****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Update January 2016: after 15 months of regular use, and never actually having gotten around to anchoring it, I can safely say I am thrilled with this purchase - stood up to heavy use, looks good, functional. I never use the "bench" for sitting, but have a basket on it for mittens/gloves/misc. stuff and put my purse there when I come in. However, one important note - this is NOT the same design currently being sold looking at the more recent reviews and pictures. The current version doesn't sound/look anywhere near as stable; I can only speak for the one on sale in autumn 2014.Original review October 2014: I was really worried when I picked up the box this was delivered in and felt how light it was. How sturdy would this thing be? So far, so good. I have to drill holes in the wall to get the anchors set up, but right now we're only storing light-weight coats on it so not much tipping risk yet. With winter coming in New England, with LOTS of heavy outerwear in sight, I definitely plan to anchor it to be safe. It's well designed for anchoring at least!I was also worried when I looked at the directions, such as they are. Definitely could have used a magnifying glass to read a few spots (and they're laid out like this:Step 1 Step 2 Step 5 Step 6Step 3 Step 4 Step 7 Step 8So I got kind of confused trying to go from 2 to 5 before I realized not to read straight across. Minor thing, but just poor layout. The pieces were all well labeled (with stickers that removed easily, phew!), and fit together just right. There were a few places the directions could have been more clear but as someone with very little ability to visualize how things fit together, I still found it easy enough. Was done in under 30 minutes, including taking everything out of the individual wrapping (excellent, nothing was scratched in transit).The only real problem I had is with the last step, which is inserting screws through holes on the top shelf of the frame up to hold the bench in place. Fully inserted, the screw tips didn't even come close to the bottom of the bench. Not sure if they sent me the wrong size screws or this is just a weird design flaw, but it made no sense to me. Luckily the bench is pretty much staying in place on the flat shelf it sits on, so I can just slide it back as needed. If it really starts to slip, I'll adhere it somehow.One final note on assembly: the instructions recommended starting with power tools than tightening by hand. I don't touch power tools and this was all easily assembled and tightened firmly by hand, except the anchoring. I need to find someone with a drill to help me with that, but otherwise, easy peasy!I'll start by saying I do have it assembled and in place, but it was not a simple assembly job. It was a construction and reconstruction job to fix the problems and put it together.The unit is "made" in China. "Partially made" would be more accurate. The assembly was going fine, with the bench portion assembled easily when I reached the two upright posts - the ones the crosswise coat rack pieces attach to - and found on one of these two posts the HOLES WERE NOT DRILLED. One of those posts had the necessary holes to screw it to the coat rack, the other post wasn't finished, they had not put the screw holes in. Zero points for quality control!Another reviewer here mentioned this happening, too, so it's not a fluke. If you order this you stand a good chance of a severely defective unit arriving.Had this happened earlier in assembly, I would have packaged it up and sent it back. But I figured the work to take the rest apart, package it up, go through the return process, and send it back would take as long or longer than trying to fix it. So I took the good post and the bad post out to the garage, duct taped them together so I could get the hole alignment right, and drilled holes in the other post. If you do this, bear in mind, you're going to have metal shards and more ragged edges than the factory-drilled holes will have.There were other joining screws throughout the unit that seemed not to have been drilled out properly, either, but they weren't as critical, so I let those go. With the coat rack screws drilled out, I was able to complete the assembly.Mounting to the wall is not optional. The unit is too flimsy and wobbly to stand up with the weight up high from coats on the hooks. It also is unlikely to sit flat on all four legs as even the factory-drilled holes in the bench portion aren't accurate enough to have it sit correctly. As the upright post I was sent, as well as not having holes drilled, also lacked the wall-mount portion the other side had, I improvised again, mounting the unit right to a stud on one side (drilling right through the frame) and to the baseboard on the other side.Thus, after far more effort than should have been required, it is assembled, up, fitting my narrow space neatly (which is why I got this one) and doing its job. And looks quite good. You'd never know what a potential mess it started out to be.As to the unit's function... The coat racks are quite low relative to the 'bench' portion (I would not recommend sitting on it other than, perhaps, lightweight children). A hoodie jacket cannot be hung by the hood as such a jacket is too long to clear the bench. That must be a VERY short coat they show in the photo. The bottom row of hooks are of minimal value for hanging anything you want to get to easily as the coats and such on the the upper road will cover them completely.This coat rack is half the price of any similar option I found, so as you can imagine it isn't the highest quality one out there. You basically screw together some metal poles and attach a seat. That said, we weren't looking for anything fancy. We just need to hang our coats and sit down to put on our shoes. It fits our needs perfectly.It was not too difficult to put together, but it helped to have an extra set of hands (and a screwdriver - not included). The only problem we had is that one of the brackets to screw the seat down had broken off in shipping, but since we were still able to screw the three other corners in it doesn't affect anything. Hardware to fasten to the wall is included, but we opted against it for now. We've had it for a few weeks and it holds our two heavy coats, various sweaters, reusable grocery bags, and purse with no problem. If we had more than two people in the household or had kids around we would probably want to fasten it.I put a basket for gloves and hats on one of the shelves and we can still fit 4 or 5 pairs of shoes on which definitely helps clear up the entry way. I sit on the bench to put my boots on - although the seat isn't overly large to begin with and the coats hang over it, so I have to push them back to sit down. It isn't a big deal, but something to be aware of if you plan on hanging a lot of bulky coats. Overall this is working out really well for us - glad I got it!
