Home Styles Nantucket Distressed Black Kitchen Island - Rustic Farmhouse Style with Storage & Seating - Perfect for Kitchens, Dining Areas & Open Concept Living Spaces

For the review police who like to inspect previous reviews for any hint of suspicious intent, you will have to suck it up with this one being my first post. sorry.**SPOILER ALERT** The island survives in the end, barely.So, my wife wanted it, the nantucket island 88-5033-941, so I got it, as a surprise; surprise is a good place to start as the surprise was ruined by missing cam lock screw mounts that fasten the top to the base. Their customer support completed my sentence when I called to detail what was missing. They responded promptly with the missing plastic mounts and I rec'd the items today and was finally able to complete the surprise that was taking up much of the living room for nearly two weeks.Now that it is assembled I declare: Do not underestimate the assembly of this item. I did it by myself and I do NOT recommend it. If you are alone and have any issues with patience, fitness, and/or caressing homicidal thoughts, I recommend finding a helper. With that said, the parts are labeled and figuring out what goes where is straightforward. It took me at least 2.5 hours, and the top is heavy. I consider this more difficult than assembling a bowflex m5.The overall impression now that the long-lost-surprise is assembled is that it is not worth $800, with taxes. I do not consider it as functional as envisioned.The good bit:Once assembled it is solid and I think most components are not particle board. It is attractive and a quality item.The customer support is wonderful.The bad bits:The following is the list of very important care instructions provided on the last page1. Never use glass cleaner on finished furniture2. Never allow liquids of any kind to remain on the furniture3. Do not write directly on the surface. (I assume they mean like with one sheet, not taking a sharpie to the surface.)4. Do not place in direct sunlight5. Do not use commercial waxes and polishes6. Do not place hot objects on surface7. Do not use rubber based place mats8. Use a soft cloth moistened in lukewarm soap and water, then buff with a dry clean cloth (to clean the island).NOTE: I understand that most of the items listed are nice to know and not a downer. I put them all there as support overall for my frame of mind regarding function.After reading these care instructions I admit I am not sure what I can do with it. No hot objects or liquid on a kitchen island? I see another reviewer mentions that anything moist left stains the granite and recommended a sealant. Otherwise, my wife says she wants to put a chopping block on it, and I guess that would be about it unless I cover the thing with a non-rubber material kind of defeating having a HEAVY CUTE granite top. Disappointment is where I am with this thing, but it does hold the books nicely on the side shelves.The effort to distress, by denting, is as close to idiotic as I have ever seen. The person or thing that did it put mostly symmetrical dents. For example, looking at a door or drawer there is one dent on the top and bottom and two on each side. Across the top the dents look far from random in the same pattern as the other areas but with more dents. In other words, someone has missed the boat for what distressed looks like. We are sold a non-random unnatural application of distressed and therefore does NOT look distressed. Irritating is the word that comes to mind for why someone believes we all desire to have fake dents hammered into new furniture.Did I say it is heavy and one of the reasons you should get the missing cam lock screw mounts. If you ever have to move it, you will be better off having all eight screws attached. The base is somewhat dependent on the top to sure up the solid nature of the item. Otherwise, the top is heavy enough and with pegs will not move if missing a few of the screws.So the big questions: would I buy it again? can I recommend it? I would buy it again because the wife wants it, but I would not purchase this item again otherwise. I cannot recommend it unless the buyer understands that, imo, it is more decorative than functional without taking precautions like sealant and non-rubber protection.Again, no agenda. I do not work for the company nor do I work for a competitor. This review should show that I purchased it through amazon.com.I think 4* is fair given some will argue that of course you cannot get a kitchen island wet or dare put anything close to hot on it; I should have known that going in.The best purchase, great quality and easy to build. It took a few hours but instructions were very well explained and it was all worth it. Love this islandThe Nantucket was incredibly easy for my husband to assemble who is not naturally handy at all. If one knows the alphabet, then knowing what part comes next is as easy as knowing “C” comes after “D”. He’s also not an overly large man and is on the older side of life and was able to place the top on the cabinet by himself. All the reviews stating this requires two people are rather odd to me after watching my husband assemble the piece that is very sturdy and well made except for the base.We had extra hardware which came in handy as we dropped a piece and it disappeared into the unknown. The cam locks were NOT made of plastic, but were made of metal and of decent quality which was a pleasant surprise.The base arrived damaged because it is MDF. Part “P”. All of the pieces where other parts attach were broken off. After a few hours and some strength-building drinks, my husband decided to take some glue and screws to it and piece it all back together and will touch up the paint later. The base is on the inside; thus the mars are not evident from the outside, but this defect was not from shipping as there was no damage to the box. I believe the item was a return as there were two different colors of tape on the outside of the box. The clear version was botched and not placed on carefully.Overall, I am happy with the island; although it’s not as pretty as I would have liked for it to be. The granite is inset and should have been the entire top. The ridiculous triangle distressing needs filling in with some putty as the marks can be used as a ruler as they are equidistant and ridiculous. Honestly, I wish I had purchased a different version such as the Grand Torino that had the darker red top, but not as much storage space as this piece. I guess looks are more important to me than I realized. This piece would be pretty if a different top was attached. We may look into replacing the top with a solid piece of granite if we can have the holes drilled to match so that it fits or call Homestyles to see if the Grand Torino top would possibly fit on this Nantucket, but I’m guessing not. We do not need the extender piece; so this would be the best option at this point I would think.I love it! It arrived more quickly than I anticipated which was a pleasant surprise but even better, my husband accepted it at 10 am and it was all together by 7 pm and I didn't have to live through the grunts and groans of assembly. He did make a couple notes about assembly: 1) there's a warning not to open box 2 but when you start to assemble, you need the parts in box 2! and 2) it's super duper heavy - he had to help the delivery fellow get it in the house and when time to put the granite on, called my musclely brother in law.But it looks great and there's more storage than I initially thought at first glance.Great product and easy to assemble but the top sure is heavy. Packaging was better than expected although had to take one star off because three of the mounting feet on the base panel for mounting the base trim were broken off. Not sure why they would use particle board for that piece but an easy fix, some glue and new screws. Balance of product was high quality and very happy with the purchase.Very nice, have to take a star off though because due to the way its packed, almost every visible surface is indented from the cam screw heads. Not that noticeable, but disappointing nonetheless because there's no need for that to happen.This product travelled through the states, half way across Canada and was received in excellent condition. It looks fantastic and is built very sturdy. It is for sure a piece of furniture that accentuates our kitchen beautifully. No regrets at all. Thank you cymax!This island was much better quality than we imagined. Very simple to set up. Instructions can be a little confusing but once we figured it out it was breeze. Great addition to our cabin.