Original article and pictures take http://www.wherethesmileshavebeen.com/my-workbox-3-0-review-the-good-the-bad-the-wtf/ site

Last year, we moved into our new home….and we finally have space for a craft room! My husband keeps saying it’s our office, but we all know the truth. *wink*

You have no idea how excited this made me. The craft room of my dreams was finally going to become a reality! Part of those dreams was having all of my supplies ORGANIZED and EASILY ACCESSIBLE, and having a WORK TABLE where I could get my craft on. A creative space that was all. my. own.

I was thinking we’d have to have a custom built-in installed on the large wall, but that seemed too formal and office-y. Imagine my surprise when my husband sent me a link to a viral video showcasing the WorkBox 3.0 and suggested that I get that instead….and he was serious!

After having my WorkBox 3.0 for a few months now, I’m sharing my thoughts on everything about it: the Good, the Bad, and yes, the WTF. Hope it helps!

My WorkBox 3.0 Review: The Good, The Bad, & The WTF?!

A Little Note Before We Begin…

First things first: I am in no way affiliated with The Original ScrapBox.

I purchased my WorkBox 3.0 100% with my own money and am writing this honest review all on my own accord. I get nothing if you click around on their site or if you decide you want one too. I just hope this review helps out folks who are looking into purchasing one of their own, and what to expect.

And like most of my other posts, this one is LONG! It’s actually my longest to date. :)

So What is the WorkBox 3.0?

The WorkBox 3.0 is a craft cabinet from The Original ScrapBox. It’s unique in the fact that is has a fold-away work table, cabinets that fold in on themselves (which allows the cabinet to close and conceal all the supplies), and it’s on wheels. It also comes with its own custom plastic storage totes.

I had heard of the WorkBox last year, but after looking at price tag (gasp!), I never really considered actually purchasing one. It seemed too rich for my blood.

It wasn’t until my husband suggested that I get one that I actually thought “Huh….maybe that actually is a good idea….even with the pricetag.”

After seeing the below viral video by The Original Scrapbox on Facebook, my husband sent me the link with his suggestion. He was really drawn to the fact that it can be transported, so if we ever move again, I can just take it with us (and we won’t have another craft supply storage conundrum).

The Specs on My WorkBox 3.0

I bought the White Ergo model, which is the least expensive one (but still pricey!). I plan on leaving mine fully open all the time, so I didn’t feel the need to get upgraded doors since you’ll never see them.

Plus, the look of the doors match our other furniture in the craft room that came from IKEA. Just keeping things cohesive (and saving some dollar bills).

Instead, I used that extra money and purchased the crown accessory, which adds a fancy “roof” to the unit and also includes a LED light.

Here’s how the pricing worked out:

• $1,495 (WorkBox 3.0) + $225 (Crown accessory) + $355 (shipping) = $2,075

Yowza! Quite the chunk of change, huh. This made me catch my breath at first, especially the shipping charges. As someone who lives for Amazon Prime, paying anything for shipping hurts my heart, let alone hundreds of dollars!

This is a business expense though, so even with the high price, we thought it was worth it.

Purchase-to-Delivery Timeline

Here’s a little timeline of my purchase:

• February 3: Preordered and made $250 down payment & secured place in line
  • Website stated there was a 2-3 month wait list
• March 17: Received and paid final invoice
• March 20: Received shipment notification (wahoo!)
• March 22: Received phone call from shipping firm and set up a delivery window for next day
• March 23: My WorkBox 3.0 was finally delivered!

So, it took about seven weeks from down payment to delivery. Not too bad!

The Delivery

Everything comes shipped on a pallet via a semi truck, and according to The Original ScrapBox, the third party freight company will only do curbside delivery. Boo.

Since we have quite a long driveway that also has a small incline, I was so worried that it would be an ordeal getting the pallet up to and into the house, especially since we don’t have a pallet jack (does anyone?). And I have almost no upper body strength, so I wouldn’t be much help to my husband.

Luckily, I had an awesome delivery guy! As he was lowering the pallet from the truck, I casually (and pitifully) said “So I guess you have to leave it right here, huh?” He replied with “Nah, I’ll take it up for you. We’re not supposed to but it’s really no big deal.” !!!!!

I gave him a good tip for being so helpful.

