The color is true to the pictures and matched my home perfectly. The kennel area is generous (it's the size of a medium crate) and the drawers and cabinet are roomy, too. My dog is an 18 pound terrier and this will give her plenty of room for sleeping, moving around, and eating. It takes up a bit of space in my small home, but the extra storage makes it worth the footprint. It definitely looks 1000% better than just a crate. Yes, it does take some time to assemble, but the directions are easy to follow. All I needed was a (battery powered) screwdriver, the allen wrenches that came with it, and a flashlight. You can mostly do it on your own, but with two people it goes a lot faster. There are only a couple steps that an extra person really makes a helpful difference. This is exactly as described, fairly easy to assemble (even though it comes in 1 million pieces,) it is just what I wanted, and it is very good quality.