Thuma The Dresser Review: Solving All Sorts of Furniture Problems

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The dresser is easy to put together and well-built, but it does have a few drawbacks.

We all know the feeling. You've just come home from Ikea or Target or wherever you like to buy your furniture, and once you've unloaded the boxes, you recognize the Sisyphean task ahead of you: putting the furniture together.

You've separated the mess of umpteen wooden dowels, tiny screws and those odd little circular bits you use to lock in all the pieces; now you have to try to interpret the aggravatingly unhelpful instruction manual. It's at this point that you remember just how frustrating it is to buy and build your own furniture.

Not only is building furniture at home a nuisance, but most build-it-yourself furniture is a ticking time bomb; you never know how long it'll last. It could be five years...or it could be five months. Quality is hard to judge and hard to come by at a reasonable price point.

Luckily, though, there are alternatives if you know where to look. Thuma — the brand that makes one of our favorite bed frames — has launched a modular dresser made from hardy, 100 percent recycled wood. Better yet, it comes in pre-built pieces that make it a breeze to set up. Problem solved...right? We tested it to find out.

When the dresser shows up at your door, it's pretty much already put together. Mine arrived in four different boxes, each containing a drawer (one of which contains the top of the dresser). Once I got the boxes up to my third-floor apartment (more on this later), it was just a matter of cutting the boxes open, removing the protective corrugated cardboard and pulling out the drawers. From there, you can stack the nesting drawers on top of each other and lock them together using a single, albeit durable, screw.

While the overall design is relatively simple, which I love, it's the details are what really make it worth the price. The top of the dresser curves up at the front and back, creating a barrier that keeps things from rolling off the top, similar to how a valet tray works. (No need to fret about your chapstick falling into the abyss behind the dresser, never to be found again.)

The drawers are spacious and sturdy, but the unique detail I really love is the soft close. When shutting, the drawer gets about an inch from being fully flush with the frame, slows down as if being tractor-beamed into the dresser, and softly pads into place. It's immensely satisfying and adds a dose of luxury I didn't expect.

The modular system comes in clutch for renters or folks who love to frequently rearrange their space. The brand currently offers six different configurations: 2x1, 3x1, 4x1, 2x2, 2x3 and 2x4. I received the 4x1 version for testing, but could easily pick up another set to create a different setup. This means that if you're upsizing or downsizing, the Thuma Dresser is up to the task.

I live on the third floor of an old walk-up building in Brooklyn. While this means there are only a couple of stairways to climb, the bulky, heavy, pre-built drawer-shaped boxes are an absolute pain in the neck to get up there.

Sure, it doesn't have to be put together once it's inside, but if I didn't have help carrying the boxes up the stairs, I wouldn't have even been able to get it into my place. After receiving the Dresser, I no longer wonder why more brands don't ship things pre-built.

Plus, all the results in a lot of cardboard pieces to dispose of. All furniture requires packaging, but the four boxes my dresser came in were enormous. It made me feel kind of wasteful as I dropped them on the porch with my other recycling...not to mention how awkward they were getting down the stairs, even empty. But, that's a losing battle we're all going to encounter if we have furniture delivered to our homes.

If you live in an apartment or have to haul the thing up some stairs to get it where you want it to go, you'll need help. If you keep that in mind (or this doesn't apply to you), the Thuma Dresser is absolutely worth the price. It's versatile, works with just about any interior design style and is built to last. The thing is so easy to put together that a caveman could do it (sorry, cavemen) and the fine details easily justify the price tag. Considering how good the brand's bed frame is, it's no surprise the dresser is equally special.