4 stars

Looks good when put together, alhough the veneer chips and peels very easily, so be careful with the panels. Doesn't fit together perfectly, but pretty well at casual glance and barely noticeble once there are books on it. I would say, for the look and the price, it's worth the fairly complicated construction.

4 stars

In late June, we bought 4 bookcases from 3 different stores all in one day. There was no color variation among them, all parts were intact and undamaged (despite one carton appearing "banged up"), and all included extra hardware.

Unpacking is messy and contains a lot of non-recyclable styrofoam.

The first bookcase took 1.5 hours to assemble. Instruction manual was fairly clear and concise. But, we quickly realized that the locking cams should NOT be first inserted into their pre-drilled holes. Otherwise, you'll have a tough time aligning the pins with the tread openings in these interlocking cams. Final bookcase took half an hour from unpacking to final assembly.

It's helpful to have a power drill to secure the decorative molding piece along the top edge. Works best to have 2 people for this molding part: one to hold the molding against the bookcase, the other to screw in place w/power drill. There were no pre-drilled holes for this step.

Ultimately, the bookcases are sturdy, and have a classic, high-end look. Because of the adjustable shelves, we can hold more books than expected, even accommodating 14-inch tall ones. We can almost double-stack books, but have to lay the back row perpendicularly to the front one. Three of the four are placed end-to-end in our hallway; they are all identical depths and heights.

If I had a larger home, I would definitely buy more of these. Based on the quality, we would also buy other pieces from this furniture collection.

4 stars

Even after reading all of the reviews, I knew that these shelves were a great deal - even if it took me two hours to put them together.

It sure did. I didn't use a power screwdriver, that may have saved me about 30-45 minutes and had I had an extra pair of hands it probably would've taken half that time.

I picked the item up from the store (in the brown box) and when I got it home and opened it up nothing was damaged or missing. It went together with no problems and matches the other Espresso colored furniture I have purchased from Target.

It looks classy and well made, but does seem to lean forward - I'm looking for something to put under the front two legs to elevate it a bit since I have it in a corner and the support strap that they provide won't work in that type of scenario.

I'm not sure what kind of gorillas some other people may hire to move their stuff, but I feel pretty confident that it would make it through a move with maybe a scratch or two.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy this piece again.

3 stars

I bought two from two different stores and both were easy to put together. One is rock solid and looks great, the other one is very wobbly. The solid one had better parts and you could tell it was better constructed. So it appears quality varies from one to another.

2 stars

I am a big fan of Target and often buy modular furniture and have put together everything from a queen bed to a bathroom sink cabinet. This was an assembly nightmare for even an experienced do it yourselfer. There was a piece missing, it took over a week to get. The Cams do not fit properly, not just one or two all of them so you spend more than 5 minutes wiggling each one until you can turn it to tighten. I had to reinforce with long screws of my own the ones provided were too short. This is a nice heavy attractive bookcase so it must be securely assembled or it can be dangerous. I do not recommend for the novice.

4 stars

I've seen this bookcase on display several times in the store and I've always been impressed with the quality appearance. Once I finally bought it, and put it together, I'm still impressed with it. It definitely looks like a much more expensive piece of furniture. Of course, I've noticed that other people who have reviewed the bookcase remarked on pieces being cracked and broken, I believe that has something to do with the mass production of the pieces; I however didn't really have that problem. Luckily, any scuff marks and scratches were in places no one would see them anyway. It took me almost 2 hrs to put it together by myself, which isn't too bad. And once it was put together, it looked just as good as it had in the store. All in all, a nice piece for a good price. I'm happy with it.

5 stars

This is a wonderful bookshelf! We purchased it last year and since then we have moved to another home and it made the move in one piece and is still beautiful! No problems putting the bookshelf together - it is worth the price for the look and style of the piece.

5 stars

I bought two of these, and they look great. In fact, I like the look of them much better than many, many other bookshelves I shopped for that were substantially more expensive. This is not to say they are the best-built pieces of furniture, but they don't look as inexpensive as they are without really close inspection.

One bookcase I bought had a shelf without the predrilled holes necessary for assembly, but I was able to return that piece to the store and exchange it for one that was fine.

5 stars

I just bought this bookcase a couple of days ago and it looks great. I put it together in about 2 hours by myself. The only hard part was putting on the top for me, but besides that it was relatively simple (and I am a girl just so you know). I had a power drill, but did not need to use it. The cam locks were a bit tricky, so be ready, but in the end it was quite worth it and I will go back and buy two more.

(added 01/04/09) I did go back and buy more and they look great in my apartment. No problems with them at all!

1 stars

We were excited to get this as we had another already that we were pleased with; however upon opening the box to assemble it we found several structural (huge) cracks, not just chips. Also one of the support beams on the side was attached crookedly. Now we have to rent a car just to get it back to the store to return this piece of junk. What an expensive hassle!