Better Homes and Gardens 8-Cube Organizer, Espresso

I bought this unit to place behind the love seat in between my living and dining rooms. The unit was packaged nicely, very easy to setup and position and looks absolutely amazing. The weight of the unit is very nice. It's not so heavy that I couldn't move it myself, but definitely heavy enough to be sturdy. I'm a 50 year old woman with a medium build and I had no problem assembling and placing this shelving unit into position behind my love seat. I purchased a set of woven baskets for two of the cubes and the rest are filled with photo albums and scrapbooks. These items were previously being stored in a cedar chest and were a pain to access. Now they are easy to see and enjoy anytime my family likes. This shelving unit is definitely worth the purchase price. I highly recommend it.

Trying to get a head start on the baby's nursery. We're about 40% done. These are perfect. You can see in the photo I bought the cubes that were smaller than the 13" ones that are needed to fit perfectly, but it's fine for me. I have 3 of the 13" cubes on the floor to the right. Not enough to look good, and I didn't feel like buying more yet. The color is espresso. In most light it looks black, but under bright lights you can clearly see it's a very dark brown wood grain appearance. The bins are all black, so you can see there isn't much of a difference. And many say you can't use this as a substitute for a changing table, but that's what I'm going to do. Mine is very sturdy, and comes up to exactly the right height for me at 5'6".

A week ago, this item was priced at around $100 I believe. I definitely was about to buy it seeing all the great reviews. But one reviewer said she bought it for $68 at Walmart. I looked i t up on Walmart's website and she was right! I feel that since this has so many awesome reviews on Amazon, that the price is getting jacked up unnecessarily from third-party sellers. (Right now it's priced between $166- $250.) I suppose it makes sense to be more expensive, since this item is 75 pounds and would be costly to ship. But going from $100 to $166-250 within a week doesn't make sense. If you can see if your local Walmart has one in stock, I suggest you buy it there.Onto my review of this item. I'm 8 months pregnant and I recently got this for my nursery. If you are a mother you might be interested in my experience with this.I had to get a store associate to bring this to the register for me. It's huge and you won't be able to put it in a regular cart. The next dilemma I had was how I was going to bring this inside my house, alone. So I opened the box in my car and brought in the pieces one by one inside. If you get it delivered to your door, then you should do the same.As for assembly, it was simple enough as long as you carefully read the instructions. One part I struggled with was getting the center partitions to stick in to that thick side. But if you place the thick side against a wall, it's so much easier!Some of the instructions don't match the current state of this storage unit, as if there was a change to the manufacturing process and that's not reflected in the instructions. For example, it says, "Hammer in the dowels until there's 1 1/4" left". But really, you put the dowel in the hole (no hammering) and there's 1" of dowel left. In other words, I didn't need to use a hammer at all even though the instructions warn repeatedly about not over-harmmering in the dowels.There's also these end caps that are supposed to cover the exposed bolt heads. They're useless. They don't stay on. They might with gravity for the top four bolts if you use the shelf vertically-- but they don't stay firmly in place so there's no point in using them.There was also some glue/paint that marred a corner of my shelf. However, I just took the flat end of a scissors covered in a few layers of a moistened rag to scratch it off.Other than that, I really love how this turned out. It feels solid to me. (By the way, the manual says that in the horizontal position, it'll support 150 pounds on top.) The top and bottom are very thick particle board and I don't think it'll get destroyed in a move. I've had other items get destroyed while moving, mainly due to the support being a thin piece of cardboard at the back holding the sides together. But with this, the design feels solid.The color I got is "weathered". I think this colors looks the more natural compared to the "espresso" finish.I would've given this item 5 stars because my only issues are cosmetic... but the price of this item currently on Amazon is just insane.Lastly, the storage collapsible boxes I bought for this was $5.67 apiece and was sold by Better Homes and Gardens as well at Walmart.

Easy to put together and doesn't look cheesy. I like the thicker look unit verses the 3/4 inch of other brands. I liked them so much I've purchased 7 of them. Not all were from Amazon tho. The ones i ordered from Amazon were in perfect condition. The ones i ordered from walmart were scratched and dinged up even tho they were all Better Homes and Gardens so i would suggest Amazon purchase only. I also like that they are bigger cubes than the other brands.

This is not the Better Home and Gardens quality I am used to or it is a cheap manufacturer using their name. I have purchased a Better Home and Gardens previously. I was impressed with my originals quality and then my son damaged it by spilling water down the seam. This cube shelf is not even close to the sturdiness, quality and durability of the others I have purchased. Even my thin board walmart cube is made of a denser material. These cubes sound hollow. My white one came damaged with a big dent on one side and a spot of damage was on the finish on the other. Both the expresso and white have a cheap top coat that is flaking of on all of the edges. Do yourself a favor and look for another option. From far away they seem nice but they will not hold up to any real life use. I have two boys and they will destroy the finish or put a hole in one in no time. The screws when fully tightened the covers will not clip on which is not a huge problem that you could secure with glue. Now I have the headache of unassembling them and try putting them back in the boxes for return. Time wasted and extremely frustrating. This is not the cube you want. Keep shopping and check the reviews closely.

I am reviewing primarily for its durability. I have done things to this shelf. It has survived. I've moved a few times by myself and managed to slide this thing up and down three floors of external stairs and it retained its structure just fine. Mind you, I hopelessly jacked up the bottom surface scraping it on wooden outside stairs, but pro tip: one side never has to be seen. I recall it being easy to assemble. Probably you should buy it.