Assembly is definitely a chore here as I knew it would be and the directions are only good if you're good at looking at pictures and figuring things out yourself. If you need to be spoon-fed every step you're gonna be miserable. The worst piece is the ornamental part right below the top lid. Relied on wedging wooden rods into a gap that would not force easily and ended up causing internal damage and needing to be wood glued and clamped.

That being said, I got everything completed, even the lock, and it looks and works great. Just be ready to tackle a big project.

After reading previous reviews from people claiming it took them 9 hours to put this cabinet together I was a little nervous to tackle this project. I am no expert at these things but I am capable of following instructions. The intructions are pretty clear. If you follow them correctly and pay attention its about a 3 hour build start to finish. Clearly some people are not inclined to put stuff like this together. Anazon does offer installation. I have yet to test this with movies in it but it does seem to be pretty sturdy.

Just received this and put it together that same day. It took about 6 hours to put together, but I took lots of breaks. This is a very heavy unit and it was a lot taller than I thought it would be, it is over 3 feet tall. It has loads of storage and seems to be very useful. Not too sure I like the top load though, because I was planning on putting a lamp on top and now I can't because it opens from the top, but I guess that means less clutter also. I think this is a really nice piece and others are really interested in getting this same piece for their houses. Not enough glue was included in this set and I used the wrong glue for the wrong pieces, but it wasn't a problem. I recommend getting some extra crazy glue to finish up this piece.

I ordered this on May 24 and received it on May 29 - talk about fast service! I was pleased to find that all the parts were shipped too - WOW, what a novelty. I'd seen other reviews on another site and was concerned that it was difficult to assemble. It took us about 7 hours, but part of that time was drying time to fix a mistake we made. My husband didn't trust the quality of the wood glue provided, he said it looked like Elmers, so he used his personal choice instead.

When assembling the cabinet, pay VERY CLOSE attention to the illustrations - the raw sides and finished sides are not well illustrated and we ended up putting the right side on the left and visa-versa. This mistake gave us raw edges where finished edges should have been - oops! Since we used wood glue in the wood dowels, as per instructed, we messed up some parts of the wood and had to repair them. No problem - it's fine now.

The bottom supports (parts M) are indented, but the instruction shows them as being even with the front and back edges of the bottom (part B). If you match the placement of the angle brackets with the holes provided, you'll get them in the right place. When you put the sides in place, the supports will align with the wood dowel holes just fine.

The one fault I found was that the wood colors aren't consistent. I realize it's hard to stain the MDF the same color as the oak laminant on the doors and top, but I don't care for the redish oak color of the MDF on the rest of the cabinet. It would also be nice if there were locks on the cabinet doors instead of just the top storage area.

Top Load Media Cabinet - Oak/Black (Oak/Black) (37.25"H x 48.5"W x 13"D)

Ok, so after reading all the reviews; I went ahead and just ordered it. There is a lot of hardware, it took me and my daughter (14) about 3-4 hours to assemble. Some of the instructions are confusing, however, if you following the diagram you will figure out. There is a mirrored image in the instructions, which will make you stop and think (yes, the picture is wrong; follow the already made holes in the wood. The hardest thing for us was the pegs, if pushed in they go ALL THE WAY DOWN. You have to use your judgment on how much to leave out. Everything else was pretty easy, just extremely time consuming. I have alot of VHS movies, so the weight of them makes this piece stay where it needs to. I would recommend this, only to my patient friends though. If you are easily irritated, I would pass or buy it assembled. The four stars was because most of the wood is particle board, however, when all the pieces are placed together; it does create a firm foundation.