It is made of wood (not composite board), but that wood is laminated with a white vinyl finish, not painted. One of my pieces came with three parallel slits in the laminate that would face out and front. I requested a replacement on the manufacturer's website on a Sunday afternoon and the piece arrived by Priority Mail on Wednesday. The top is lacquered wood, so you will want a cutting board any time you use a knife during prep work. It was well packed--the defective piece went into the box that way. Assembly is always the hard part with this sort of furniture. It was harder than good Ikea pieces and not as hard as the worst I've done over many years. It looks nice when assembled.
Make sure you have Goo Gone and some soft paper towels at hand because all the pieces have sticky labels. Goo Gone will remove the glue but not harm the laminate. Other solvents are deadly for laminate.
The instructions are almost all pictures with a few cautionary words here and there. Caution: don't use a power screwdriver. I have arthritis in my hands, and I have a cordless power drill/screwdriver with 22 torque settings. Using the lowest setting VERY slowly I was successful--but you do this at your own risk. My hands are too weak on their own.
Some of the screws are nearly impossible to set, even with the power tool, because the holes are not drilled deep enough. The parts list distinguishes between the two slightly different crossbars called 2 and 2(i). It fails to distinguish between the differences in the two crossbars numbered 3: the one with two grooves should be called 3(i). Get a rubber mallet and also an old towel as a cushion to use under each crossbar when you find that you must hammer in the pins.
The other caution is not to tighten the eight bolts that hold the side panels to the cross bars. Insufficient instructions! You should tighten the bottom four well enough to allow you to insert the casters and set the partly assembled cart upright on the floor. The upper four should be less tight. They illustrate putting both the base and mid panels in place at the same time before inserting the casters. Don't do it. Put the base panel in and also the bottom back panel, then tighten the bottom bolts enough to hold the base panel in place. Then the casters go in (rubber mallet help here) and the cart can stand up.
You now may even need to loosen the upper cross bar (the one to which you have already attached the door magnets). Being able to rotate this crossbar a good bit is ESSENTIAL to getting the doors on. Otherwise, you'll never have the clearance to get the hinges in place.
Re-orient the upper crossbar and tighten the bolts enough to hold the doors in place. Insert the mid panel and the upper back panel. NOW tighten all eight bolts to final position. The two side panels of the have an UP and a DOWN (look at the hole spacing) that is not labeled anywhere! Put the drawer together carefully because you must get all the screws lined up with their predrilled holes. Don't tighten any screws until all of them have been properly started. The knife rack is just a little slit between the edge of the top and the outside of the box you attach.
The main problem and the weakest link in this assembly is attaching the top. You have to align holes on the UNDER side of the top with holes in the support bars (that you attached to the side panels way back in the beginning), then set screws from BENEATH the support bars up into the top. But the drawer guides are in your way--I had no choice but to take them off. AND, there is simply not enough working room to screw in the rear screws all the way. You cannot leave any of the four screws sticking out because they will prevent the drawer from going onto its glides and and/or from pushing all the way in. I had to go buy shorter screws--none that I had on hand was the right size. Catskill Craftsmen really need to rethink how this assembly works!!!!
I bought this cart because Catskill makes some really nice hardwood carts and this one was inexpensive. The site is not explicit that this cart is not hardwood, it is fiberboard laminated with a white material. The site said it is a lacquer finish but that implies a painted finish, not a laminate. The top is wood. The rest is not.
That said, it is a very well made sturdy cart. I only cried once when putting it together.
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So, after a grueling early evening of tennis, I sat myself down to assemble this 63 lb flat pack cart, anticipating a multihour ordeal as per some of the previous reviews. All in all, took maybe outside of an hour, and the instructions were fairly clear. If you've put together one flatpack item, you've put together them all. Shipping was a breeze, and it arrived mostly intact, with just some of the interior styrofoam lining broken. All pieces were wrapped in foam wrap and arrived in excellent condition, each piece numbered.
So, as any good assembler & follower of instructions, I unpacked everything and laid it all out, counted the pieces, and got to assembling. The only problem I could see with the instructions is some of the pieces need to be oriented in a specific direction that is of the two number whatevers, one of them is meant to be mounted on the right, and one on the left. THIS IS WHY YOU DO NOT TIGHTEN THINGS UNTIL FULLY ASSEMBLED.
Attaching the top was also kind of awkward, as if you're using a power drill, you'll need an extended bit, or number 18, the bottom guide of the drawer will get in the way. Problem solved by removing #18 (which they tell you to install in the first step), attaching the top, and then re-attaching 18. Easy peasy.
Everything seems solidly assembled when complete, the unit is a bit smaller than I anticipated (SHOULD HAVE MEASURED), but it fits well in our space and is a great value. Two of the coasters lock, and I accidentally installed them on opposite corners, but no big deal there any way you install two locking coasters of 4, its going to stay in place.
One warning I would give is that I don't think the drop leaf is meant to support someone leaning on it, eg a breakfast bar type situation. The supports that extend out from underneath the top are galvanized steel, and very securely held in place, but I still have my apprehensions.
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This was exactly what we were looking for. Sturdy, small enough to fit in our space, with a drop leaf for a breakfast bar or more serving/prep space.
It works well. Although we will not be using the knife block due to a 9 month old in the house and on the floor!
However, the assembly instructions were terrible and unclear. One would have thought this would happen from something manufactured in a different country not one in the good ol' US of A. And when I mean awful, it took my mom (since I was watching the baby) hours yes that is right hours to put this together and she is a pretty savvy woman, usually has no problem with assembling baby items (if you have kids you know what hell that is) and other flatpac furniture! The diagrams were unclear and it took several trials to figure what parts went where when we were assembling the cart.
I would encourage the company have someone they pull off the street who is completely unassociated with them and has no engineering degree or carpentry experience assemble this and make notes where they need more detailed drawings or clarification to make this a less painful experience.
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It wasn't as hard as expected since we read all of the reviews. The key was to install part #18 (drawer slide) after the top is installed. After laying all the parts on the rug, and digging out a cross-point screw driver and my own allen wrenches it on lt took us 1.5 hours....and that's two of us doing it "without disagreement or in-depth discussion." Just need to use a little logic and vision while assembeling. If you rely purely on the picture instructions it may take longer ....I don't know. But without the instructions the assembly would have taken much longer I believe.
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It's big, it's beautiful and it the smell reminds me of the beach! the straw mats you lay on It is thick and heavy and sturdy.....love the two tone. Just hand wash (and if you have hard water dry with a cloth right away) and keep some bamboo oil on hand and your set for a loooong time! :)
