After reading the reviews about the nightmare assembly I decided to splurge on a professional to assemble it for me. Despite him doing this kind of thing every day and using power tools, it still took him 2 and a half hours - so I can't imagine what it would've been like if I'd done it myself with nothing but a screwdriver! Some parts arrived slightly damaged, but not enough to impact functionality and they were in hidden areas anyways. The final result is GORGEOUS and it's now the focal point of my living room.