I was dismayed at first to realize it was a giant MDF board covered in a plastic sticker. It bothers me that even the horizontal slats on the back are just painted-on, there's no texture to it. But, quite frankly, after a few days I got used to it, and for people who look at it from afar, they can't really tell.

Also, I don't think the mounting holes have enough flexibility, I have a fairly new metal bed base that fit my old 1940s headboard with no problems, but I could never line it up with this one.