Winsome Mission Beech Wood 4-Tier Shelf, Natural

If you are looking for a nice-sized bookshelf that does not dominate a room or impose itself on you, this is it. This bookshelf comes with collapsing shelves and top so you can easily fold it down to a flat shape for either moving or storage. The wood components are good quality as are the attachment pieces (i.e., the latches, the screws, the pins, and pegs, etc.). You can get it in a variety of colors: I purchased both a dark brown and a natural one for use in two different rooms. Assembly is straightforward if you take the time to review the instructions before you get started. Like most assembly tasks, once you are done it turns out to be a much easier process than it first seemed. So, take the time to read over the instructions before you get started and visualize how the parts go together, and you can have this thing together in 15 minutes. These look quite nice, not cheap and flimsy, but something better quality so that it can go with a variety of furniture and settings. A lot of these types of shelves do not come with a top covering shelf, so note that this one does, and it is a big bonus because it looks nicer that way and you can also use it for nick-nacks, and so on. A great item, particularly when you consider the very reasonable price for what you get.

I am no pro, but I would say that I have better than average skills at this sort of thing. Still, I did not laugh off the possible difficulty or the fact that it is recommended to have a helper. However, being alone and wanting to begin, I put the first of four together alone. As my title says, it was difficult and tedious. This is not to say that the way they are not designed you are not almost guaranteed to get a good job...once you get it done. It took me about an hour and a half although the first is always slower. I have some general ideas on how to do better, but I don't expect to fly through the others. In fact, I dread three more repetitions. There really is no great way around the tediousness of this assembly unless you have elaborate factory jigs. A second person would be a big help in some places and very little help in other places. And you might have a fight in your frustration! I took a star away from this nice, quality product, because I feel that it should be shipped fully assembled. These things fold quite flat even with the top shelf design which is a little unusual for this sort of folding bookcase. I cannot imagine that shipping a container full of them from Asia would cost any more if they were assembled. OTOH, the larger, flatter package would be a bit more difficult to handle one-at-a-time in a fulfillment center and might cost a bit more to ship to the consumer. I'd consider it a bargain to pay ten or fifteen bucks more and have it pre-assembled although that is with hindsight. If I were in shopping mode, I might not see that an assembled one was worth much more than one I would assemble. If it had come in pre-assembled, I'd be trying to give it six stars! Update: Well, I have them all assembled and am so pleased and proud of myself that I have ordered two more to do a 3x2 double-stack. Obviously I have tested stacking them, and it looks real solid. I am also upgrading my star rating from 4 to 5 stars. I still think it would be nicer if the factory did this work for us, but once you have two or three of them under your belt, it is no problem. In fact, it becomes a pleasurable task really requiring only 30 to 45 minutes. IMO, a helper is entirely superfluous. I want to offer a couple of tips learned the hard way. #1 - Ignore the instruction not to tighten the screws until after you have the shelves in place. This instruction is exactly half wrong and the half is important, at least the way I did it. Working on a table or on the floor, mount the three back rails into one of the preassembled sides and fully tighten the screws. Insert the dowels into the other side piece, stick your new bookcase together, and STAND IT UP on the floor. (Best on carpet where things don't slide around.) At this point, the side with the fully tightened screws is stable, and you are holding the other side which is just resting on its loose dowels. Now put the screws into the second side just far enough to bite into the ends of the three rails. Now it is stable, although flimsy, which is necessary to allow you to fit the top into place with its protruding dowels. With the top in place, you can tightened all the loose screws a couple of turns to improve stability. Then insert the shelves starting with the bottom shelf to keep each shelf out of your way as you install the next one. Now you can tighten all the screws, but don't over tighten...just get them snug. #2 - You'll need to contrive some way to hold the washers in place, which can be a nasty problem. I worked this out with a product called Scotch Mounting Puddy, which is available here at Amazon. But since you only need a bit of it, you might want to pick up the smallest and cheapest pack locally at a hardware store or (like me) at an office supply superstore. Right at the beginning (before my step #1 really), I take each of the three rails in hand and stick the washers in place using tiny bits of the putty. Two possible approaches: either put a film of putty larger than the holes over them, or, alternatively, just put three or four bits of putty around the hole and stick the the washers in place. If you cover the hole, you should take a screw and punch through from the washer side cleaning out the putty directly over the hole. If you don't do this, when you insert the screw from the other side, it will tend to push the putty along with the washer out of position. No big deal, really. We're just trying to keep the washers in place for final assembly, something that is nearly impossible without some adhesive. Double-sided tape might work well. Or chewing gum! Maybe super glue...not sure, but if you have some around, might as well give it a try. If you feel the need to clean up any visible putty after assembly, you need nothing more than a pen knife or your fingernail. # 3 - This was supposed to be the assembly phase, but I see that I already covered that at #1. I suggest that before you start, you take the parts in your hands where you expect to work and do a kind of dry run. (It is not the same as a mental dry run sitting in your chair!) I hope this is helpful. Since it is really only the first one that is kind of difficult, I have tried to share what I learned doing four of them (with two more shipping today).

