Mabef Studio Easel with Tray (MBM-09D)

Great easel. I love it! Bought the rotating painting holder also...it is fabulous

I was a little scared to order this easel after reading others reviews about missing parts and/or broken pieces. But when mine came in the mail via USPS, everything was intact and it's just perfect (I think using UPS would be better though). This easel is very solidly built and beautiful to look at. I am so happy everything worked out. It wasn't too hard to put together either as it's a quite simple design. It's all I needed. Sometimes simple is better. The beechwood is beautiful and I love the whole look of this easel. I have already started using it to paint and it's just what I was looking for. Perfection.P.S. Although mine came intact, I do see how others would have problems as the box it came in should be stronger with better padding inside. The bottom of the box was torn so I can see how easily small washers and screws could fall out. Luckily, this did not happen to me. I love my new easel...made in Italy (I like that too).

Few months ago, my family ordered the M/09 studio easel as a birthday gift for me. Covid 19 hit our household, and there was a delay in opening the box. Finally unboxing the easel to assemble. There is one chip in the canvas / brush tray (which I will not worry about), however, none of the hardware is included in the box. May have been a 'return' because one piece of hardware is already in end of one of the wooden pieces, but all the rest of hardware is missing. Past the Return timeframe and Impossible to assemble.....

I ordered two of these easels for my studio. One was perfect. Excellent product, assembly was easy and it works great. The other was missing parts and could not be assembled and was returned . The manufacturer's packaging of the assembly parts is inadequate. The plastic envelope containing the parts breakes open in transit and the packaging of the product allows parts to fall out. The easel is of excellent quality, however, missing parts due to inadequate packaging negates the quality of this very nice product.

The vendor's box the easel came in was significantly damaged. I can see on the shipping labels that the easel (made in Italy) was at one time shipped to a place in Georgia, and then from Georgia to Missouri. So, there are a number of places where it could have been damaged.One wooden cross beam of the easel was damaged (see photo: the hole in which another piece would be fitted in), and three pieces of hardware were missing (see photo: one barrel nut (part C), and two washers (part F)). The box appeared to have been punctured in a couple of places, which caused the damage to one of the wooden pieces and punctured a hole in the plastic bag containing the hardware.The Italian vendor wanted to charge $72 for shipping, while not charging for the broken part and hardware. I went to the hardware store and bought the missing parts (including a barrel nut for less than $5), and did my best to repair the damaged part.The video assembly instructions (available by scanning a QR code in the paper instructions) and the hardcopy instructions for assembly were pretty clear. The easel is completely adequate for holding small and large canvases and a drawing board (for taping paper) It's hefty (26 lbs.), with no wheels, so it stays fixed in place, which for my needs is perfect.A very minor, but annoying issue: The brass screw used to tighten and loosen the top canvas holder so it can be slid up and down is very small, so it's a bit annoying to use (a bigger knob of some kind would be better to allow easy gripping).My only real complaint in the easel's operation is that moving the easel's bottom tray up is very difficult (it gets stuck). The wooden tray has built-in biscuits that allow it to slide up and down in the wooden slots of the side beams. But the wood-on-wood contact causes the tray to stick, particularly trying to move it up. I may wax the slots in the vertical side beams to "grease the skids" so to speak.I would buy this again, as it really is a sturdy an useful easel. I did suggest to the vendor in Italy (via an email) that they strengthen the box, as well as strengthen the plastic used for the hardware pieces.

The best easel I ever had. I recommend this to all artists who need a quality built for life item.

This is a very sturdy easel, simple to set up, and very easy to move around. Solid wood, strong hardware, easily moves up and down for when I want to sit while I paint. Love it!

I picked the Mabef M9 easel after reading several good reviews and checking out their warranty. They offer a 2 year warranty on all parts which is more than most of the other easel manufacturers offer. It is also solid wood.The easel comes unassembled. The assembly instructions are not clear because the parts are not numbered and there are lots of pictures. Putting it together took us about 2 hours. Once put together it is a solid easel.The angle of the canvas is adjustable as well as the height which helps a lot while painting.Overall, it's a high quality easel which looks like it will last a long time.