Since my craft room is just to the left of the front door, he dropped the pallet off at the bottom of our front steps….and I could barely contain my excitement that it was finally here!

I wonder what our neighbors thought about having a semi-truck parked in our little cul-de-sac….

Getting Everything Inside

I brought in the four small cardboard boxes that were on top of the main wooden crate right away (they contained the 79 plastic totes….hooray for being light!). However, the rest had to wait until my husband got home from work.

He used a drill and crowbar to pry to the top off the crate….and my son couldn’t wait to start unboxing everything. GIANT present, Mom!

Then the real fun began.

The shipping manifest said the crate weighed in at a whopping 660 lbs. Yikes. There were about a dozen or so individual boxes inside (along with the velcro zippered bags), and most of them were HEAVY. I mean HEEEEEAAAAVVVVYYYYYY.

Unfortunately, Matt only had me to assist him in bringing in the four long (and heaviest) ones, and let me tell ya, I could barely do it. Like I said, I have no Madonna arms, so couple that with a bad lower back thanks to a motorcycle wreck, and getting these babies up the stairs and inside was no easy feat. But we managed. Guess my guns were good enough after all!

Assembling the WorkBox 3.0

The following Saturday, assembly began, and this was all Matt….thanks, honey!

He said the written instructions are quite minimal but easy enough to follow. A link to a YouTube video with more assembly instructions is also provided, and that was a little helpful too. The boxes are numbered and each of the pieces are labeled, so finding all the parts isn’t difficult.

Oh, and you also get a rubber mallet too! That made sense, but what follows didn’t really….

To our surprise, they also include a small bottle of white paint. While on one hand, I suppose that’s nice of them, right? Awww, free touch-up paint!

But it’s also rather surprising. It’s like they expect damages during assembly (and some did occur…nuts!), so they throw you a bone with a sample size bottle of paint. And I suppose the paint is also for the life of the unit, not just assembly, but still.

That’s kind of a bummer, isn’t it? I mean for the price of this thing (it sure ain’t cheap!), you would expect it to survive the assembly process and regular use without the need for touching up. We’ve bought other furniture that was less expensive and still managed to not need touch-ups, even after being whacked repeatedly with a rubber mallet and regular wear-and-tear. And our IKEA gear sure lasts!

But on the plus side, more paint for projects I guess.

While Matt was literally beating the pieces together, I got to unboxing all the plastic totes. This took quite a while since they were packaged super tightly.

Plus, each tote needed to be closely inspected to check for damages. Unfortunately, nine of my small notions totes had major cracks on the side. Whomp whomp.

I emailed a pic to to their customer service department and they quickly put new ones in the mail for free, so that was swell.

Matt spent five hours assembling the actual unit, then he had to stop to watch some March Madness (priorities). He summed up this stage by saying “It’s not hard, just time-consuming.”

Here’s how it looked at this point:

Installing the Shelves

The following Friday night, after our boys went to sleep, we both started adding in the shelves. This was not a fun task. Matt said it was worse than the actual assembly.

There are plastic pegs that you push into holes on both sides of each unit, then the shelves are installed by pushing one side down into a set of pegs until they’re clipped in, then doing the same on the other side.

This was not as easy as you’d think because the peg holes are not all the same size. Therefore, some pegs go in perfectly, while others take lots of effort, and some take no effort at all and just fall right back out of their too-big holes. It’s also a tight fit getting the small shelves installed.

We found it was easiest to do the small shelves first and start in the middle, then work your way up and down. Once all the shelves are in, it’s a really sturdy unit, but it takes a while to get to that point.

(Side Note: Be prepared for LOTS of garbage to dispose of after fully assembling the WorkBox 3.0. There’s tons of cardboard, styrofoam, and other materials, not to mention the actual wooden crate and pallet. We loaded up Matt’s pickup truck and made a run to the dump the next day!)

Filling It Up!

Now was the moment I’d been waiting for….filling it up and FINALLY getting organized!

As excited as I was to start moving all of my craft supplies out of their random tubs and boxes (and away from that darn card table), this was actually quite stressful. OCD, much? Yep.

Should this go here or there?? How should I combine everything?? What if I get to the end and run out of bins and have to start all over?? I had TOO MUCH FREEDOM and TOO MANY OPTIONS.

