Bestar In Style 57400 desk and 57850 printer stand

Canadian furniture maker Bestar was promoting these small home office units from  their In Style collection through Costco. Prior to buying I spoke with a Bestar customer service rep and was assured about modern design, durability, etc., though the fact that it is no longer listed probably means I wasn't the only disappointed with the thin melamine surfaces or the fact that it takes two people to assemble.  (Costco is now selling the much more expensive Aspen collection, which looks to have surfaces of regular thickness and actual drawers, but it seems much more boring - no cool metal tubes supporting the tops and the keyboard tray is the typical ugly black doohickey.)

Obtaining of the products through the Costco web site was easy and curbside delivery was prompt.  The parts arrived in good condition despite some damage to the packaging. 

Assembly - problematic:

The instructions require assembling cabinets around the 3/4" modesty panel, which was extremely inconvenient and require 2 people to handle in order to avoid breaking it.  The easier and more logical way would be to tell the user to separately assemble both cabinets and only then attach the modesty panel.  This would require only one additional hole in the right place, which, alas, was missing.

Pros:

• The countertops are  of a good size and are raised on attractive metal tubes.
• The pull-out keyboard shelf is wide enough to accommodate both  a standard keyboard and a mouse-pad.  Assembly instructions were very clear and informative. Hardware packaging was sufficient.

Cons:

• Absence of toe-kicks means that you'll need a Roomba vacuum to get the dust that collects under the left and right shelves.
• Not very user-friendly: there is no room for media storage - nowhere to place your CDs and DVDs, and there aren't even any drawers.
• Both countertops are ¾" thick and made of melamine, which makes the whole thing look like a cheap dorm-style computer desk.  Not exactly up to the company's mission statement of "produce and distribute mid- to high-end ready to assemble furniture."
• Assembly - what a nightmare.  See below.

Suggestions:

If you do buy this, don't put your computer in the CPU holder on the left, as their picture suggests, since since the airflow will likely not adequate for your computer.  It wasn't for my simple Dell OptiPlex.  Place your computer on the right - on the open lower shelf, though that way you'll waste the top right shelf.

Conclusion:

• Both units need configuration improvement (adding drawers, upgrading the counters to 1” or 1 1/8” thickness and most important-simplifying of the assembly process).
• You get what you pay for, but this may not even be worth the price.

Comments

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The hone office unit as it is names looks very good and I read the components are strong enough to be durable for a long time.It could be a good purchase.

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This setup is ideal for the budget-minded home office shopper. It would be complimented well with a good kneeling desk chair, since the drawers are close together, and a chair like that would fit nicely. Overall very nice.

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