Side by Side Comparison of: Sauder vs Monarch Specialties

It was exactly as advertised... And after a couple of afternoons, was ready for use, and a very acceptable, functional piece of furniture.
I would not have purchased it for a "full-size home", but it fits nicely in my apartment sized bedroom; and the price was right...

No assembly problems.. Instructions are very explicit for anyone who can read... Hint: An accurate, torque controlled screwdriver is highly recommended for assembly of any "mock-wood" project... Mine is "The Fat Wrench" from Wheeler Engineering; primarily a gunsmithing tool, but for anything requiring repeatable torque settings.. -pp

The table looks sturdy and aesthetically pleasing for the price! Instructions were easy to follow. Problem was that we received the table with a damaged part and a missing screw -- both being addressed by a quick chat with Sauder customer support. It was pretty quick; just give them the model number, lot number (on the instruction manual cover), your mailing address, phone number and e-mail address and you're all set for replacement parts! I'm glad I went with this table, and not the overly expensive ones that don't even have drawers included.

Very satisfied, exceeded my expectations. I did see a few bad reviews before I decided to purchase this product because hey, it was a pretty good deal, and I took the risk. First off, excellent desk and the color is better, and slightly darker than the picture shows. Very sturdy, love the size and style.

As for those bad reviews I saw, let me clarify a few of them. Few claimed to have received the product damaged or with scratches on it. Mine came in perfect condition. If yours comes damaged, blame the UPS driver, this thing weighed about 130 pounds. And, from what I see, the seller can replace the damaged items for you.

Secondly, a few said the drawers either were difficult to pull out or that they did not line up correctly. I followed the instruction manual and set up the whole thing with a helping hand. You will need someone to help you do this, it'll just be much easier to hold everything correctly. Took us a good 3-4 hours. My drawers pull out perfectly. However I will admit that it did take me a few tries to have the drawers line up with each other. Simply some rescrewing and readjusting, took maybe 20 minutes to get it perfect.

Overall, I feel I got more than my money's worth. Great desk, I would not be hesitant to buy from this seller again.

I very happy with this desk. I researched and looked at hundreds of desks online for months prior to purchasing this one. Putting it together took me a long time but I have never attempted to assemble anything before. I would suggest that prior to completing a step in the directions, read the next step. It would have saved me some time. I had seen other people had posted that the 2 drawers overlap. When I finally got done, I had tightened all of the screws on the drawers. I read the following step and it advises you that it may need to be adjusted if this is the case. At that point, I did not feel like loosening the screws and doing it over so I waited for a few days. It was easily fixed. I had a problem getting the hinges from the door installed. It was just very hard to screw them into the wood. I did have someone else do that part for me. The desk is very long-5 feet and is very sturdy. I purchased a desk mat to protect the top and I think it would be a good idea. The finish looks nice but like it would scratch easily. With the mat, it has stayed in beautiful shape. The price was fantastic and I like the pull out keyboard tray.

The desk box arrived in very good condition. I've never seen a company take so much care as to put bumpers around the box and wrap it in plastic. After taking all the pieces out of the box it looked like a big task, but was actually less stressful than furniture I've put together in the past. My wife and I sat down at about 9AM and finished just before noon. I was worried the wood would be cheap as stated in earlier reviews, but was surprised with the quality.

I've got a custom built PC as seen in the pictures I uploaded. The tower I'm using is an Antec 900 mid tower and it doesn't quite fit in the cabinet made for the tower. On top of my desk I have a 24 inch monitor and three satellite speakers set up with more space than I know what to do with. It's very easy to keep clean with the cord management system on the desk. Instead of tunneling wires in back of the desk there is a hole directly behind where the monitor sits, which leads to two medium sized holes drilled into the side of the desk where your left leg would sit. This is nice because it allows you to push the desk right up against the wall. I'm also very happy with the folder drawer. I purchased 25 hanging folders and they fit perfectly.

