This was easy to assemble. I found the inner shade was a bit perplexing at first, but realized I needed to just let it sit on the lower welt of the outer shade. A beautiful light pattern in the outer shade when the 3-way lamp is on. As others have said, while it looks brown in the photos, it is basically black, or a VERY dark bronze. However when the lamp is on, there is a brown cast to the perforated pattern of the outer shade. The downlight aspect is very focused, while also given a more diffuse (wider) uplighting pattern. The only quirky feature I have found is to operate on/off switch, you have to reach into the top of the lamp. This is a fixed height lamp, not quite 6' high overall. We were quite pleased with the purchase.