The bed was at my front door in only two days and was very easy to put together. There was a little damage due to shipping, but it's covered up by pillows anyway. It is darker than it appears in the pictures, definitely more mahogany than cherry, but it's gorgeous. I ended up leaving my bed on my original bed frame and constructing this frame around it. I tried putting it all together and then putting my bed on top, but with the box spring it was so high you couldn't really see the headboard after you put pillows on the bed. It was definitely a great buy for the cost.