This really is a quality desk. I would recommend this.

Amazing.Beware, desk scratches easily.

Let me start off by saying I am very picky with long term things, especially furniture. It has to be perfect and this desk is just that Perfect! I had previously bought a TV/ entertainment/media display and a seperate bookshelf for DVDs and needed the desk to blend in with color and details. This desk was made to fit in.(water bottles are for size reference) I took 1 hour to assemble because I have 3 small kids running around calling "mami"! At every second. The color is a really dark brown looks black at night. To be honest I preferred the lighter version of this desk but again I have small kids so I need to have dark furniture for now. Go for it if you want it.

Desk arrived on time and is exactly as described. I bought a glass top for it because some of the reviews said that it was easily scratched. Potential problem solved! 'Love the desk! Highly recommend.

Absoluy gorgeous. I love it. The instructions were simple & it was easy to build. It is sturdy and heavy. I did a lot of research before purchasing a desk and I'm so glad I chose this one!

Using it right now!!! (please make sure you have about 4 hours to spare and at lest 3 beers!)

Great value and great desk. The top of the desk scratches a bit easy, but it that was my fault. The desk took me about 2 hours to put together and it was pretty easy. The instructions are very clear and it comes with everything that you need. I was watching a movie as I was putting mine together. It feels very sturdy. It's not solid wood, it is particle board. I would totally buy this desk again. It arrived to my house faster than I expected to as well.

Despite not being solid wood, the desk feels very solid, especially the main surface. Had no problem assembling this by myself with screwdrivers, luckily damaged corners (from delivery) were in non critical places and no attachment points were compromised. Great for the price.

This desk is nice, but there was a few parts missing. My husband figured out a quick fix, and now, it's just fine. It took about 2 hours to put together, since some parts were missing, however. So be aware of that.

First, this is HEAVY. Assemble it in the room where you plan on using it. It is extremely helpful to have more than one person working on it, but I was able to fully assemble it by myself in about 3 hours (I have done these projects many times). The quality is somewhere between solid hardwood and cheap particleboard. This is not a solid wood product, but it is heavy and durable. The drawers and door are a pain to line up correctly, but they do work fairly well. I like the filing cabinet type of space in the bottom drawer, which is why I chose this particular desk. It has plenty of storage and surface space.

Cannot give this any higher than 4 stars simply because it is press board, other than that it is typical Sauder good quality for this kind of manufacturing.

Received first one but when I opened the box, the top and two of the sides were broke in half. It appears that UPS probably dropped it during shipment. Got on phone to customer service and I had a replacement 2 days later..

The assembly was pretty well straight forward except for the assembly of drawer rollers was slightly confusing in instruction pictures and I did reverse the left and right rollers on the large drawer. Took me about 3 hours of assembly time including correcting my errors. The desk appears quite sturdy and has a good appearance.

Just take your time during assembly, tighten all fittings and you will have a good assembly experience

Its a fine looking desk for under $200. suits our purposes. I gave it four stars because when you pull out the drawers they hit but then go into place. That could be how I put it together but I'm pretty sure I did just fine with the assembly. The assembly was time consuming but in one evening you'll have a desk. I like the color.

Desk is nice and as advertised. However there was damage to the top on both the front and the back and there were missing pieces of hardware. I have notified the seller and replacement pieces are on the way to me as we speak. Hopefully. Care in storage and handling could prevent the damage I'm sure. The seller should do a better job of ensuring proper count of assembly hardware. I was unable to assemble the last drawer and am still sitting here looking at an empty drawer front. All in all I like the desk and would recommend on the design and price. Not a bad choice for my home office.

The best is nice, but needs a stronger top. Something to resist water damage and scratches. Otherwise, it is a nice piece and putting it together isn't too bad.

looks great, easy to assemble but takes time

Great desk. I like the higher height, width, and surface area. A bit difficult to assemble properly. Had a couple screws that did not seem to fit well, but they do not seem to affect the desk.

