This piece was very easy to put together. It took no more than 30 - 40 minutes to assemble. It looks great and is very sturdy. Instructions were simple. Just remember - do not tighten the screws until it is completely assembled.

The unit was easy to put together and is a solid addition to my kitchen with lots of storage. My air fryer and food processor are on the top shelf, and larger food storage containers are on the other shelves. My kitchen is more organized. It's a great buy!

I bought 2 of these kitchen islands and the first one arrived today. I put the island together slowly, while my cat sat on my lap, tried to eat the plastic bags full of the bolts, and sat on the directions. She is always my helper! I was also watching a movie at the same time. It took me around 43 minutes to assemble it and I had no problems. I followed the advice of other reviewers and I only finger tightened the bolts until it was all together, then I tightened it all up with the included Allen wrench. I had extra bolts left over. I really like the feet that were included since this island will be on hard floor.
My second island should take very little time to assemble. I will put them back back and use them for my crafting and rubber stamping. All of the shelves are a big plus to store all of my supplies!

I just received my second kitchen island today and the assembly of this one was quite different. I wasn't able to screw in 4 of the screws that go into the bottom of the shelves, 2 on the top shelf and 1 each for the other 2 shelves. The holes did not line up at all. I removed each shelf and turned it around, but it still did not line up properly. Fortunately I was able to line up all of the screws that go into the bar below each shelf. The shelves also sit on metal bars so they do have other support. The island still does feel quite sturdy.

Put this together this morning with ease. All the parts fit well & overall it seems to have been well-designed for anyone who is accustomed to putting together kit furniture.

I would say the only really weak aspect of the design is the use of fiberboard. These boards are covered with a very thin, smooth plastic film of some kind to give them the appearance of real wood. If you avoid scuffing up the film, hopefully it will have some kind of longevity; but you certainly can't treat it as if it had the surface endurance of actual wood. The other problem with fiberboard is that you really need to be careful not to get it wet; fiberboard tends to swell and get mushy if it gets any real water on it at all. The instructions that come with the kit warn against exposing it to excess moisture for this reason. But so long as you're careful about these two aspects, the boards will probably hold up reasonably well.

There is one odd thing I noticed in reading the various pro and con reviews for this product: most of the reviews are positive, but a handful are very negative. How can this be?

It turns out that the negative reviews are mostly complaining that either the boards arrived damaged, or else the holes in the metal supports did not line up with the holes in the boards, making assembly either difficult or impossible.

Obviously if a product is damaged when you receive it, the only remedy is to return it and get a refund. In my case none of the boards were damaged so this was not an issue. But when it comes to the complaints about holes not lining up, I wonder if the real problem there is that those complaining made mistakes in following the assembly instructions. This can happen easily enough since some of the metal pieces (for example the side pieces with the legs) are easy to install backwards without really noticing. It might then appear that the reversed piece is entirely lacking the necessary holes. Similarly, if someone does not follow the caution in the instructions to avoid tightening the various bolts until the entire framework has been put together, it might seem as if the holes are "not in the right places."

To avoid these kinds of issues, you really do need to go slowly, avoid tightening bolts until the end, and to be ready to assume that you may have made a mistake & try and find out what that mistake might be, before you blame the actual design of the piece. The only alternative explanation would be that somehow the supplier of this product is sending well-made kits to most purchasers but badly made kits to just a small handful of purchasers. This is not impossible, but it seems rather unlikely; all the more so since the photos posted by various reviewers over the past three years all seem to depict the exact same design for the kit.

I assembled this with a friend. We both aren't mechanically in any way whatsoever. It took us about 50 minutes because we had to go back a few times to correct mistakes.
I'm 6'3 and it's perfect which means it's probably not great for short people. I say under 5'10 this isn't for you! Update just noticed that it's pealing (See above)