Review: Ikea HUTTEN Wine Rack

Been meaning to buy the Ikea HUTTEN wine rack for the past few months. It took a while though. With the first attempt, the store I went to was sold out, and to make matters worse, it was during the holiday period so I had to navigate through a hoard of shoppers. The second time, the store had it in stock, but I mistakenly tried to look for it in the marketplace section -- the computer in the warehouse said it was in the showroom area. Having to go back upstairs wasn't appealing to me so I put it off. Then I finally gave up and just ordered it online. Behold...

Configuration
x1 - Ikea HUTTEN 9-Bottle Wine Rack: US$ 9.99 (CA$ 19.99)

Video
Overview of Ikea HUTTEN Wine Rack

Assembly
Putting the Ikea HUTTEN wine rack together wasn't the most challenging venture that I had ever entered into. The instructions were provided on something like a single sheet or two, there weren't that many steps. On top of that, it was such a small item that the parts weren't that heavy and they didn't take up much floor space when laid out.

However, I did not have a perfectly smooth time assembling the HUTTEN rack. The problem was that the parts did not appear to be precisely cut and drilled. There was a bit of difficulty getting parts to line up and fit together. Some of the pre-drilled holes also appeared to be not perfectly centered. And unless I screwed something up, one of the four legs seemed to be shorter than the rest by a few millimeters which resulted in a rocking rack. This was easily fixed with some folded paper. I'm fairly sure that I didn't install anything backwards.

Ikea HUTTEN Wine Rack Package

Stability
See crooked leg issue above. Otherwise, I didn't have any issues with the rack in terms of tipping over or falling apart.

Expandability / Customizability
Buy more HUTTEN racks and other unfinished, wood furniture products?

Ikea HUTTEN Wine Rack parts laid out

How was it?
My original plan was to use the Ikea HUTTEN wine rack as a shelf on top of an Ikea IVAR shelf. I did my best to secure it in place, but the idea of having a rack on the top of an already tall shelf was a bit too dangerous for my liking. So, the HUTTEN shelf got moved to a lower shelf on a different IVAR. There were no plans to ever use it as a wine rack. As a shelf within a shelf, I liked how it subdivided a single shelf and allowed a larger number of small items to be stacked.

What didn't impress me about the Ikea HUTTEN shelf was its finishing and the trouble I had putting it together. Again, maybe I messed it up, but the parts did not align as well as I would have liked. And unless I screwed up, my shelf had a crooked leg. At least one surface on the shelf also looked like it could have used some extra sanding. For CA$ 19.99, I expected more, but this shelf was only US$ 9.99 on the American website. For $9.99, this would have been okay. However, I bought four BEKVAM spice rack shelves previously and those appeared to be pretty high quality at under CA$ 10.

Finished Ikea HUTTEN Wine Rack

Conclusion
The Ikea HUTTEN wine rack shelf that I purchased was acceptable and functional. However, it didn't impress me too much due to its quality relative to the price I paid in Canada. For the price in American currency, I would have been more understanding, but this wasn't the most impressive piece of furniture from Ikea that I had bought.