But, that’s a good problem to have.

Here’s how it looks with my supplies added….and my new pretty pink office chair.

Opening & Closing

When closed, the WorkBox 3.0 is just a little over 3′ wide and 2.5′ deep. With the doors fully opened, it’s 9′ wide, so it fills up my craft room’s far wall perfectly. The opened doors also conceal some other not-so-pretty pieces, like a cart full of paint and a filing cabinet topped with internet eyesores.

I leave it open at all times….unless I’m showing a visitor its badass transformation ability!

The doors roll really easily on hardwood, but not so much on carpeting. Whenever I need to open or close it all the way, I have to move our rug aside. All in all, it only takes mere seconds to open/close and not much muscle.

The LED Crown Light Accessory

The crown was the only accessory I purchased and I think it is worth every penny! It has a handy switch that stays in the back of the table area, and the light is SUPER bright. Since it’s directly above the table, I don’t have to worry about any weird shadows being cast from the window or room light.

Below you can see how the light looks during a sunny day, at night with the overhead room light on, and at night alone. The crown also fancies up the cabinet too. And I’m a fancy gal.

The Plastic Totes

I LOVE these things! They are super sturdy and slide in and out very easily, even fully loaded with supplies. I am so happy that this 3.0 version has these upgraded plastic ones instead of the black fabric totes in the previous versions.

There’s an Original ScrapBox logo imprinted on one side of each tote, and that’s the side that I put in first so you don’t see it (I plan on making cute vinyl labels for each tote on the smooth non-logo side eventually. Stay tuned!).

These larger ones (12.25″ x 12.25″) are the totes that I filled first….all 33 of them!

{Note: All of the shelves are adjustable and removable, so you don’t have to use all of these plastic totes if you’d rather not. You can easily use your own containers too!}

I was also sent five of the plastic notion tray inserts that fit inside these large totes. They’re very thin and flimsy, but they do their job.

I’m only using one right now for some of my jewelry beads. Hooray for ditching that old fishing tackle box that I’ve been lugging around since grad school! #upgrade

They’ve since come out with their new line of 1″ Supply Stackables, and I really prefer those to these included notion trays. I might look into getting a set for the rest of my teeny tiny supplies.

Included are also 20 of the shoebox-size totes, and they each also have two removable dividers, so you can adjust the storage. These are great for taller or bulkier items, or if you have a lot of smaller items, like glues and foam brushes.

Twenty-six notions totes (the really small skinny ones) are also included, and they have removable dividers as well (more on these below).

I ended up not filling up most of these totes right now, but it’s nice having the room to grow.

The Plastic Dividers

These little plastic dividers ended up causing quite the frustration….and some literal pain. In The Original ScrapBox’s viral video, they show these dividers being added and removed so easily. Just slides in and out with no problem at all. In reality, that’s not quite so.

A lot of the ones I received don’t fit all the way in their slots. Some I had to press reallllly hard to get them to slide in, and others I ended up leaving sticking up for fear of either breaking the divider or tote, or slicing my finger….which was another issue.

Along the tops of some of these dividers (as well as the edges of some of the totes themselves), there’s excess plastic that was not completely removed during the manufacturing process….and they are SHARP.

It’s not a huge issue because they do still do their job, even sticking up, but the quality control of these can use some major improvement.

The Wooden Drawers

Just above the table, there are three wooden drawers. I like putting things in here that I use frequently or small projects that are in progress. They’re quite handy and are easy to open and close. Eventually, I’ll probably (maybe) get around to making labels to slide inside the hardware.

Storage Underneath The Table

There are shelves underneath the table as well that are great for storing larger items. As you can see, the shelves on the right are thicker, so you can store heavier machines (like a Curio or sewing machine) here, and they are held in place with metal pegs instead of the plastic kind that are used for all the other shelves.

It’s also not too cumbersome climbing underneath and pulling out whatever I’m looking for either. I was a little worried about constant head bumps and bangs, but thankfully, I have none to report so far. #knockonwood

The Work Table

I am really happy with this space. There’s plenty of room to have your supplies out and still be able to work, and it’s really sturdy and stable. I’m a huge lover of my Silhouette Cameo, and it can easily be tucked away when not in use, then just slid right out when needed.

