Home Styles Aspen Buffet, Rustic Cherry

The wood is mostly plywood, and reconstituted paper&wood with veneer overlays. All acceptable however, and typical of contemporary "wood" furniture, if heavier than it needs to be. The machining of the pieces, and finish quality are outstanding. The construction style, i.e. how small pieces are composed into larger pieces, and how this affects the ease of assembly, is however bizarre, and unnecessarily complex. A skilled furniture maker would come up with a much simpler, and thus easier to assemble and sturdier design. The European style "cam-lock and pin" fasteners to hold the panels together may be OK for an amateur, but for a professional assembly the dowels, glue and screws are sturdier and easier to assemble - I replaced the cams with extra purchased dowels, glue and screws. The drawers have felt lining and removable dividers. I have no use for either. I flipped the bottom panel upside down to expose its smooth finish, instead of felt liner. But without the dividers I now have two ugly grooves with sharp edges in the drawer – see pics. The hinges do not close all the way, preventing the door from seating fully in. I had to flatten the hinges, that was not easy. Now a single magnet catch, instead of the two provided, is sufficient to keep the door closed. The door also opens easily without figthing the force of two (powerful) magnets. And then there were cracks in the door frame around the lower hinge. Clearly due to oversize screws used by vendor. Altogether a great, and a good looking, piece of furniture. Many thanks to the art designer - not so much to the engineers.