SauderPalladia Lateral File, L: 36.81" x W: 22.01" x H: 29.62", Select Cherry

Positives?Shipping: Too often over the years I have received furniture in boxes that look like they had been in a plane, boat, or car that crashed. There are huge holes torn in the boxes and tops missing. So it's no surprise to find the furniture inside has damage to corners, etc. That leads to wasted time getting replacements from the seller. Not so with this box from Sauder. Extra sturdy cardboard corner pieces protected the unit inside--so that everything was pristine when the box was opened.Assembly instructions. I have assembled many pieces of furniture over the years. Too often the instructions are poorly written, featuring illustrations that do little good. I had gotten so frustrated by this, that I had vowed not to buy any more furniture that needed assembly. Until I priced wood lateral file cabinets in local furniture stores. Yikes! The prices quoted made me faint. So I searched anew for something more reasonable in cost and hoped I could get it assembled.The instructions for this unit eased my fears. My daughter helped with the first stages of assembly, and both of us noted how the instructions walked us through the many steps ever-so-carefully. These instructions were obviously written by someone adept in English--someone who also had a sense of humor! Since the instructions covered so many pages, at various stages the writer suggested taking a well-deserved break, getting a beverage, or--at the end--congratulating yourself by writing a review. The illustrations were drawn with meticulous attention to detail. I have never--never assembled a unit that had such well-organized, written and illustrated instructions. Kudos to the technical writer!The unit itself is solid in construction and well-designed. It has a feature that only allows one cabinet drawer to be open at a time, so the unit won't tip over. The drawer glides are solid (good quality metal and not flimsy plastic). Plus the glides allow each drawer to open fully. So no more will I scrape my hands trying to extract a file out of the back of a drawer. The cabinet is very attractive and will be a welcome-addition to the office I am setting up in my new home.Negatives? Assembly will take some time. This unit has extra decorative pieces which add to the assembly time. So budget your time accordingly and perhaps line up a friend or family member to help you.The unit is heavy--all press-board furniture is. So you may need a helper to get the box into the house and into the room where you want it. After it is assembled, you may need a helper to reposition it in your room.But, the positives far, far outweigh the negatives. Especially when I saw the finished product and thought, "This cost about 1/3 of the finished pieces I priced in furniture stores! $500 bucks saved? Hmm, I might reward myself with another German beverage, right after submitting this review."

After reading several reviews I was reluctant to purchase the Sauder Palladia lateral cabinet but am now very glad I did. Primarily reviewer concerns appeared to be centered around poor packaging causing damage in shipping, terrible assembly instructions, and poor quality once assembled. I found none of this to be true with my purchase. While the shipping box was slightly torn by UPS, the contents were adequately packed and protected so that none of the parts experienced any damage during shipping. Admittedly the assembly instructions could have been a bit more detailed, but if you've ever assembled any other modular furniture these instructions are by far Not the worst I've ever seen. Total assembly time took about 2 1/2 hours which I think is typical for an item such as this. And once assembled it's a fine looking piece of Modular furniture for $200 and change. Yes, you'll be disappointed if you're expecting something of the quality from a fine-furniture manufacturer such as Drexel, but you'll never find a Drexel file cabinet for $200. That said, my basis for comparison is with the Saunder Heritage Hill lateral file cabinet, also found on Amazon, and which I purchased 6-7 years ago for about $25 less than the Palladia. The difference between the two is significant with the Palladia being of much, much higher quality. The sides, top, base and drawers of the Palladia are much thicker, sturdier and better finished than those of the Heritage Hill and is well worth the $25 difference in price. As a matter of fact the Heritage Hill became wobbly and flimsy within 3-4 years of use, and the top began to sag after a few years of the Officejet printer sitting on top of it. But because of the sturdiness, better quality of materials and better finish of the Palladia I don't expect the same to happen with it. Bottom line I am very, very pleased with my purchase of the Palladia and definitely recommend it. Based on my experience with similar file cabinets in this price point of $200-$225 you can't beat it.

Can take a bit to assemble but it is sturdy and very pretty. I'm a retired engineer and shop teacher, so I'm comfortable with tools. The instructions are well done with each step clearly labelling what hardware should be used and how many of each. The parts are all clearly labeled, especially the hardware which has separate plastic pockets for each type, clearly labelled. Even so, the first one I did took over three hours, and the second about 2 hours and 15 minutes.Some comments on the instructions: Step 5 & 6 threw me for a loop but they really DO want you to set up everything in those two holes (step 5), add the safety track, and then abandon the holes and put it into the groove (step 6). Keep a careful eye on which way you should attach the slides in Step 7 as it's easy to get confused. A change I would make is I would do steps 10-16 with the unit on its top (as it is in step 9) so you are not fighting gravity, though it should work either way. I put a blanket on the floor to protect the top while I did that.The only reason I took a star away is that I'm not thrilled with how the drawer fronts are attached. Time will tell if it's really a problem. To get the drawers lined up evenly in the space can be a little fussy. You have to slightly loosen the four screws going through the plastic drawer front supports, adjust it up or down and then tighten them up again.I'm very happy with how solid the piece is, and it looks great. I hope my suggestions on the instructions help.

The quality of this product exceeds my expectations for the price paid. It took a few hours to assemble, but once completed, it looks great in my home office. This turned out to be a great value for a nicely designed filing cabinet.