The light to the crown is also easily accessed on the left, and I’ve tucked an extension cord in the back (behind the marker/pen organizer) so I can quickly use other electronics, like my hot glue gun.

The Table Legs

Now this is definitely a WTF item of my review. I know what you’re thinking…..what’s the big deal with table legs??

Well, they are not idiot-proof. We just assumed they were like every other set of foldable legs we’ve come across when using card tables (like the one that was my previous work space): you extend them fully, then you disengage the locking mechanism and fold them back up. Silly us.

Nope. We discovered these legs should NOT be fully extended because it becomes nearly impossible to fold them back. Once they’re locked, they are locked.

We at first thought we might have been sent a defective set and I asked customer service about them when I emailed the picture of our broken plastic bins. They assured me the legs would fold back up, we just had to “pull that bar down towards the floor” and that “the first couple times would be stiff.” Yeah, like we didn’t try that….with our hands, a screwdriver, and a rubber mallet. -_-

There was no pulling to be done. The only thing that worked was Matt putting on an oven mitt (we don’t have any heavy winter gloves down here in Alabama and those metal bars are sharp and pinch!), and beating the crap out of the bar until the locking mechanism finally disengaged. He said “Yeah, like a little old lady doing her crafts alone is going to be able to do that.”

Now we don’t bother pulling the legs all the way out. Even with them not being completely perpendicular with the floor, the legs and table are still stable when working though.

The Left Door

I love the storage areas on this door! The clear acrylic guards make it really easy to see bottles of paint, and the small pockets work great for keeping all my small paint brushes and other hand tools. There are also some small hooks that keep scissors, tweezers, and other tools in easy reach.

If you don’t want to use the clear acrylic guards on all the shelves, you’re also sent two metal bars. I’m using the bars to keep some bakers twine and washi tape organized.

While I really like these, I wish they provided the option to add another bar above the current ones, because as you can see, there’s dead wasted space above both right now. You could easily double the storage with two additional bars.

The Right Door

As you can see by the emptiness of this door that’s on the right of the WorkBox 3.0, I’m not as in love with this one. It has a felt backing and lots of zippered pouches that have velcro on the back (so does the space on the bottom of the left door), but honestly, I’m too lazy to mess with the zippers right now. Since I don’t yet need to utilize this storage space, I’m leaving all the pouches empty for the time being.

I just prefer the shelves and plastic totes for my supplies since they’re so quick and easy to use. I do like the large pocket that’s at the bottom of the door though. It’s quite nice for storing larger, thin supplies.

The felt on the door is not securely attached either, so when you go to pull a pouch off, the felt pulls away first from the door quite a bit before the velcro on the pouch releases. The first time I tried pulling off a pouch at the bottom, the felt actually started coming off from the back side of the door around the bottom corners! It really caught me off guard….I thought I broke my new toy!

You therefore have to be careful when pulling a pouch off, and let’s face it, I’m not very cautious when crafting. I just want to yank and go, and you can’t do that with these.

Eventually, if I ever need it, I might purchase the Door Upgrade Kit to get more shelves.

The Back of the Doors

The back of both doors are blank with no storage space. You can purchase magnetic boards as an upgrade, but I don’t think I’d use them very much since I don’t own any metal dies.

Since taking the above photos, I’ve added a Command hook and am storing my Silhouette Cameo cutting mats on the back of the right door. It works great!

Damages & Poor Quality Control….Boo

Now just so you know, everything I’m bringing up in this section is really nit-picky. I get it. The only people who will probably notice these issues are the ones who opened their wallets and bought the thing. These aren’t deal breakers at all, just….big bummers.

Nobody likes their new purchase to arrive damaged (or get even more damaged during assembly), but sadly my WorkBox 3.0 has several bumps and bruises.

I already mentioned the broken totes and the sharp plastic edges and dividers that won’t fit, but there are other issues as well. Edges are dinged up, the table has marks that won’t go away, and paint is rubbed off too.

All the pieces had a decent coating of saw dust on them as well, which only added to the mess during assembly. Also, the white paints of the various components are not all the same (for example, the three wooden drawers and crown are a creamy yellowy white, while the rest of the unit is a true white). Nuts.

While it still functions great, for the price of this thing, I expected much better quality.

