I love the size of this shelf. We mounted it in our kitchen for an open shelving concept for plates and bowls. We only used two of the wooden shelves and I liked that I could slightly customize it. We did have a little trouble screwing in one of the pipes - it seems like they weren't long enough to fit through the pre-drilled holes in the shelves. It ended up working fine for us, but could have been in problem if we wanted to use all three shelves. Piping is a black color and wood looks real, even smells like cedar!