Low Profile TV Stand, 48 Inch, Walnut

As of today there are five different versions of this style of TV stand being sold here by 20 different sellers, one of them being Amazon direct which is the company I chose to buy from. The one I bought and the one I am reviewing is the 48 inch model which for some very odd reason is called the Render 44. WHY I BOUGHT IT In my previous house I had my TV’s mounted to the wall with a large component equipment cabinet to house all of my gear, including several legacy analog pieces. When I bought my new place I put all that analog stuff into storage and while I decided what to do with the main TV I have been using one of those black steel and glass stands that are so popular. It’s a look that doesn’t fit with the rest of my décor so I decided to replace it. For several months I scouted the furniture stores and online catalogs, looking at literally a few hundred TV stands. How much it cost wasn’t as important as how functional it was and how attractive to me the design was. Then I saw this one, which is available in a 48 inch, 59 inch, 70 inch and a highboy console. I love the look and I was hoping it was at least acceptably made. I would have opted for the 59 inch model but I didn’t want my soundbar just laying in front of the TV and the larger cabinet didn’t have a dedicated shelf for it. The 48 inch model happens to be ideally sized for my 55” curved TV and one of the several sellers told me that there is a single adjustable inside shelf. That proved to be wrong, which I will detail later. The entire stand is very low, which is what I wanted. It has just enough space for my Tivo, Blu-ray player and Apple TV – like I said I severely downsized and simplified my system. This stand has a masonite back with holes for cables so the usual rats nest of wires is hidden from view. Once everything was in place the finished look reminds me of some of the old console picture tube TV’s my relatives had many years ago. Since this stand is inexpensive my expectations were low. I don’t think it’s fair to criticize something in this range as being low quality, of course it is. But I was pleasantly surprised. The finish is better than expected, it looks and feels like furniture grade wood veneer. The legs are supportive and after assembly it is pretty solid and will easily support a typical 55-60 inch TV. QUALITY OF MATERIALS When talking about the materials used in making this thing it is important to know that this is 100% medium-density fibreboard (MDF), what is sometimes called particle board or pressed board, in other words it is made from compressed sawdust that is wrapped in woodgrain vinyl. And yes, that includes the legs that one non-Amazon seller says are wood, they’re not. I have bought MDF furniture that is so soft that it breaks in two if you press too hard on it and the fasteners strip out of their holes. I am happy to say that the particles used to create this imitation wood are compressed much denser than average, resulting in a stronger more solid piece of furniture. Likewise the fake woodgrain that wraps the entire piece looks much more like real wood, so much so that from a few feet away it would be easy to fool most people. The unit arrives with an impressive amount of foam and cardboard protective materials, this is one of those rare mail order MDF items I’ve bought that arrived with zero scratches, dents or broken pieces. They designed it so any surfaces that aren’t covered in vinyl face inward so from any angle you don’t see rough edges. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Even with many years of experience putting such furniture together this one took me about three hours. That’s a lot more time than something with this many pieces should take. The quality of the instruction sheets is better than average, they use both words and drawings that the illustrations are large and detailed. Kudos for showing how things look as-assembled, which most instructions don’t do. I found only one minor frustration in the instructions, where they tell you that the cardboard back panel goes in before you attach the bottom panel – they tell you that after they’ve already told you to attach the bottom panel. Fortunately that only requires removing 5 fasteners with an Allen wrench to go back and do it correctly. One of the reasons this TV stand is stronger than most is that they use a surprising number of braces to reinforce various pieces, which are time-consuming to put together. Once those are installed properly that design results in a very tight assembly. THE TWO MOST IMPORATANT THINGS As mentioned, I have built maybe 100 pieces of Ready to Assemble furniture to the point I could do it without reading any instructions, although I would never recommend that. Of all of the many things I’ve learned – tips, tricks and shortcuts – here are two secrets that will make the difference between something that can barely stand up on its own and something that’s so strong you can stand on it. The first is I always use a high quality wood glue on each and every wood part that touches another, and especially where pieces are joined using those tiny wood dowels. If you don’t the only thing holding the piece together is usually those barely adequate