Though this looks like a really nice piece, whatever happened to furniture that comes fully assembled. At $500 plus tax and delivery - I don't want to spend an hour or more putting furniture together - thats all well and good when its inexpensive Ikea stuff but not when spending more than a couple hundred dollars.

Yes, when I bought a dresser from Crate and Barrel a few years back, I was chagrined to find out that I would have to assemble it myself. It's one thing to screw desk legs into a base, but to have to actually put drawers together when I was paying $500 was disappointing. I do love that dresser and it looks gorgeous, but I agree--at those prices, would've preferred it to be professionally assembled!

I recently purchased this credenza from Crate & Barrel. Thankfully, unlike the C&B dresser that took me 4 hours to assemble a few years ago, "assembly" for the credenza only involved screwing in the four legs. It took about 10 minutes. Though somewhat expensive, I really like this item-- I keep it in the living room, and none of my guests have even suspected that it held files until I pointed it out.

Oooh, I saw that one and really liked it in the catalogue.

I think the self-assembly actually makes the pieces cheaper--C&B's other pieces that come assembled are more (or at least that's how I've understood it).

Yep, there are two categories to C&B furniture... their "Furniture Collection" and their DIY/Assemble yourself category, which is by far cheaper, due to flat paking and easier storage/transport. And dwtarn is right... much of C&B's "assemble" is nominal.

The price of gasoline REALLY factors into furniture prices these days.

Also, the DIY furniture is usually made from cheaper materials.

I have to agree this looks great, however if you don't have the $$$ to spend on it but want something similar, find a low 3 or 4 drawer chest to use as a credenza. That's exactly what I did and they can often be found for considerably less if you just look around in second hand stores and of course, Craig's list.

I had been given a really nice maple 4 drawer chest that is not real wide several years ago, hand made from a local gentleman years ago and it now sits just inside my front door and I use it to house candles, tea lights, holders, kitchen linens and placemats and napkins and the top has the cordless phone, lamp and is the landing strip for everything else.

I like the look, but what is the material? If it's plywood or mdf, that's too much $. I don't mind assembling it, but I want solid wood. I'm actually looking on Ebay right now for a credenza (the bigger the better).