Powell Woodbury Mahogany Bed Step with Storage, Information, Lightly Distressed Woodbury Mahogany, 20 x 17.75 x 17.25

This is for my handicapped wife for whom getting into and out of a high antique bed is a challenge. I read the reviews - stupidly AFTER I ordered the product - and was expecting an assembly disaster. Not so. First, I have had worse assembly nightmares such as having to re-drill a brass safety grab-bar because the pieces didn't fit. What one must remember is that these furniture kits are not cut kit-by-kit. The pieces are cut and finished after which they roll down an assembly line where they are wrapped and packaged for shipping. There is no guarantee beyond the tooling jigs used to cut the pieces that they will fit as well as a piece of custom or manufactured furniture. You need to make allowances for that. Also, you need to be careful to follow the instructions exactly. I made a small error in orienting a piece and when I discovered it I had to disassemble the whole thing and re-assemble it to make it fit. That was a real pain but it was a self-inflicted wound.The peg and screw assembly is very solid and rigid. The pegs orient the pieces and give it solidity while the screws hold it together. I have no complaints and, at 190 pounds, I found it stable and steady. I'm 76 years old and I did not find this much of a challenge. I spend my days with computers, not furniture, so I came to this project - about 2 hours - with no special skills.

It is beautifully finished; however, I had to order a different one in order for me to get into bed

I definitely have a mixed opinion of this product. On the one hand the overall look of the piece is very nice and it seems sturdy enough, although only time will tell if it holds up over the years.As others have noted, this is a kit with many pieces and assembly is far from trivial. The shapes are awkward and one has to experiment and make repeated tries to figure out how to position and hold the pieces during assembly. The instructions say all that you need is a phillips screwdriver, but that is misleading. For one thing, you had better have an unusually short phillips screwdriver because in some cases you have to tighten a fastener from the inside of the steps in confined spaces. I also needed a rubber mallet to help coax some of the parts together. The fastener system could have been designed much better. I've assembled kit furniture before and most use hardware that can be fastened securely with an L-shaped hex-head wrench which is included free in the parts bag. I think the finished item is sturdy enough to be safe to use, but it could have been made stronger with better design. The instructions are the wordless exploded-view diagram type, but the diagrams were clear enough I didn't have any trouble figuring out how the parts were supposed to go together.By the way, the parts bag has zero spares, so if you lose or break something, you are in trouble. As other reviewers have noted, the hardware does not appear to be made of good hardened steel. The metal screws have to be screwed in fully for the parts to go together, but I had a screw head snap off when tightening it. And no, I'm not someone with gorilla strength, just an ordinary guy. In my case the screw was fully inserted when the head broke off, so I was lucky.One of the trickier parts is holding the top step while securing it with four tiny screws that secure it to the hinges. I'm not sure the holes were perfectly aligned and in any try as I may I could not get all four screws to go in completely flush. As a result the hinge binds just a little and the top step doesn't like completely flat.My bottom line is that if I had to buy another bed stool, I would look elsewhere. This product wasn't all that cheap, especially when you factor in the time and frustration spent assembling it. Not a good value in my opinion.

I wanted a stool that looked like furniture and this filled the bill. I use it to get to a high shelf in a closet. The small storage space under the upper step is just the right size for those annoying hangers that seem to collect around the closet. Now I know where to go when I need one. The steps arrives 8 or 9 pieces, and putting it together is reasonably straight forward if you lay out all the pieces and read the instructions. The packing was thoughtful, with all parts stacked on top of one another and supported.The finish was flawless with one exception. The reason I gave it a 4 and not a 5 is that there was a one inch chink in the veneer out of one section. Since the packing was so good, it looked to me like a fault in the manufacturing process. Unfortunately the defect in the finish was not visible until I had the unit mostly put together. When I called to see if the company would replace this one section, I was told they would not and to get an undamaged piece, I would have to disassemble the entire unit and send it back to them for an entirely new unit. I thought this was unreasonable, as the unit was very heavy and some of the assembly appeared to be one direction screw devices. I decided to keep the unit and cover the defect with furniture color treatment. I've had it for six months and it remains a solid base for reaching the high shelf. A caution, while it is generally stable, you can tip it if you lean too far to the left or right and reach over your head.

I read several reviews before purchasing that mentioned cheap hardware and hoped it was just a rare occurrence. On receipt, first, second, third and fourth cam screws disintegrated as I turned them. Those that did not break did not hold, permitting assembled pieces to shift. Ran to hardware store and replaced all 8 cam screws. With decent hardware, it came right together and looks beautiful. Quality sturdy piece that will easily hold 250 pounds, if you use decent hardware. Another star lost for minor cosmetic damage to one of the sides, another common problem.