Let me say that this easel is awesome. My 2.5 year old LOVES it and it is very sturdy and well made -- I'm sure it will last a long time. The only reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the first one arrived damaged....they had to send me a second one to replace it. The second one also arrived damaged. Fortunately the damaged pieces were different ones, so I was able to use the undamaged pieces from each set to make one total undamaged one. What a pain.