Sauder 5 Tier Book Shelf Wooden Bookcase Multipurpose Bookshelf for Home Office, Living Room, in Chalked Chestnut

I love this bookshelf! It looks really nice. If Amazon had a half star option, I'd be giving it 4.5 stars. The reasons I'm docking off half a star are: 1) There was a scratch on one of the top front pieces. However, it's not very large or super noticable, and I'm sure I could cover it with a similar colored Sharpie or something, so I didn't bother trying to get a replacement because that would just be a hassle. But the packaging the shelf came in wasn't damaged at all, so I'm guessing it happened when the pieces were being put in the box. But things happen, I'm not upset about is as it's an easy enough fix. 2) I read a lot of reviews saying this was easy to put together, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was easy. I'm fairly handy with tools, having put together a lot of furniture and doing minor home repairs on my own. I put this bookshelf together by myself. It took a couple hours and some steps required a lot of arm/hand strength to get the screws in, and I ended up stripping a lot of the screws just trying to get them screwed all the way in. I'm thinking using a drill would have made things a lot easier, but the instructions say not to and I'm usually one to do things by the book, so I didn't. However, if I had to put together another one of these, I think I'd probably go ahead and just use a drill for some of the steps to save time and avoid getting frustrated. 3) Some reviews say that the shelf doesn't seem sturdy on the sides, like it'll topple over onto itself, but I disagree. It seems very sturdy once put together and I'm not at all worried about it falling apart. BUT, I'm not so sure that it wouldn't fall forward if pulled on or hit. I have 2 dogs (50 and 60 lbs) that sometimes play rough, so I absolutely used the safety strap to attach it to the wall because I'm not confident that the shelf wouldn't fall forward if they were playing and rolled into it or something. I do have it on a carpeted floor, so maybe on a hardwood floor it would feel more stable. I don't like that the safety strap pokes through a big hole in the backboard of the bookshelf. I feel like the hole doesn't need to be so big. I ended up cutting the circle that comes off the backboard, leaving enough of a space for the safety strap to poke through, and then taping the rest of the circle back in place from the back so it's not as visible. Overall, I think this is a well made, beautiful piece of furniture. I'm glad this is the one I chose to purchase, and I have no regrets in buying it. I think it will hold up for quite a while. Also, props to the Amazon driver who delivered it! It was a little heavy, and I was home by myself and worried I wouldn't be able to get it inside on my own without opening it and carrying it in piece by piece. It was raining though, and that wouldn't be ideal, so he carried it inside and set it down in my living room for me. He was very nice and I appreciate him taking that extra step to make my life a little easier!

Solid, quality piece of furniture, looks great, easy assembly. Very happy with it and proud of myself for choosing the right one. Thinking of saving 80 or 100 bucks and buying a cheaper version? Don't do it, not worth it.