Yes, indeed, assembly is required. The two sides, three back braces, three shelves, and top are all separate pieces. So, you get a nine-piece puzzle, along with the screws and pegs that hold it all together, and a little hex key, aka an Allen wrench. As puzzles go it's fairly straightforward. The assembly instructions are clear and well illustrated, and should be followed in the order they're presented. Lay everything out on the carpet and figure out how things fit together before beginning. You'll probably need a bit of coarse sandpaper to very slightly taper one-half the length of each of 8 wooden pegs before inserting them into each end of the back braces and top. That will be your first step. After that I found that things went together for me quite easily, taking less than an hour, though I admittedly have a knack for putting things together. Some people might want or require some assistance. You'll want to have the entire thing loosely assembled and set up on its feet before finally tightening down the screws in stages. (Putting the screws only part-way into the back braces when you begin assembly is essential to getting the washers on the shelves' pivot screws in the next step. If you tighten things up fully right from the start, this will prove impossible. Tightening everything fully is the very last step.) This item is made of good material--dense tropical wood--and the factory work and drilling was precisely done. I'm quite happy with the quality. It's attractive and sturdy--structurally up to holding as many books as you can fit on it. I'm sure you could have safely loaded it up with a full set of the old-style Encyclopedia Britannica. There's no composite budget wood involved in the making of this product. Once assembled, it easily folds and unfolds as needed. If it came out of the box that way I'm sure it would have cost a lot more.

For the money, it is definitely 5 stars. If you want high quality, then it's 4 stars.I bought three of them to go side-by-side for all our books but yet can hand pictures on the wall above them and set a lamp on the one in the corner. Looks great!! Goes well with our other medium colored maple furniture pieces. The wood has flaws, a discolored knot on one of the shelves on one and can definitely see that they are not one solid piece of wood but spliced together here and there but the color is consistent. Once you get books on them, it really doesn't matter. The shelves are high enough I can put binders of magazines on the shelves. It definitely takes 2 people to put together as the other reviews I read indicated, one person to hold the two pieces together while another screws it together. All the pieces and parts were there. None of them arrived damaged. Went together quickly, probably half an hour each. I was a little worried about the several reviews that indicated they had to drill the holes bigger as the holes did look smaller than the screws. The screws are meaty and high quality but they are the size they're supposed to be, it's just the threads that made them look too big. As indicated by one of the reviews written by a carpenter, if you rub the threads of the screw over some bees wax (can obtain in the sewing/quilting section for running thread thread over for quilting), they went in without a problem. Used a hexagon bit for the drill which goes a lot quicker than trying to use an allen wrench by hand. It is of the same quality and looks exactly the same as the two taller and narrower bookshelves I bought many years earlier at target.