pin and hook connectors which defy being tightened enough to actually do anything. This cabinet required gluing in at least 30 major locations and my finished cabinet feels like it is carved out of one solid piece of wood. The other thing has to do with those pins that you insert into predrilled holes. If you don’t drive them straight into the hole without cracking or enlarging the surrounding area they will never hold as tight as they have to. The solution seems so simple but most people will try to push them into the hole then finish with a power screwdriver, while the pin usually wobbles from side to side. Instead, grasp the pin firmly at its base between your thumb and forefinger and hold it securely upright while you slowly manually tighten it, making sure there is no wobble that can crack or enlarge the soft pressed board MDF particle board. These two life hacks can make the difference between a mediocre TV stand and one that will give solid support to even the heaviest flat panel TV. NOT SO GOOD On its own merit this is a well made, beautiful looking and solidly constructed piece of furniture that equals something costing many times more. It is far better than I would have expected for the price. What detracts from all that is that one non-Amazon seller purposely provided incorrect information just to push products out the door, hoping customers wouldn’t take the time and effort to return them. The user questions above have numerous examples of that that are actually signed by the seller called Firstofakind. I chose to buy directly from Amazon instead for that reason but I probably would not have even chosen this model if I was given honest answers to my questions. One example is saying the legs are real wood. They are not. Another was a since-deleted question about the inside shelf. One of the main reasons I chose this model is that I was told it had one adjustable inside shelf. That was absolutely necessary for me as the only place I could put my soundbar. None of the product illustrations accurately show this shelf. I was told it did have one adjustable shelf. In reality it has two shelves separated by a permanent vertical support divider and both of the shelves are adjustable. If I had known that up front I would not have bought this product. My only solution was to buy another TV stand that I could put behind this cabinet, which was an extra cost to me of over sixty bucks. I also asked if DVD’s could be stored inside the unit and didn’t get an accurate answer to that either. Yes they can, there is room for about 50 of them. But for those who asked about storing LP phono records in it, no you can’t, the space is not tall enough nor is it deep enough. One other thing that was wrong is someone said there is glass behind the slotted sliding door. No there is not, the slots are open-air. Because I could not get straight answers and return policies vary I can ONLY recommend this product if you buy it directly from Amazon, not through the third party sellers who provide inaccurate information. DIMENSIONS You can ask 10 people the dimensions of something and get 10 different answers because each sees it in a different way, so I provided one photo that shows the real accurate as-measured size of the 48 inch cabinet. When you think about how much usable space is available to you though there are a couple of things you should know. First, if you measure the front to back depth of inside the cabinet you have to take into account the sliding door and to make sure it doesn’t touch any part of whatever component you put inside the cabinet, and you also have to take into account the wires and cables that must attach to the back of most audio visual components, sometimes you need two or three inches clearance at the back for them and also for ventilation. When you consider how much height inside the cabinet is actually available don’t forget that the movable shelf itself takes up one inch of vertical height, reducing the total available by that much. SAGGING One of the common flaws of cheap furniture is that it is usually not very structurally sound and can sag if too much weight is put on it. That's one worry I don't have with this piece, I think it would be impossible to sag for two reasons- one is that the top is a full one inch thick, I can't see it ever bending no matter what. The other us that unlike most furniture that is usually supported by a leg located at each corner, with this piece the base is a separate unit that the assembled cabinet sits on, not only does the base have four full length support beams but it is reinforced at each corner so the weight of the cabinet itself is spread equally over its entire length and width. SUMMARY I can’t emphasize enough to choose Amazon as the seller so you can get their legendary support and return policy if it is damaged or you don’t like it. And keep your expectations realistic, this is not fine furniture. But on the positive side, this is better quality than almost anything in its price range, it is stronger by far than most ready to assemble furniture – especially if you use glue as I recommend. For those who prefer a low cabinet this is one of the nicest available. And once assembled I think it really does look beautiful.