Gabin Chest of 5 Drawers natural LA REDOUTE INTERIEURS

Assembling this chest of drawers was problematic. The plastic pouches for the fixings were clearly labelled and 90% correct. A couple of pouches had letters on them that didn't marry up with where they should have been. I would have preferred if they were packaged into the relevant stages of the assembly.

Some of the holes for the dowels were too loose and therefore the dowels fell out easily. I guess that is down to the nature of the solid wood. Indeed you did not need a hammer.

On page 4 of the instructions, step 4 is labelled 'x2' - with no indication of where the second item 8 slots into the assembly.

The wooden slats, items 5 through 10 are far to similar and even for a design for manufacture and assembly engineer and flat pack connoisseur, it was a bit of a struggle to work out which was which. It would be easier to either label them or make them slightly more unique.

Step 13 of the assembly, the provided screws are not self tapping as they should be, given this the heads of the screws are now damaged, which will affect disassembly - which will in fact be far easier overall for this particular product, than the IKEA Hemnes drawers they're replacing.

The finish is indeed far better than some other equivalents in the price range, the wood is great. Some of the type A and Type B fittings as labelled are little temperamental and don't clamp as well as perhaps IKEA or Made.com furniture. I think this is perhaps down to the jigging and warping of the wood during shipping (same issue with the dowels).

Shipping was excellent and the overall quality is also excellent. Just would love to redesign the assembly book for La Redoute - maybe even audit all their designs.

A very nice looking chest of drawers. It arrived quickly and, while the construction was a little involved, it went together easy enough. I am a little concerned about how the top piece fixes on, as I feel it is a little fragile. I guess it's fine if you pick a place in the room and leave it there, but I worry that it'll come away eventually if I need to move the unit from the position it's in. I'm not certain it'll stand the test of time.

Easy to assemble but looks cheap and not worth the money.

Really well made item which was easy to put together. instructions were easy to follow and the finished product looks stunning. Will be buying more from here in the future.