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PRODUCT REVIEWS
"DO-IT-YOURSELF" or "RTA"
(Ready To Assemble Computer Furniture)
The following excerpt and RTA reviews are from an article in the Jan. 1996 issue of
Home Office Computing Magazine, (a publication we highly recommend),
entitled "No-Frills Furniture" written by Marilyn Zelinsky Syarto, the
senior editor of Interiors, a magazine for architects and interior designers,
located in New York City.
"It's Cheap, But Is It Easy? To Find Out We Spent A Long Day Assembling "Do-It-Yourself
Desks". The desk of your dreams might come in a box--at least, the desk of your budget
probably does. But what will the low price cost you in terms of time and frustration? Too
often, you don't find out how difficult "easy-to-assemble" furniture is until you're
surrounded with a million little pieces that don't fit together. To save you the
headaches, [Home Office Computing's] editor-in-chief Bernadette Grey and business manager
Steve Palm--who both admit to having limited construction skills--spent the day at
Bernadette's house putting together desks from Anthro, Ikea, O'Sullivan, and
Rubbermaid. (Sauder, one of the nations's largest manufacturers of do-it-yourself
furniture, sent a computer armoire, but it was too complicated to assemble within our time
frame). The day turned out to be a marathon of physical labor. But with a little teamwork
(and a lot of aspirin), we prevailed. Here's how well the four companies delivered.
Rubbermaid's SnapEase Desk
The desk is 30" high by 28" deep by 46" wide and
features a keyboard drawer with storage bins. The desk is available in black and eggshell
white and is constructed of steel-reinforced plastic. 800-827-5055. Retail Price:
$315 Ease of Assembly: Excellent Assembly time: 30 minutes Tool required:
None Quality of material: Excellent, if you like plastic Style:
Contemporary Strengths: The instructions are easy to understand and assembly is
painless. The unit is lightweight and has rounded corners. Weaknesses: Although
the material is close to indestructible, the design is unattractive. The desk doesn't
have drawers and seems small for a primary workstation.
Ikea's Kurs Desk
The Kurs desk is 60 1/2" high by 27 1/2 " deep by 43 1/2 " wide
and has three drawers. The hutch features four compartments of various sizes (one has a
door). The unit is constructed of particleboard with an oak veneer finish and is also
available in white or black lacquer. 410-931-8940, 818-912-1119. Retail price:
$249. Ease of assembly: Fair Assembly time: Two hours and 10 minutes.
Tool required: Allen wrench (included), various screw-drivers, a hammer, and pliers
(to pull apart mistakes) Quality of material: Fair Style: Goes with a
contemporary or traditional decor Strengths: The desk's scale is great for a small
space. Once assembled, the unit held strong even when Bernadette and Steve jumped on the
desktop. Weaknesses: The illustrated instruction sheet may look simple but it isn't
practical for assembly. In fact, Steve said that the instructions were "intrinsic
heiroglyphics that only someone from Ikea would understand." Drawer frames are constructed
from flimsy plastic and can't take much weight. The wood crumbled when dowels were hit
hard with a hammer during assembly.
Anthro's Compacta Computer Cart
The 56" high by 24" deep by 48" wide workstation is tubular in design and has one shelf and
a slide-out keyboard tray. Made of 45-pound, industrial-grade particleboard that's been
finished with scratch-resistant laminate, the shelf and work surfaces are one-inch thick
and have vinyl T-molded edges. Support tubes are made of 18-gauge steel with a baked-on
powder-coat finish. 800-325-3841. Retail price: $199. Ease of assembly"
Excellent Assembly time: One hour Tools required: Custom-design screwdrive
(included) Quality of material: Excellent Style: Contemporary
Strengths: Design is attractive and child safe. Smooth, rolling and lockable
casters makes it easy to move the unit around. The desk is fully height adjustable and
very sturdy. Shelves move up and down in one-inch increments. Weaknesses: The flat
black coating on the metal legs scratches easily.
O'Sullivan's Computer Workcenter
Model # 61732 features a lockable, left-hand, underdesk CPU cabinet, a file drawer, and a
pullout keyboard tray with a built-in keyboard organizer. The unit measures 48" high by 23
1/2" deep by 53 1/2" wide and is made from particleboard with a laminate finish. The hutch
features various-size shelves and compartments for supplies. There's also a small lockable
cabinet. 800-327-9782. Retail price: $329. Ease of assembly: Poor
Assembly time: Close to three hours (with the help of three other people) Tools
required: Flat-blade and Phillips screwdrivers, hammer, glue (included), two
custom-designed wrenches (included). Quality of material: Poor Style:
Traditional Strengths: The deep file drawer is easy to assemble because it folds
like a box. Each piece of wood is stamped with a letter that corresponds to a letter on
the instruction sheet, making assembly less of a puzzle. The built-in keyboard organizer is
a handy accessory. Weaknesses: The unit has too many parts--69 in all, including 11
types of screws. After two hours of frustration, we called O'Sulllivan's toll-free
assembly-assistance number and were told that it takes "a really, really long time to put
[the unit] together." When we claimed that we were missing screws, the customer service
representative told us that we'd have to wait a week for replacements.
Sauder Computer Armoire
Reprinted from above: Sauder, one of the nation's largest manufacturers of
do-it-yourself furniture, sent a computer armoire, but it was too complicated to assemble
within our time frame.
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