Another thing that bummed me out a bit is the fact that the stickers used for assembly are SO difficult to remove. It’s nice having each of the pieces labeled, but the stickers are BIG and old and faded, which means they’ve been on their pieces for a long time while in storage….which means they are stuck on there GOOD.

They’re not too noticeable since they’re mainly inside the shelving areas, so I haven’t spent the time, energy, or Goo Gone trying to remove them.

The Crafting Transformation

So would you like to see just how the WorkBox 3.0 transformed my crafting space, storage, and organization? Of course you would! :)

Like I mentioned previously, before my WorkBox 3.0 arrived, I had all of my supplies scattered around in multiple plastic tubs and cardboard boxes. Not exactly ideal, especially for an organization OCD freak like me.

I could hardly remember what I had, and if I actually happened to, there was a slim chance that I could locate it before just giving up the search and heading to the craft store….hello wasted money! I also had to get my craft on at an old card table that was pushed in front of the room’s window. Blah.

{Oh, and please don’t judge us too harshly for this disheveled before space! I became pregnant right after we moved in last year, and the house took a backseat thanks to morning sickness and then life with a newborn. We’re working on it!}

Here’s the transformation though! Pretty incredible, huh? Look at that organization and all that open space now! I can’t wait to get the entire room updated.

A Quick Wrap-Up

To sum everything up, here are my thoughts on the Good, the Bad, and the WTF of the WorkBox 3.0:

THE GOOD:

• Delivery only took seven weeks
• Awesome delivery guy brought the pallet up to our front door (Thanks again, buddy!)
• A rubber mallet is provided
• LED light in the crown accessory is definitely worth the splurge
• Rolls easily on hardwood floor, even loaded with supplies
• Sturdy plastic totes with removable dividers are included
• Broken plastic totes were quickly replaced for free
• Table is a sturdy, great place for working
• Pre-drilled hole in back of table allows you to add a power strip for electronics and keep them handy
• Larger machines are easily stored underneath the table area on extra sturdy shelves
• You gotta love storage that is fully adjustable, concealable, and transportable
• Overall: AMAZING STORAGE for finally getting ORGANIZED and it includes its own WORKSPACE!!!

THE BAD:

• Does the quality match the price? I’m not sure.
• Super heavy boxes to get inside the house, and assembly is not hard but takes a long time
• Pieces were coated in saw dust, numerous damages, old large stickers are hard to remove, and white paints don’t all match
• Holes for plastic shelving clips are not all uniform
• Some plastic totes were broken on arrival
• Poor quality control: Plastic tote dividers do not all fit correctly, others (and the totes themselves) have sharp edges
• Doesn’t roll well on carpet
• Felt on doors for velcro zippered pouches is not adhered very securely
• Not much room for larger supplies, like canvases, wreath forms, rolls of deco mesh, etc.
• LOTS of packing materials to dispose of afterwards (including the large wooden crate)

THE WTF:

• Legs are almost impossible to fold back up if they are fully extended
• It’s expected to get damaged easily, both during the assembly process and with normal use (hence, the touch-up paint)….and it does

Would I Purchase Again??

So overall, would I purchase a WorkBox 3.0 again? YES! It looks great (at least if you’re not looking too closely), works great (except for those pesky legs), and provides wonderful storage and organization, and I still have room to grow. It has changed my crafting life, and I LOVE pulling up to the work table and getting my craft on. So long, card table and plastic tubs!

However, instead of me screaming from the mountaintops “I LOVE MY WORKBOX 3.0!!!!!”, I have more of a “I love my WorkBox 3.0!!!” feeling. It’s a fewer-exclamation-points-and-no-shouty-capitals kinda love, but still love nonetheless. (If I hadn’t been a part of the assembly process, I’d probably add some more exclamation points back.)

Would my husband assemble one again? “You’re out of your &*$%ing mind”: direct quote. :) He said we’d hire us a handyman. It’d be worth the money to have someone else do the task and then we could just enjoy the end product.

Other Craft Room Goodies

Here are some other things I’ve made for my craft room so far….and make sure you check out my Project Gallery for lots of other creations, tips, and freebies!

I hope this review has helped if you’re considering purchasing your own WorkBox 3.0! Thanks so much for stopping by!