Looks great in my office, but lots of assembly. Glad I did not have any parts left over ;-).

Somewhat difficult to assemble. Took me a while to get started because the instruction manual was a little complicated. If you own a screwdriver you should have enough experience to handle building it yourself. My biggest complaint is that the finish is super sensitive. If you breath on it wrong it will scratch.

It looks good, but the drawer assemblies are weak. That easy assembly design is engineered to use the least amount of materials to hold the drawer together with anemic tolerances. The PC cabinet way too small for a even a medium sized tower PC.

Also the thin pressed fiberboard backers were so warped they were impossible to nail down straight. Come on Sauder, I would have sprung for an additional 30-$60.00 for some ridged, thicker board for those areas.

It feels like a disposable piece. If we get 2 years use out of it before something falls to pieces I'll be surprised. I feel like I shouldn't have cheaped out and should have dropped another $150 to get something that was made of actual wood instead of fiber board and glorified cardboard.

Drawers are a joke. It wouldn't take much to include sliding rails that were around 2 inches longer. Stuff is hard to reach in back of single drawer, especially if you are a male or female with man hands. Tiny opening. I will be retro fitting mine with longer slides.

This desk looks good but takes much longer than the stated 2 hours to assemble. It's pretty heavy; too heavy for the UPS person to carry by himself, so it gets banged up while being flipped and dragged to your door. Mine came with a bothersome ding right in the middle of the desktop.

I really like the desk for the price. It took a long time to put together, though. The two drawers on the right hand side did not line up correctly. We had to adjust it and play with it to get them to line up so that they would at least close without hitting each other. They still are not lining up perfectly, but better. This was frustrating since the holes were all pre-drilled. Also, the keyboard tray is scratched.

Being an artistic person as well as having an eye for detail is one thing, but when function is an issue, then quality is not so good. The drawers are adjusted as much as possible without me having to re-drill holes and hang drawers. They still hit upon closing unless I lift up every time.

Upon receiving desk I unpacked it to inspect for damage and found none. The finish is very nice. The only issue I have is that this is not a metal desk at all . It's particle board. The description is deceiving. I purchased what I thought was a metal desk and it's WOOD. . Ill be keeping it anyway because it appears to be a decently made product but the description should be changed to reflect the materials that it's made of. Because of this ill rate it only 3stars.

This desk started out as a 5 star - very impressed with the quality of the parts and the ease of assembly. Unfortunately I have to ding it 2 stars (one for each side of the desk) for the simple reason that the drawers do not fit properly which makes this amazing desk look very cheap. I verified the installation - everything is flush and aligned where it was meant to be.By not fitting properly, they do not sit flush with the desk, especially the large drawer - it looks like it is off track (when it is not ) - see photos.Because of this I would not buy it again, I still gave it a 3 star because the packaging, parts, etc. were stellar.

Pretty but annoying to assemble and the drawers don't fit correctly

Great color, easy to organize cords
-1 for damage that didn't occur during shipping.
-1 for keyboard pull out being very low. Which makes it uncomfortable to type without some adjustments.
-1 for not having good organization space.
+1 for color
+1 for good electrical cord organization

product got to my house the box was destroyed i proceeded to unbox, everything seemed in order until i got to the last few peaces in the box and realized the package with hardware spilled out and destroyed the top of the desk upon closer look i realized that all the corners of the desk were damaged. I built the product sole holes werent machined right the drawers were lopsided

First of all, I bought this because the photos show the front of the desk is finished so it could face people entering the room. What they don't show or tell is that the front two panels on the sides are nailed on and those nails will be visible to anyone unless the desk faces a wall. So low marks for:

1. Poor and deceptive marketing
2. At least 3.5 hours to assemble
3. Some parts missing, some too many.
4, Sliding keyboard tray is terrible, sticks going in and out and wobbles.