I bought and assembled three of these shelf units. In my home office, they are very useful and look really nice. I got the cherry finish, and it is just gorgeous, prettiest furniture finish I ever saw. From 15 feet away, one of the shelf units looks nice enough for nearly any office or living room. But since the unit is designed to be assembled by the customer, up close it does not look quite as nice as high quality traditional furniture making. While the unit seems designed well enough for its intend purpose and usage, due to the particle board, the unit does not look as rugged as, say, some units I have in solid oak from about 100 years ago. There is an instruction book that documents how to assemble the unit in 14 steps. The 'technical writing' is very good. Along with the particle board pieces, there are some small pieces, nearly all metal. All these small pieces come in a plastic bag. Suggestion: Get 12 little bowls and sort each piece type into its own bowl. Some of the details of how the shelves are assembled are innovative. Mostly the shelves are held together with some 'pins' and 'cams'. For joining two pieces of the particle board, say, X and Y, piece X has a hole for a pin and piece Y has a correspoding hole for the other end of the same pin and, at the end of that hole, a hole in the surface for a cam. Then when pieces X and Y are joined, one end of the pin will be in the hole in piece X and the other end in the hole and cam of piece Y. The pin is a little complicated: The end that goes into the cam has a grove that fits into the side of the cam and gets pulled on as the cam is turned. The other end has some tough, black plastic. When the cam is turned, the pin tries to slide out of the black plastic, and the black plastic expands and makes the pin tight in the hole in piece X. Suggestion: Put the pin in the hole in piece X and then move piece Y to slide its hole over its end of the pin. If the pin is in piece Y first, then as move pieces X and Y into position and get the pin in its hole in piece X, the plastic can be damaged and have its end of the pin no longer fit in the hole in piece X. When this happened to me, I just used a knife to trim a little of the black plastic. But, still, I suggest, put the pin in the hole in piece X first, making the black plastic safe, and then move piece Y in position. The end of the pin with the plastic is delicate; the other end is not. Mostly the unit is to be assembled on a floor, on its back. You may want some good knee pads -- not a joke. Okay, there is a risk of damaging the unit and, thus, have to be careful. In detail, there are 6 shelves, three are adjustable. For the other three, there is the top, the bottom, and one between those two. The top and the bottom have decorative pieces. Then to attach the back, flip the unit on its front and have the back up. The two decorative pieces will then be in contact with the floor, and due to these decorative pieces, the 'between' shelf will NOT be in contact with the floor and will be about 2 inches from the floor. THEN: Do NOT lean on the shelf unit!! If lean very hard, say, using the unit to help stand, can have a pin be pulled out of its hole bringing much of particle board surface of its hole along with it. Solution: Get two thick books, say, 1000 pages each, and put one at each end of the 'between' shelf and between that shelf and the floor. Then can lean on the unit without damaging it. The back is thin, made of two pieces, and get attached with 3/4 inch long nails. Budget the use of the nails or might run out. I wanted more nails. The nails that come with the unit are good, and would have to look carefully to find extras just as good. In attaching the back pieces, should get their position accurate within about 1/16 of an inch everywhere. With less accuracy, might have some of the back extend beyond the unit. Also each of the nails has to go into the edge of a piece of particle board, hopefully into the center of that edge. Else the nail can protrud from and damage the surface of the board. Also want each nail not too close to the edge of the back. Such alignment needs the 1/16" accuracy. One piece of the back, the 'upper' piece, covers from the 'between' board to the top board. This piece attaches first. The other piece, the 'lower' piece, covers from the 'between' board to the bottom board and overlaps the upper piece where the upper piece already covers the edge of the 'between' board. Then, of course, the part of the unit where the upper piece attaches may slightly fail to be a rectangle. So, get the upper piece very carefully positioned so that its lower edge just covers the edge of the 'between' board and nail the piece to the 'between' board. Then 'skew' the upper part of the unit so that it is accurately a rectangle, put a nail in each of the two upper corners of the upper piece to hold the alignment achieved, and then put in the rest of the nails in the upper piece. That is, to get the upper piece attached within 1/16", expect to have to use some 'skew'. Similarly for the lower piece. There is a chance that, at the edge of the 'between' board, a nail for the lower piece could hit a nail for the upper piece. So, after nailing the upper piece to the edge of the 'between' board, for each of those nails mark on the upper piece a little above the 'between' board where the nail is so that when nailing the lower piece can avoid each nail already in the upper piece. When nailing the lower piece to the upper piece and into the edge of the 'between' board, for each nail need some way to know where to start the nail to have it enter the center of the edge of the 'between' board. At the ends of the 'between' board, it is easy to locate nails correctly. So put a nail at each end and have a loop of kite string from one of the nails to the other and then to a hanging weight to make the string tight and straight. Then put the rest of the nails in the bottom piece between the two pieces of string. Or use a chalk line or draw a line using a yard stick as a straight edge. The 'between' board gets a piece of edge trim. It is to be attached with right angle brackets. Each bracket gets two small screws. The instructions say that this piece of edge trim should be attached when the unit is on its back on the floor. With the unit in this position, the little screws are very awkward to install, would be easier for someone the size of a kitten. An easy solution is to lift the unit to the vertical with the top down. Then the screws are easy to install. There are several screws. They all need a #2 Phillips head screwdriver. For installing the nails, finally I decided to use two extra tools, a pair of needle nose pliers and a strong flashlight. Then for each nail, hold it just under its head in the tip of the pliers. Use the flashlight to remove all shadows from the desired location of the nail. Then position the tip of the nail carefully, make the nail vertical, give a tap or two with the hammer, move the pliers out of the way, and finish driving in the nail. The unit comes with a little plastic gauge for such positioning, but when I squeezed a nail, it would jump out of the plastic and land a foot or two away.

The bookcase is solid, well constructed, and beautiful. It took me a little over an hour to assemble it, which didn't seem unreasonable, and the instructions were thorough and easy to follow. (They even included a touch of humor, which I appreciated.) It's made out of "engineered wood," which used to be called particle board. Not my first choice, but real wood bookcases are becoming almost impossible to find and are outrageously expensive. I bought this to replace a different design of Sauder particle board bookcase, which had sagged noticeably over the years. When I looked back and realized that it had served me well for over forty years, which included five moves and six years in long term storage while I was stationed overseas, I decided that maybe well designed particle board bookcases weren't so bad after all. The weight capacities listed in the Amazon specs were screwy, as they varied according to what color finish (wood grained adhesive vinyl) you selected. I contacted Sauder, and they told me "The 412835 5-Shelf Bookcase has 3 adjustable shelves that can hold up to 25 pounds. The fixed middle shelf can hold up to 30 pounds and the bottom can hole up to 40 pounds." That's 145 pounds total.

