Black Project Center Desk with Bookcase & 3-Bin Storage Cabinet - Home Office Organization for Study, Work & Crafting

I’ve been stalking this craft table for a few years and now I finally have a finished room to put it in! YAY!!Project Center- white w one 9-hole cubby pedestal and one long 3-opening pedestal (also got 3 drawers for the long 3-opening pedestal)Comes in two SUPER HEAVY boxes. Seriously. Unless you’re hulk hogan you’re gonna need help getting them inside. My husband and I rolled them in end over end and the box w the pedestals almost did for us. No wonder the FedEx guy dropped them and ran. The box w the drawers was an easy carry tho. They are extremely well packaged- double boxed and strapped and w extra cardboard & styrofoam padding. The first pedestal I put together is the one w 3 long openings you can use for rolls of wrapping paper or something- I’m putting drawers in tho. Assembly of this pedestal took me 3 hrs- with some help from my husband- but I’m a 64 yo woman w knee issues, so there’s that.1st assembly glitch—the drawings in the directions (the holes depicted) aren’t an exact match for the pieces you get, so that annoyance took a little figuring out.2nd assembly glitch—when you’re placing the bolts they need to be absolutely straight (duh- I know) so eyeball them to make sure they are and fix the ones that aren’t- ask me how I know.3rd assembly glitch—do NOT knock the little wooden dowels all the way in- leave them sticking most of the way out. The reason for this is you’ll need to be able to wiggle them into their opposite holes when putting the pieces together (bc the holes don’t line up exactly) and you can’t do that if they’re all the way in bc then they don’t have “wiggle room”.2nd pedestal (the 9 hole cubby) was a lot easier- I didn’t need my husbands help this time bc the pieces were a lot smaller. I learned from yesterday and didn’t have near the amount of trouble w the bolts or dowels. I learned when glueing that I needed to use a small paint brush (really tiny) to apply the glue- I barely had enough glue to put on the two back edges bc it came out of the little bottle they give you so thick- it isn’t a needle nose top like you get w Elmer’s. Also, I at first missed the directions to lay it on its side to attach the end & middle pieces to the bottom- the picture shows it standing upright and that’s what I went by. So, I had to remove the 2 end pieces and the 2 middle dividers, stand the bottom on its edge and then put the pieces back on the bolts/dowels. Pay attention to which way the divider pieces in the middle are facing (refer to the pic)- the cams on the ends/middle are supposed to be facing each other. I had to rearrange the dividers until I had it right.I also added screw-on furniture slides to help w moving the pedestals- 4 on each one. I had to add 3 little washers so the 3/4” screws that came w the slides didn’t end up poking through the other side. Didn’t have shorter ones on hand and was too impatient to go to the store for 1/2” or 5/8” ones. Still made tiny little bumps on the inside tho- but they won’t be noticeable behind the drawers and cubby boxes I got.Next, I put together the 3 drawers. They aren’t bolted or doweled at all, it’s just putting glue in the slots and piecing it together- the little paintbrush was a lifesaver here too. Had to play w it a little to be sure all the pieces were seated into the notches correctly. The way they’ve engineered the sides- one long piece w grooves cut so it can fold- is pretty neat. Hopefully they’ll hold together well despite not having bolts or dowels. The 2nd pedestal and the 3 drawers took me another 3 hours to assemble.Last is the topper, which is one piece- no assembly needed- just place it on top of the pedestals. I haven’t used the screws to attach it permanently to the pedestals but I intend to. I’m REALLY HAPPY w this and it was certainly well worth the wait.Oh- one other point- I got a new desk chair to go with it but it turned out to be too low at the highest setting it goes to, which is 21”. It puts my eyes about 6” above the top (I’m 5’3”)- so plan accordingly for the seating you use w this? ETA: I discovered you can buy replacement pneumatic chair risers, so I’m just going to get one of those that’s longer to replace the one that came w my chair! Yay!The workmanship and pride in the product shows. This is my craft table, the amount of work space is awesome. I would highly recommend this company.I would like to give this 3 1/2 starts, but will slide up to 4.It may be a little unfair to leave a review regarding the assembly as one of my hobbies is woodworking ... but I will anyway. My other hobby is photography and I needed a matting table and didn't want to take the time to build something, so I ordered the Venture Horizon Project Center. I had seen a very similar product at Pottery Barn for more than twice the cost. Other reviewers have noted it is basically the same thing but less expensive. While I realized PB is a little pricey, this seemed a little too good of a price to be true.It arrived very quickly via FedEx Ground: less than 2 weeks after ordering on Amazon. Immediately I saw that it is not the same materials of construction. This unit is particle board with a vinyl coating. That's fine for my application but only fair for the cost, but the PB version has some real wood veneer and some real wood. The unit arrived in two boxes, each of which is really too heavy and bulky for a single individual to carry up the stairs. I opened my (very well packed) boxes in my garage. This broke everything down into easily carried loads except for the actually table top. The table top should be moved with two people or a hand truck.Assembly: It took me about 3 hours to fully assemble, including the time it took me to haul in the boxes/parts and to have a short water break. Not bad. Assembly instructions and methods are similar to Ikea knock down furniture with easy to use cam locks. I really think just about anyone could do the basic assembly. The 9 bin front did have a thin walled back piece that needs to be glued down and nailed. The supplier includes the glue, nails and even pre-drilled the nail holes. Probably my only knock on this is that AFTER the glue is applied to two joints and the back piece is laid own, nailed and supported, the vendor suggests one not move the piece until the glue dries. Problem here is that glue tends to ooze out of joints and run, so I advise you to quickly flip the unit over when finished to wipe excess glue then turn back over for the glue to dry.Am I happy with the product? YES Would I recommend this? YES Would I have liked to seen a little more real wood veneering on the product? YES, for the price, they should have included veneer.It has heavy pieces. You need an extra pair of hands to help. It is exactly what I need to upgrade from what I was using.Overall, I love this table. Once we figured out which parts were which, it was fairly easy to assemble. The sketches of the parts do not exactly match the actual parts.I’ve been searching for a wide, tall table to do my crafting on and this one fit the description! It was pretty expensive ($600) (I’ve seen them for $300, but eventually gave in after waiting months for the price to go down). However, it’s been very sturdy and the shelving has simplified my organization.My husband was able to assemble this by himself with two small kids running around distracting him. It seems solid and well built. There is ample work space for 2 kids. The only annoying thing is that the storage cubbies are not very deep, about 11inches. Most storage boxes/containers are deeper than that. I'm still looking for good ways to use the cubbies. But I like it overall. I'm glad I did not fork over big bucks to buy a similar looking product from Pottery Barn. It probably would have been nicer but this table will be mostly used by the kids so I didn't want to spend over $1000.Several hours to assemble, even with experience. I had two of the largest pieces arrive cracked but they replaced them with no hassle. Nice folks. Enormous, heavy boxes. It's fine as a craft table although I'll be looking for a sheet of plexiglass for the top. It's a little wobbly but fine for light crafts. Not the best value by a long shot, but that's probably built in shipping (like shipping a cow). We're ok with it, the company is super.