Altra Furniture Desk with Tower Bookcase, Walnut Finish

After calling to find out where my package was, I found out that it got returned. When it finally arrived it had a big chip in it. I was just unhappy with my purchase, had to get a refund.

Well delivery was very timely and this piece actually arrived well before the estimated date of delivery.It was a pain to put together, and the instructions are not really helpful or clear, just lots of pictures and you could interpret and make mistakes. In all it took 3 hours to put together, there is so many little parts. The good news is that every piece is marked, just make sure to check the box again for any missing pieces before throwing it away.I was very lucky to have my handyman hubby assist in this frustrating build.I will say it looks great now that it is built and ready to use for a home office, I would say I would not purchase it again. It is kind of wobbly and not as sturdy as it looks in the picture. Great for a small space and will look great once positioned and all the shelves filled.

This is an inexpensive desk of a quality I expected for $170. There are a million parts and screws, and an allen wrench and smaller wrench is provided, but you will need a phillips head screwdriver and likely your own adjustable wrench to put it together as the little wrench provided is actually too large for the nuts you need it for. It probably took me close to two and a half hours to construct by myself, but this is true of most complicated IKEA furniture (which I am pretty well-experienced with!). You will need a pretty large, open area to put this together. Once assembled, the desk is sturdy, comfortable to sit at, and has the modern look I wanted without paying a fortune at West Elm or Crate and Barrel. There were some quality control issues (the drawer doesn't sit perfectly level, some pre-drilled holes chipped the veneer in some areas) and one part of the instructions that should have been better explained, but otherwise assembly was fairly straight-forward.Due to the quality of furniture like this, I doubt that you would be able to take it apart and reassemble it while moving without using wood glue the second time. I also would not recommend using power tools during assembly, as you would likely strip the pre-drilled holes easily.One note on packaging and damage:This item was shipped to me by Cymax. It was shipped in the original product box, which did not seem sturdy enough for the nearly 80lbs of weight it was holding. The box was skewed, dented, and ripped in one area with the inner protective styrofoam shattered in many places, likely due to it never intended on being a shipment box. Because of this, three pieces of the desk were impact damaged on their corners. The damage, however, was not enough to warrant sending the entire desk back. Upon assembly, the three spots of damage are not visible and do not effect the stability of the desk. This is the second time I have ordered furniture online and the previous item was shipped the same way (different seller, but arrived with a small amount of damage as well). Essentially what I am saying is that if you are purchasing inexpensive particle board furniture online, don't expect it to be packed well and do expect to find at least one thing dented, scratched, or bent. Seems to be the usual, and I didn't count that against the product itself because it's not a flaw in the product but rather a flaw with shipping.Overall I am actually very happy with the desk, so hopefully my review did not come across too scathing. I was going for realistic!Edited to four stars for quality issues after a month and a half of use:I've had this desk now for a month and a half and I have already started seeing significant wear in the area where my mouse sits for my computer. I will be buying a mouse pad to place over this spot, as using my optical mouse has actually started wearing away the color of the veneer to the point that little tan speckles are now visible. The speckles are only visible in this area so it'd definitely from my mouse. Basically, the veneer on the particle board is so low quality that if you were ever cleaning it frequently or doing any other kinds of rubbing on a regular basis, it will start to wear off. That's a big quality issue for a desk top surface where that kind of wear is to be expected.

Well, I probably should have read all the reviews before purchasing this desk! The only reason I've given it two stars instead of one is because the unit, once assembled looks exactly like the picture. That being said the quality of the materials are appalling. Cons: The direction were unclear, it came in a million little pieces, not all the predrilled holes fit the hardware properly so I had to get creative a few times, putting it together was time intensive (and I'm used to putting together ikea stuff which is bad enough) and when we tried to sit it upright all the brackets started to bend! The instructions say to be sure to use two people to move the desk but even having done so it barely made it 20 feet to it's final resting place without completely coming apart. I know it won't make another move. Cheap parts + poor technical design + cheap particle board materials = 2 stars. The Pro - it looks fantastic if you don't look too close at all the bent brackets and chunks of particle board missing. I'm extremely dissapointed. My roommate loves the look of the desk and would have bought one for his room had if it wasn't such a piece of...crap.

I bought this desk directly from Cymax, at a comparable price to Amazon. It comes delivered in a large package that is as tall as the metal frames.Putting this desk together is a real hassle. You will definitely need patience, space, and muscle. It took me two evenings, about 3 hours each evening. The hardest part is screwing the brackets into the metal frames. It takes considerable patience and force to get the screws to agree with the metal holes. Directions were fairly simple, and all of the pieces are labeled clearly and packaged well. All I needed was a screwdriver and pliers.Once completed, the desk is sturdy and looks just like the pictures! I'm very happy with this desk at this price.