I have two of this exact bookcase which I purchased several years ago. They have survived several moves and held up like they are armor plated so I had no qualms, whatsoever, about purchasing a third one for the library in our new home. Oh no. They quality has completely dropped out from under these now. I got the new one and put it together. Tried to push it about three to four feet into place. We heard a loud "CRACK!" and the bottom portion partially collapsed. When I called amazon they tried to talk me into "just using the top part???" Seriously? After much back and for they sent a replacement but wanted me to ship the first one back. I explained that this is a piece of broken furniture and I am not spending a couple of hours trying to take it apart. I have mobility issues and a back injury. It took me far too long to put it together to begin with. Amazon they sent Maersk to, I'm not making this up, pick up the item and return it. They spent FAR more..far FAR more shipping this back to themselves that I paid for it to begin with. I received the replacement and it was made even cheaper that the previous one had been. Very carefully we got it together and in place. I filled it with books but it simply is not as sturdy as the older two which I have. I do not recommend.

After reading some reviews of this Sauder unit I was a little leary but then I read reviews of other shelves that were comparible in price. I came right back to this one. I decided to order it and It arrived earlier than I was expecting. The box looked a little worn and I was worried about what the boards looked like. But surprisingly, the way they packaged it was pretty safe. None of the wood was scratched or ruined in any way. Some reviews said that you will need a large space to put it together so I put it together in my family room, even though the shelving unit was to go into a bedroom. I found after putting it all together, that I could have put it together in the bedroom it was intended for. I followed the instructions to a "t" and it was pretty simple. The one thing that I followed from a different review was to put some of the stirofoam (sorry I don't know how to spell that) under shelf "G" after unit has been turned over. This shelf will not touch the floor because the moulding on the top juts out farther than the rest. So, putting some of the foam under shelf "G" helps to keep the unit from splitting in half when gently hammering nails, connecting the backboard to the back of the shelving unit. The one thing that I may have done a little differently than the instructions is when you are fitting the two lower sides and the bottom of the unit together. I probably would have attached the two lower sides marked "D" and "C" and not put the bottom ("F). There is a "skirt" that is not marked but is considered "O" that attaches to shelf "G". Because I had put the bottom on already, as per the instructions, I had to almost blindly put the angled brackets and screws in to hold that skirt onto shelf "G". But it worked out anyway. Obviously, it can be done either way. Whether you put the bottom on first as it tells you to do or you work on the skirt "O" before putting the base of the unit on. If you choose to put the skirt on first, you just have to make sure that the 2 sides are straight so that you know where to center the skirt "O". You'll see what I'm saying when you read the instructions. Some people had issues with it splitting in half when turning it over. I did not have that problem. You just have to be careful as the back is not on and keeping it sturdier. Anyway, I put it together as per the instructions. No parts or screws or brackets were missing. This was easy to assemble and it is standing in the bedroom without being secured to the wall and is standing strong and holding everything that I put on each shelf. It's a bit deeper of a cherry wood color than the picture shows but I love it! It's gorgeous! For the cheaper price, I think it is a wonder set of shelves. Obviously, something more expensive with thicker backing would be sturdier. But this is sturdy enough for me and the use that it has been intended for, and not overly heavy. It's plenty tall and wider than the others I looked at, which is what attracted me to this unit in the first place and is better for me in the long run. I do recommend this bookcase to anybody. I really like it. Good job Sauder company! Thank you Amazon for another good buy!

All around a very good product. Assembly took about four hours to complete, but the steps were clear and easy to follow. The bookcase was very easy to move with two people once assembled, but still looks and feels sturdy. It looks beautiful and matches the exact look I wanted in my home office. It holds my books well without any of the shelf boards bending. Normally I don't write reviews, but my positive experience with the seller's customer service convinced me to. During the assembly we ran into an issue with screw holes not aligning correctly between two boards, which was frustrating, but the seller sent us replacement boards completely free of charge with no questions asked - sincerely the best customer service I've ever worked with.

Went together easy, instructions were great. All the parts seemed quality. They look good. 3 stars because the back panel was damaged (decided just to use without) and once assembled, they seem quite a bit more wobbly than I would like a book case to be. I even bought metal bracing for the rear on my own dime and it only improved the wobbliness somewhat. And no, the back didn’t help with that because it’s 3 separate panels that are just taped together.