Once the bench was together, it was exactly as expected. It is a great bench for the price. Some solid wood, some particle board. All in all, I feel I got a good deal & am happy with it. That being said, we had two issues assembling it, that if it weren't for my husband being handy would have been a HUGE headache. One of the base "stopper" for the back board was nailed in in the wrong location. It popped off easy enough & my husband had contact glue he was able to use to put it in its correct place. The other problem was the top part was missing 2 of the pieces that the screw went into. So my husband had to use actual screws & did his own hole next to the other ones. This bench was supposed to be an easy option versus having my husband build one yet it still needed his attention. We didn't want to deal with the hassle of contacting customer service & having to return the whole thing or wait for new parts. Nice bench but could be a headache if you can't fix their problems.