Sauder Carson Forge Side Table, Washington Cherry finish

The media could not be loaded. I am loving my new side tables by Sauder. I chose the Carson Forge side table in the Washington Cherry color. I ordered 2 of these. Initially I ordered just one, and liked the table so much I decided to add another to my family room.This side tables are great quality. I love the look of the wood grain, it's the red-ish brown color with the darker blackish grain running through it.My side table accommodates my laptop perfectly, as well as some extra space for drinks and a decorative dish. There is a pull out tray right below the top front lip.There's an open top shelf, and 2 shelves behind the cabinet door for hidden storage.The second side table is next to the long couch and has a decorative plant, a diffuser, coasters and extra room for other goodies. The top shelf holds the tv remotes and again you have the the under cabinet storage behind the decorative door.This is not made of real wood, but the wood grain covered particle board. Everything came pre drilled and ready to assemble.The one side table is about a foot away from the back wall and the back panel does have the nailheads that are visible. I have tried to add a picture showing this. So my solution is going to be either a big potted plant or a tall lamp to fill in the space between the back of the table and the wall.It took my hubby and myself about an hour to assemble. He's very good with this sort of stuff. Cabinets lined up well, and I love the hardware.Directions were easy to follow. I have added photo's and I have a video I will try and include of all the pieces I bought from this set.Sauder features a 5 year warranty as well.I did have some damage in shipping on one of the units and I contacted Amazon and they were happy to assist me and make things right.I would highly recommend this Sauder Collection.I purchased this full price. My opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any way for my opinions.

Good quality for price. Sturdy and expensive looking. Took about 4 hours to assemble after checking to make sure all parts with it. Instructions fairly easy to follow-read twice before starting. Would advise doing step 10 putting slide rails on for slide out shelf first to make screw grooves, cause once you do step 9 putting top of table on its much easier then to reach inside and put screws back in shelf rail and secure tightly. I put my slide rails on first, then realized had to remove to tighten cam locks for table top. I used Elmer's wood glue to strengthen the table top attaching since I read a review that said table top would come off when picking up and moving table. Was glad I had put slide rails on even though I had to remove to put table top on, because reaching back inside table top to attach screws for rails already having the screw grooves made it was much easier than if I had not made them. The door alignment was kinda hard to understand on how to adjust, would recommend screwing the hinges on sides of table before assembled just to make screw grooves so once table is together it would make attaching door much easier. All parts fit together perfectly and my chair side table looks exactly like picture. I am very happy with it. Would recommend this table for anyone needing small table with storage to fit between chair or couch etc. It is all particle board, but looks like real wood once assembled. Rustic looking. Don't really see any cherry in color more like light walnut/oak to me. This does take patience to put together and had to read instructions on some areas a few times to make sure was assembling right, I am 63 years old someone young and more mechanically inclined could problably do in half the time. Happy with it sitting beside my recliner and it looks great. All in all great table for the price. Packaged arrived securely packed.

Review of:Sauder Carson Forge Side Table, Washington Cherry FinishSkip to point "4 - Finish" for the only real complaint if you dont need all the other details.Pros:Great price, Easy assembly for intermediate builders, Strong structural construction, Great appearance (See cons for finish issues)Cons:Paper thin surfacing is easily scratched and not so easy to cover up or mend. Door hinges are good quality but very hard to “tweak” for the perfect alignment. Top shelf drawer did not sit straight in either unit.I have broken the full review into 4 sections, packaging, assembly, fit and finish. At the header of each section I have a rating on a 1 - 5 scale with 1 being the best grade and 5 being the worst.I assembled two of these in under 2 hours.For the record I'm very handy with tools and furniture builds having apprenticed for several years as a cabinet maker. I have scratch built numerous furniture pieces over the years as well as having assembled countless prefab pieces like these.I paid $94.51 each for these with free shipping and feel this is a fair price. Much more than $100 total cost and I would think twice before buying.1) Packaging (Grade 1)To some extent the packaging is as sturdy as the side table. The thick cardboard box is packed tightly with solid Styrofoam filling in any empty spaces in the flat pack. The box was then reinforced along all edges with very heavy cardboard "V" tracks. All the way along the edge not just the corners. Then the entire thing was shrink-wrapped in a very heavy gauge plastic that, if not completely waterproof, should be at least very water resistant. All said it was a bit of a chore to get to the actual product inside and required a razor knife and a full packaging cleanup before I could begin assembly. Not a complaint just an observation.2) Assembly (Grade 3)The directions were detailed and very well written by someone who had a good understanding of English. However there are many steps and often some of them require a bit of intuitive thinking to get the orientation of the parts correct. The pictures don’t always give the best idea of which side of a piece is facing up/back and several of the pieces did not have the stickers with their letter on them. This is not a beginners build or for someone who is not handy. That said if you are moderately handy around the house then I see no reason that you could not get through this assembly just fine. I would recommend you pre-fit every step just to be sure before committing to the final screwing in. This is a particleboard unit and therefore undoing things is often a recipe for disaster.3) Fit (Grade 2)The majority of this unit when completed is quite solid with good right angles, just as I like to see. All the pieces fit very snugly and I saw no gaps on either of the units when finished. The door uses standard “Concealed Cabinet Hinges” that have two screw pins that have to be tweaked in order to square up the door in the frame. This is a standard issue for these types of hinges and not a flaw just a heads up for those of you like me that need the gaps to all be even and the angles to all be right. The slide out shelf is a great feature and well-built with strong and smooth operating drawer slides. However, neither of them sat square on my finished product. I was able to do a little tweaking to fix this but it took some time and a bit of knowledge about how the slides work. This is where the fit loses its 1 point. The external hardware is good enough for the price and construction of this unit. I would not have expected it to be real steel or iron in this price range for this piece. As it is they are solid alloy with a worn iron(ish) finish. Good enough and the foot pieces should help to protect the particleboard legs from damage if liquid were to be spilled around the feet of the cabinet.4) Finish (Grade 2 and 4)Short answer: If you have kids or anyone else that may not take the best care around these or if they are going to used heavily by guests you may want to rethink them. For me and my wife in the TV room where few other than us will ever use them, they should be just fine. Coasters or a protective sheet of something waterproof on the top is mandatory. See below.As I mentioned in fit section the alloy hardware is done well enough that I think it is in line with the price range and particleboard unit. It looks very good from a distance and not so bad up close that it makes you think this thing is cheap. If I found them on a $200+ end table I would return the unit but on this end table I have no complaints. Grade 2 for the hardware.Grade 4 is for the faux wood finish that knocks this down to the less than $100 price range and even at that price its still a big drawback. Its paper thin and not quality paper but the low grade stuff you might find in a public restroom. I flattened the box out on the floor as a building area to keep from scratching my wood flooring. However sliding the parts around on the cardboard was enough to put some small scratches in the finish and even wear away a couple of corner areas exposing the particleboard underneath. I have not put it to the test and wouldn't but I'm very certain that the top of these will not stand up to any moisture at all. Forget setting a glass directly on them I would even be cautious of a damp rag for cleaning.To that end I got some acrylic sheet scraps I had in the house and cut them to fit the tops of both of these for better protection. If you don’t have it laying around you would be looking at about $25 to cover both in a thin sheet. I would highly recommend doing this right away.All that said it really is very nicely done from a looks standpoint and mimics real wood extremely well. I have no complaints about the look, just wish it was a bit more durable. To sum up this is a great looking low traffic table that should hold up for years with a bit of care to keep liquids off it and don’t abuse it.