A cute wee bookcase at a bargain price (Argos Beech Baby Bookcase)

Member Name: eilidhcatriona

Product:	Argos Beech Baby Bookcase
Date:	26/05/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great value, easy to assemble, looks good

Disadvantages: Shelf supports are hard to move

Recently while moving flat I realised that I didn't have enough storage for my DVDs. So I went onto the Argos website, as I was planning to order a number of items from there, and had a look. I found that most of the lower-medium priced specific DVD racks were too pricey for what I wanted or just weren't to my taste. Then I came across this under "storage", and thought that at £10.79 that would do the job for me!

I had this delivered along with a number of other items, and delivery was within the allocated time but I do think that Argos saying delivery will be between 7am and 6pm is a bit much. They use Home Delivery Network so I realise that maybe they can't be more exact, but it meant I had to plan to stay at home all day. Delivery was £5.80 regardless of how much I ordered.

The bookcase comes packaged in a narrow box, and is for self assembly. It weighs 13.5kg, so although the size of the box would not be awkward to carry I think I would have struggled with it on the bus home had I gone to the shop to buy it - no problem with a car though, and it would take up next to no space in the boot so you could buy loads of other stuff on the same shopping trip!

The instructions that come with the bookcase are very easy to follow, although they do say at every stage that "Asking someone to help you would be a good idea at this point". At no point did I think it would be easier to assemble if someone was helping me! The assembly is incredibly easy. You need a Philipps screwdriver and a hammer. You put the frame of the case together with wooden dowels and screws, and then nail the back in place (all these are provided). Make sure you get the back straight as I had to pull out the second nail because it was squint!!!

Once assembled, the bookcase is nice and sturdy and an excellent size (82.5cm high, 65cm wide and 16.5cm deep). There are two shelves to insert. The shelf supports are good quality metal with rubber coverings, and you choose the height of the shelves yourself. A word of warning - once you push the supports in, they are very hard to pull back out (I had to use the pulling end of a hammer once I realised I had it wrong) so make sure you are sure about where you want them! Once you slide the shelves in on top of the supports they are wedged in very securely and unlikely to move if the bookcase is knocked.

I am absolutely delighted with my little bookcase. So delighted in fact, that I went straight back online and ordered another! Now I have two and they both look great. I have them filled with DVDs and books, including some hardbacks, and they are not wobbly or sagging from weight. The only issue with size is that I wanted to put some larger size hardbacks in one, but in order to make one shelf high enough for that, I would have had another shelf space too small to stand either DVDs or small paperbacks up in so they would have had to lie on their sides. That was when I decided to rearrange and had problems with the shelf supports...

Quality wise, I really can't fault this. I've never bought solid wood furniture but I have bought more expensive wood-effect bookcases in the past, and I can see no difference between the quality of them and this mini bookcase. The only possible gripe would be that the back panel is not one sheet, it is made up of 4 panels held together on the outside by what appears to be brown parcel tape. But once it is assembled you can't see the tape and you can barely even tell it is not one panel, so that would not be a complaint from me!

This bookcase is outstanding value for money, and ideal for a small space or even if you just don't want a larger lumbering bookcase taking up space! These are small and light coloured and really very nice.

Summary: What a bargain!