I read a lot of reviews before I purchased this. Many people mentioned difficulty in assembly or holes that were not drilled so I wasn't 100% sure how this would be. First of all, I am happy to report no difficulty in assembly - the instructions recommend 2 sets of hands, but I found I could manage while resting one side against the wall. I did have one of my kids help hold the shelves while I fastened them in place, but that was all the assistance needed. I did find the holes in the crossbars and top piece a little small for the dowels, but solved that by putting the dowels in the crossbars/top piece first, and using a rubber mallet to pound them in, then attached those pieces to the sides (the holes in the side pieces were fine, so no mallets needed for that part). Once that was done I did not have any problems getting the screws tightened. This shelf is just what I wanted. Now that it is fully assembled it is quite sturdy, not wobbly at all. I liked that it is real wood, and not chipboard. We have it in the dining room (to hold an overflow of school supplies, since that is where the kids also do homework) and it looks good. I am very pleased with this bookshelf - I would purchase this model again if I found myself in need of another shelf.

Yes, it takes awhile to assemble these shelves, but they are well designed, and they work very well. I now have five of them. In a world where you can pay a fortune for plain old bookshelves, these are a good buy. They are also easy to move if you change your room around. They can even be stacked on top of one another, although I haven't done that. They come with wall anchors I've not needed to use. The top surface is very nice. I use bookends so that becomes another shelf. The light natural wood finish is pleasant enough, but I'm interested in function rather than beauty. Obviously, since I've come back again and again, I think they are great. They aren't solid oak high end shelves, but they are ideal for the student or the thrifty professional seeking practical bookshelves.

I bought the same item (same item number and same picture) a couple of years ago. The first one I bought was definitely a 5, and it was a pleasure to receive an item that lived up to its advertising. I decided to buy another one recently, and I'm sad to say the quality is noticeably lower. Either the same vendor decided to "streamline" the item to save costs, or the Amazon buyer found another vendor whose product looks the same but cut some corners, again to lower cost and give Amazon more margin. The vendor also needs to assure better quality control in its manufacturing. The first item I bought went together like a charm. I've assembled "tons" of furniture items for myself and others over the years, and I've found the items made in China to be consistently poor quality, misaligned, missing parts, poor quality materials. Items from Thailand, Vietnam are generally much higher quality. I don't know where the recent item I got comes from, but it was clearly more nuisance to assemble. There is another review here accompanied with about 6 photos that gives an excellent description of the problems and how he fixed them with different hardware. There are other subtle differences also. For example, the first one I bought had small plastic "buttons" on each foot, the, kind you see on items to make it easier to slide the item and protect the floor. The recent one does not; it just comes down with the feet flat to the floor, which could lead to scratches if you moved it. The first one was very solid and stable. The recent one is somewhat wobbly. The screws were hard to drive completely, sothe guide holes were a smidge too small. I ended up tightening the screws in four rounds--meaning I tightened all the screws as tight as I could without risking splitting the wood. Then I left the item alone for an hour more, which gives the wood fibers a chance to "relax" and "get used to the stress. I would then tighten all the screws again and got a bit further without risking splitting. After four rounds of this, the screws weren't as flush as I'd like, but adequate. In sum, when I put the recent one next to the first one, the recent one looks identical and made out of the same wood routed generally the same way. While the feet are slightly different, the two units stand at the same height. When books are placed on the recent one, their weight keeps recent one from being so wobbly. So I think the recent one is adequate, and its solid wood looks much nicer than the usual laminates that others use. I may be a little hard on the recent one because the earlier one I bought was a real gem in quality and ease of assembly. The recent one has solid, quality wood, and after assembly generally matches and looks good next to the older one. The recent one is probably better quality than many items from other manufacturers. Find the review from the guy who got other hardware. The folding aspect is immaterial to me, because I bought and assembled the shelves to hold books, not to lie flat under a bed or to be periodically moved around. So his approach looks good.

this was a bargain that does not disappoint. very nice solid wood book shelves, in the attractive mission style. the natural wood finish is well done. holds an amazing number of books, with room for decorative items as well. the top works fine for a lamp or art work. the neat thing is the entire book shelves can be folded/collapsed and carried easily from place to place. even with the collapsing feature, the shelves are stable and useful. assembly took a little longer than i expected, but i managed to get everything done and all the hardware was included. only thing that took a while was that i had to work a bit to get all the screw holes lined up, but had no real problems with assembly. i really like these shelves, and would definitely buy them again. you cannot beat the price either. all parts were included for putting them together, and everything was well packed and arrived in excellent condition.

