Sauder Heritage Hill Library/ Book shelf, Classic Cherry 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 LOVE the color of this bookcase. The bookcases at the big chain store generally cost around $100, so this is about what I was expecting. It's a nicer quality with thicker shelves than the big chain store bookshelves and I really wanted the cherry color, which, on this bookcase, is gorgeous.It was a bit difficult to assemble only because I asked for help from a male friend who insisted that we skip through the directions. We ended up getting a screw caught between two beams because he didn't want to sort out the screws like I ALWAYS do before assembling any furniture. Note: just breathe, relax and take your time and follow the directions, and if you ask for help from someone, give them a sedative, like a big dose of kava or something because it's going to take several hours. Once it's finished, though, it's really lovely. I filled it with books and so far, it's been fine.It is particle board with a finish, so if you scratch it, it's going to show. But, it comes with a brown color-coordinated marker so you can cover up minor scratches or flaws in the finish. I was a little surprised that the top of the bookcase is unfinished, but maybe a lot of bookcases are not nowadays. I wouldn't put it in a location where the top of it shows - like next to a staircase. The backboard is cardboard folded in half with the same cherry finish, which for me really wasn't an issue because I always fill my bookcases completely with books so the back doesn't really show. There are weight restrictions for each shelf, so make sure you pay attention to those - some shelves hold more weight than others.I plan to assemble the second one by myself now that I understand what's involved. I have to give five stars because customer service was so amazing. I didn't open the second bookcase for a long time, but despite the time that had passed, they still replaced a damaged beam very quickly, and even reshipped the beam a second time because I had given the wrong address. That was really amazing! Never had such a good experience with customer service before.