We bought the black polyester blend. It was very easy to put together. The only tools I needed was a pair of pliers to remove the staples. I like the feel of the material, and I love that you can match it up however you want. It doesn't have many cons, but I'll tell ya the few I see so far. It's firm, extremely firm. Pet hair sticks to it pretty bad. Lastly, I own cats and after one ran across the couch quickly, a piece of thread came up. It could be the material of this, because I didn't notice any other reviews that complained about that, but most were the velvet material.