Country Pine Series 132-Bottle Open Diamond Cubes Wine Rack

Comments about Country Pine Series 132-Bottle Open Diamond Cubes Wine Rack:

Fully assembled, this wine rack is quite stable and works as advertised. I bought it to improve the capacity and functionality of my modest wine cellar in the basement. It is not elegant, which is obvious in the photo on the website. Perhaps in a kind of rustic decor it could be used in a living area, but to me the best use is out of sight, to safely store a lot of wine in an accessible way in a limited space. This rack was fun to put together. I like woodworking on a limited scale and this was perfect. Basic operations were required, and the hard stuff is done for you. The lumber is properly aged and not a trace of warping. The slots in the end pieces all accommodated the shelves without being forced. I had intended to make a rack very much like this starting from scratch. Then I saw this on Hayneedle and decided to give myself a break and skip the hard parts. I'm glad I did. That said, this rack is not for everyone. The web site says "Normal household tools such as a drill and/or screwdriver will be needed to complete the installation." Well, yes and no. The screws provided have some kind of odd, football shaped slot, neither a straight slot nor a Phillips head. I tried a Phillips head screwdriver and it did not work so well. They provide a key for a rachet wrench with the appropriate shaped end piece to turn the screws. It works fine, but of course you need the rachet wrench. Is this a common household item? Not sure. Not a bad thing to have around though, and you can pick one up cheap enough, so I would say don't let this stop you from buying this unit. The brochure with the unit is oddly written. It does not actually instruct you to drill the required holes. It just says that this is a fine wood, but even fine woods will split if you don't drill a hole for the screw. Well, OK. I drilled. It's not difficult if you have a power drill. I have one I bought at [@] in 1980 that is still going strong, so no problem. But why be so coy with the instructions? Overall, I like a small, manageable challenge, especially when it turns out I can overcome it. So it was a good day. But be forewarned, this is not an Ikea shelf unit. For the unadvertised challenges in putting this unit together, I deducted one star.