International Concepts Mission Printer Stand, Unfinished

I have an International Concepts International Concepts 647 Mission Printer Stand, Unfinished and two International Concepts BJ6TD Mission Tall End Table(s), Unfinished, both from Amazon. I am writing the same review for the two different items (same company) because I was wavering between which things to order, and other potential buyers may doing the same thing, so you may like to have both discussed.I ordered the printer stand first and was pretty pleased with it, so I ordered two night stands/end tables.One night stand/end table went together fine, but the other *did not at all*. It came with two left sides, so the drawer and another piece cannot go in. The night stands/end tables were a little more sloppily drilled than the printer stand, and the 1/8-inch plywood for the back was slightly damaged. The printer stand is a simpler piece of furniture. You may want to predrill the shelf screws on the printer stand after you get it all together, or you can probably get away with no screws on the middle shelf of the printer stand it you don’t move it or move things on it. It helps to screw these things together loosely before tightening everything up.It helps to read all the reviews, especially if you want to stain these things (some areas may have glue on them that do not take up stain the same as the rest of the wood, or not at all). I used minwax wipe-on poly on the horizontal surfaces and watco danish oil on the rest, and it looks pretty good. I plan to do the same for the other item.These items are solid rubberwood/parawood. This is a relatively hard, very light-colored wood. It has a variable grain. Sometimes the grain has a gray ash color. Hopefully you know what this looks like before you buy it. They are pretty heavy, solid. Obviously these are inexpensive for solid wood furniture, so don’t expect high-end quality. Then there is the potential staining issue (see other reviews).If I had not been shipped the wrong pieces, I would have rated the nights stands more highly. I was thinking about ordering other things made by International Concepts, but I worry about being sent the wrong parts again sending the heavy thing back.

By reading the reviews you can get a sense of the merchandise and how others respond. I found this piece very well packed with many major pieces already connected, leaving just minor connections which took maybe 10 minutes except drilling the small holes for the middle shelf and turning it back upside down to screw the 4 small wood screws in the very hard wood. Now that it is together, I will disassemble so to stain it with the water based General Finishes stain and then top coat also sold on Amazon. A neighbor after doing research, stumbled across the General Finishes products and just did his kitchen cabinets in Java and they are fantastic. He also recommended using the Painters Pyramids which I already have, as you need at least two packages of them to do all of your finish work very easily and professionally.All in all, this is a very good all solid hardwood printer stand especially for the price. Like others, I was missing washers and called the toll free number and they will be sending them out. In the meantime I used SS washers to put it together just to get the four small holes drilled as mentioned above and to be sure it was level and plumb. Although it comes very well sanded, prb enough to paint as is, but with a good stain and then a professional top coat, sanding is indeed necessary for a proper finish. Just a 220 grit pad should be fine, and further sanding will not be necessary with the water based stains and the recommended professional top coat. The videos on General Finishes website are very good and instructional. I decided to purchase this inexpensive smaller piece to determine overall quality prior to buying the more elaborate cabinets with doors as I will now look forward to getting based upon this experience. I have other furniture that is "Rubberwood" and it is rather heavy but very durable and long lasting as it seems to take paint and stain very well. It will not dent nor scratch in day to day activities and use as does pine and other soft woods. All in all, this is way above dealing with that extremely heavy MDF and particle board stuff especially when you can finish the products in matching colors that are far superior to even store bought furniture! Plus it takes much more time to find what you are looking for in a furniture store and you will more than likely end up with MDF with cheap veneers, than shopping on Amazon and finding just what you want. This brand has extensive selections readily available also.