Awfully pretty in the photos, but not that great.

This desk was promising, but poor packing left huge cracks in the finish across major pieces. In addition to that, the smaller cabinet piece was improperly sized (It was too thin), requiring new holes be drilled in the top to accommodate the improper position, forcing the side cabinet to be constantly open just to have the keyboard out, and prohibiting the use of the shelf. I also received one screw too few for the drawers.

I would have given this a better review but unless you are putting this up against a wall the "nail on" wood grain back is very poor quality. When the desk is in the middle of an office you see all the little nails holding on the fake wood back.

came damaged a little

quality and price don't match.

I wrote this comment is to complain that the product delivered to me is desk broken. I believe this is because, the manufacturer chose a too thin board for the desk top or the packaging is NOT strong enough for transportation. I saw the label saying its made in USA with imported material/parts. The unpacking and return too me a sweat 2 hours of working and too heavy to move by myself. I like the color and design of the desk though I did not have a chance to assemble it and have to wait for an exchange. But such mistake in design even only for packaging is not tolerable..

This came with a giant crack in it. Thanks for nothing

There is cracks all over it. We opened it and the color is beautiful and then noticed large cracks 1 really large Crack right on the top and several in different spots.

I've had the desk for about a month now. The drawer fronts are cracking and falling apart and the entire top of the desk is sagging. I don't have a PC, I just put my laptop on it so it should handle that weight without a problem. I'm also a contractor and I know i assembled it correctly. The look is OK...but you can tell it's cheap. Obviously it's laminated press board and I didn't expect a perfect desk, but quite frankly it hasn't been able to stand up to even minimal use. I wouldn't buy this desk again and I would suggest you look elsewhere.

If I could give it zero stars I would. Putting it together took some time and effort, and that is expected. But the final product is not sturdy at all considering how it is supposed to be assembled. If I try to pick it up right now parts of it will come out of place. I think this whole thing needs to be nailed together to make sure it becomes sturdy. I feel lile I wasted my money on this and cannot return it as it is a hassle to disassemble it and then ship it back. It is VERY heavy so return shipping would be too expensive. Don't waste your time or money. Find something else in a local store so you know what you're buying.

This desk is a piece of garbage. The directions are incorrect and when you try to get replacement pieces they send you pieces with no instructions....but they don't work because you already tried to put it together according to the instructions with the glue and now you can't take it apart to replace the wrong pieces! I am planning to send it back tomorrow and dispute the purchase as I have been trying for weeks to get this desk together to no avail. Don't waste your time or money!!!!!1

I have to say that I'm disappointed with the quality and color of the desk I received, in the pictures they show a black desk and I received a brown desk I will be brief in my experience:- bad quality wood the surface that cover the inner wood is so thin that make it very easily to scratch- assembly is a headache and not all the parts are properly labeled not to mention that some of them don't match very well causing the desk finish to look weird after assembled and some parts can even get damaged.- I have nothing good to say about this desk, the design and dimensions are exactly what I was looking for but honestly the quality is so bad that I don't think will last one season.DO BOT BUY OR YOU WILL REGRET LIKE ME...!!!!

Alot of damaged pieces inside the box

Shipment was not kind to this desk. It arrived with many minor flaws. Because they would not be seen much upon assembly, we decided to keep it. Also, it was a nightmare to assemble. The lengthy process only angered me more because the desk was further damaged throughout assembly as the screws went into the particle board, bowing it out and creating cracks. This is not a well-made product at all. The contemporary look of it drew me in and the price, but don't waste your time.

Receive my order with table top damaged at corner,.. Contacted manufacturer and yet to receive resolution..

Looks good. However, lengthy assembly and quality not good. The slightest ding makes the wood chip and peel! Won't last.Update- very poor quality. Surface peeled off with moving a folder placed on it. Edges dent and peel if the chair even touched it. Save your money. Style looks fine but the quality is horrible.