I'm in between a 3 and 4 for this stand because I'm not sure if the degree of difficulty was from my inexperience in furniture building, or if it was due to poor materials. I'm guessing it's a little bit of both. All in all, it's a beautiful piece, and once you get past some of the imperfections whilst putting it together, you'll love it. It seems pretty sturdy and it has a nice clean look. Would I recommend it to someone else? if you're a PRO-builder. Otherwise, I'd say think about it. It took me 3 hours to build as an inexperienced builder, but it really does look beautiful once built.