Vida Designs Panama 2 Drawer Console Table Natural Oak

This item was delivered as a flat pack and was well packaged. All the required parts were present and it was easy to unpack. The instructions are fairly clear, but not all parts are actually labelled. Once you have worked out which wooden parts conform to the instructions it becomes fairly easy to assemble. Make sure all the cross pieces are the right way round (I made this mistake) or you will have to start again. Once assembled it is a sturdy and good looking piece of pine furniture. The cupboard and the drawers work well and it looks great in my front hall. I would say it was good value for money.

This is a good looking and solid piece of furniture, it is easy to assemble, but I had a few minor niggles about this item, there was a knot in the wood just at the point of a joint fixing, a half of the knot fell off, but I was able to super glue it back into position, the front frame, which is the frame were you start the assembly, you have to be careful with this when screwing it together, not to screw to hard, as the screws will come through the front of the frame, there was also a minor issue with one of the door hinges, this was a decorative issue, one of the small decorative ends on one of the hinges fell off, however as was the case with the knot, I was able to super glue it back into place.

I have a lot of experience when it comes to finding storage mediums as I am a material hoarder. In this case I needed it to store my ocarinas, and more general bits and bobs such as dvds/games and larger books that are too large for my book shelf.I am dyslexic (if you hadn't already guessed by my horrible grammar) and when I come across instructions that have no images of any form my brain explodes. The instructions in this case consist of clear step-by-step images as to how to put it together. If you have someone else helping you put you'll get it done in an hour at most maybe two depending on your experience with flat pack furniture. If you do this on your own I found it took me two or three hours to put this together, more due to some parts of the process being very fiddly.It is light-weight enough that it can be moved without doing your back in, yet heavy enough that you won't have to worry about what and where you'll be putting things in and on top of it. It is sturdy and strong. I recommend that after putting the cupboard together that you sand it down and finish with paint or a varnish to protect the wood. The wood does have some staining (I'm guessing that it's either from delivery or, based on drip/drop marks a hardening process, I am unsure) which is why I recommend sanding it down. Only needs a light sanding and then its all ready for finishing, then its go time.I had some trouble with putting one of the handles on, based on how I had to fix it it seemed to be an issue with the screw thread inside the handle. I have fixed this and got it on, but look out for that.A few negatives that are fixable, but really that's something that should be done before the item is shipped out, and could've noticed during quality checks. But overall this is a great piece of furniture and I do love it. I decided I wanted to stain mine after using it for a bit. So I will add a before and after picture within the next few weeks so that you can see how it looks after having been put together and then after finishing. It is a good value for money, just make sure those lil' things are caught and it would make it five stars.

Review of: Vida Designs Panama Sideboard 2 Door 2 Drawer Solid Pine FurnitureArrived well packed. The solid pine is that stuff comprised of parallel strips of pine bonded together with well fitting joints to form good quality board. So far so good as this is a good way to create stable panels. The various fittings are nicely packed in separate pouches and clearly marked.The general construction is to connect the various components with dowels and pre-drilled sockets, together with pocket screws to hold things together. The component pieces are clearly made by machine and very cleanly cut; the only human contact probably being to pack the box. 5 stars so far.The front consists of three parallel horizontal rails with a central divider between the top rails. They fit together ok but were not flush. I tried rearranging them but to no avail. This is not quality craftmanship but for £90 what do you expect, so now we are at 3 stars.I continued to follow the instructions and after a couple of hours came to fit the top. The pre-drilled holes were not aligned and the top could not be fitted to the end panels, and there is no fix for this even if you try to re-drill because the sockets partially overlay and you would end up with a "loose slot".Nice quality firewood to be returned to Amazon via Hermes(Wish me luck with that) after an hour pulling it apart and repacking it.They used to say "To err is human, but for a real F. Up get a computer". In this case the computer is likely to repeat the mistake, so if you're feeling lucky, insert all the dowels and test fit all the pieces before turning any screws.Overall, 1 star in this case because the product could not be assembled and is therefore useless, and it cost me 3+ hours to find out.