Houseware Reviews

I felt I took a chance buying this board with no picture and no reviews to tell me if it was good, or if it was what I wanted. Well, I was pleasantly surprised, it was exactly what I wanted. It has non-slip gripper pads on each corner to keep it up off the counter, and to keep it securely in place. It has a very large cutting area (almost too big for my counter space), even with the grooves around the edges to capture juices. It is very sturdy and made of a nice quality wood. Overall a very nice and inexpensive board.

I was somewhat disappointed with this product. It was difficult to put together because the pre-drilled holes did not match up very well. One spot I could not get to screw in at all. The wine rack is designed poorly. If you barely bump into the table all of the wine bottles come crashing down. I lost a really nice ceramic bowl that was sitting on the bottom shelf. The shipping took forever and the box looked like it was dropped out of the plane at 30,000 feet.

I'm very pleased with the Maple Kitchen Center. For some time, I've been looking for a kitchen island that wouldn't bust my budget, but that was a well-made piece of furniture. This seems to be it.

It's a convenient height and size, with nice extra features like a wine rack, two drawers (with dovetail joints and full extension hinges), and a bottom shelf. The solid maple construction makes it a very sturdy and substantial piece of furniture (weighing in at 106 lbs).

My only complaint (and the reason for 4 stars instead of 5) was that when I unpacked it I discovered that one corner of the wine rack had come unglued (the wine rack is constructed of 4 glued butt-joints). I don't know if this was a flaw from the factory or a result of rough treatment during shipping (the box was in pretty bad shape when it arrived); however, it was an easy fix...I just used some of the supplied wood glue (for use on the wood plugs for the bolt holes) and clamped it over night.

Overall the assembly was very easy, taking about 30-45 minutes from start to finish. All the parts were there and everything fit like it was supposed to.

...Anyway, once I got it I am very pleased with it. However, putting it together wasn't that easy. I had to resort to the trusty old "butter knife" to put some of the screws in because the holes are in such difficult locations (in-between the wine rack and the top piece) that you can't get a screwdriver in-between them to screw it down. It is very well made and solid wood. A really nice piece. I'm happy with in and am glad I ordered it, even with all the problems, and there were many, that I had to go through to get it.

This stool, albeit well-made, is DEFINITELY not made from cherry. Maple or birch would be my guess. If you want a cherry stool to match cherry cabinetry, bypass this stool and look elsewhere.