about 3-4 hours to put together. All the pre-drilled holes lined up with their corresponding connectors/screws and it did not take much maneuvering to get things to fit correctly. Quite a few people complained about having to nail on the back. Still, if you take your time and ensure your cabinet is squared up, it is easy to do, as the nail holes are ~ 3" apart all around the edges and across the middle, improving the structural integrity.The only difficulty I had was installing the cabinet doors. The instructions say to install the hinges on the two doors first, then install them in the cabinet, but I struggled to get them lined up. If I were to give any advice it would be to install the hinges in the cabinet first then attach your doors to the hinges. Other than that I had no issues. thank you Sauder for crafting such a beautiful piece of furniture! It fits perfectly in my little cubby and looks like it's part of the house! Just a side note, I am 60, if I can put this together, so can you!.

I recently purchased six pieces of the Palladia collection including the L desk, hutch, three bookcases, and the nightstand. I got the bookcases and nightstand through Amazon, but the desk/hutch straight from Sauder's warehouse. Of the six pieces I purchased, only one bookcase arrived in assembly quality. All of the other pieces arrived with broken or damaged pieces that prevented assembly upon delivery. Chances are very high both UPS and FedEx are to blame for the problems as most of the pieces arrived on either carriers truck with a single driver who proceeded to bang the boxes around as they were too heavy for one person to comfortably lift (though I offered to help once they rang the doorbell but by then they usually had one piece in hand).For all of the pieces except the desk, Sauder was very quick to address my concerns and ship replacement parts 2-3 days business class. I'm less impressed with the method for handling the damaged desk pieces as shipping is via truck and requires 7-10 days. As a military contractor, I'm often sent out for weeks at a time and Sauder was unable to speed up delivery before my next scheduled deployment which means the pieces will sit in my house for weeks before I am back home and able to assemble the desk. The amount of furniture parts strewn about my dining room while impressive, does not make my wife a very happy camper.As previous reviews said, unpacking and assembling the furniture will make a mess. Inside the cartons they still use styrofoam to protect some of the parts and you will have little white specs of it all over your floor while assembling these pieces. While the parts are well packed and Sauder includes bumpers on each carton in an effort to reduce damage from shipping, it didn't really help me on my purchases. Given the issues I experiences, I'd warn the reader to inspect the parts as soon as they come in and file a claim for the damaged pieces. Don't expect to put your furniture together for at least a week after you received the first shipment as you won't get weekend delivery on the replacement parts.So now that I got the ugly stuff out of the way, I'm sure you can tell I'm very unimpressed with the delivery of this furniture. However once I got the one good bookcase together, I can tell you the piece is beautiful and does not look like cheap MDF or particle board that most people are used to assembling. The detail of the molding is impressive and assembly for me was relatively easy (most parts are labelled, some of the smaller moldings and spacers are not). Instructions are written well and the pictures assist greatly when identifying the smaller unlabeled parts.Overall the look of the final product is beautiful and trying to purchase a similar set in real wood would easily cost over $5,000 for all of the pieces I purchased. I'm hoping that once I get all of the pieces assembled, the pain of dealing with the issues during shipping will fade away when I look at my completed home-office. I was going to give this a 3-star review given all of the issues I experienced, but the look of the final product alone warrants the 4 stars. Just be prepared that as the buyer, you will be put through quite an ordeal before you too can enjoy the final products from the Palladia collection.