Beautiful chandelier, looks very elegant and modern. The brass finish is more of a dull slightly darker painted on brass though, not a real shiny brass. It still looks nice though and most people wont notice from far away so we kept it. If you are shortening the cords theres not much room within the base to store them so its difficult to keep them secured and install the base at the same time but we managed to do it after several tries. So far it is working great and is beautiful!