The lamp went together pretty easily. I have it at the end of our couch, and the height looks just right. What we love about it is that you can rotate the three shades in different directions. They can in every direction. Most of these lamps are limited in the way they can move. We exchanged the bulbs that came with the lamp to 40 watt bulbs. They came with 60 watt which were a bit brighter than we wanted. The finish is a mat black, which looks richer.