I was worried at first because the box it came it had multiple shipping addressee stickers on it (yikes, privacy) and was retaped, but when I opened the box everything was clearly factory-wrapped still. There were also no spare hardware, but they were good quality and I didn't need any extra bits. I looked over all the pieces and other than a few superficial scratches, the pins that the shelves sit on being a bit loose, and the screws holding the hinges not having been pre-screwed flush with the hinge plate (not a huge deal and not worth the risk of trying to screw them in further since the hinges were held tight to the shelves), everything was in order and all the holes were in the right place. A rubber mallet, painter's tape, and a wall are definitely your friends when putting this together. I was able to put it together by myself pretty easily by leaning pieces against a wall while working. Putting all the screws in loosely before tightening and using the tape to keep the washers in place before tightening the screws really helped everything go smoothly. I also didn't use the included Allen wrench, I used a ratcheting screwdriver which made things a lot easier. I have two other folding pieces from this company and I love them, but I find it odd that one has straight edges on the shelves, one has rounded edges, and this one has angled edges, though they're clearly supposed to match (the slatted sides are the same, they're all made of the same material in the same stain, and all fold). Despite that, and that they're a bit pricier than typical flat-pack furniture, I'm happy I've purchased them. I don't like particle board, and these are great solid wood and make it worth the price. Out of the 3 pieces, this shelf is the sturdiest.

The shelf is the third item in this line I've bought (desk and printer stand are the other two). It's really nice to have matching work/study furniture and I like the ease of folding these up for transport or storage. I found this easier to put together than the others. The desk was especially trying. The bookshelf took a calm understanding of how to work with gravity and a bit of candle wax on the screws to help them go in easier. The hex-key comes included and the other tools needed are a hammer or mallet and an optional bit of candlewax. Got it together by myself in under half an hour. The instructions were mostly drawings with very few words. I'm going to use some Sugru to make a holder for the hex key under the bottom shelf so I don't lose it. Put it near the finished place before adding shelves as those beasts are heavy! But easily manoeuvred by one moderately-strong person even fully assembled. It's very stable while empty and comes with some stuff to attach it to the wall if you have kids, people who stagger and grab hold of the furniture to steady themselves, or live in an earthquake zone. The shelf looks good, feels good, and the finish is nice and even. The box came badly damaged, but the packaging was adequate to protect the contents. I didn't like the stupid bossy sticker on the underside of the top shelf. It said not to remove the sticker and told me some guff about not opening the drawers all at once. um... no drawers on this unit. But I don't like being bossed around by stickers. An idea for the future to reword the warning to be kinder and relevant to the item, but it's probably a government thing they have to put it on, so no loss of stars for a bossy sticker. Yes, I think I'm going to be very happy with this shelf unit.

This is a quality product and I am extremely pleased with it. I would recommend that 2 people assemble it though because as it is a foldable item it also likes to fold when your trying to put it together! So one to hold it and one to put in all the various screws etc. It is all fitted together with the aid of an alum key which comes with it. It is quite possible to assemble on your own, even for a 70+ year old, like me as long as you have cushions, knees, feet and contortionist moves to keep the various shelves and siding together when assembling, it was a fun and challenging afternoon, but as I said with 2 folks it would be easy and straightforward.

Bibliothèque très solide et facile à assembler. Beau fini bois d’érable.

This is much higher quality than I expected. Easy to assemble and very sturdy.