This took less than 30 minutes to put together and was fairly straightforward. The white paint is opaque but you can see the grain of the wood in the light which I like. The gray cushion on top is fairly cheap looking vinyl but who is ever gonna look at it closely anyway. ￼I like the space under the cushion with the top that lifts up. That is definitely a handy place to store hats and gloves. In the cold weather and may be sunglasses and baseball hats in the warm weather. 
￼The hinges seem good quality. I downgraded it from five stars to four because the bolts are visible on the side of the shoe rack. It would be nice if there were white stickers or some thing that came with it but I’ll see what I can find.l on my own. Other than that, it seems solid, and I like the look.  Definitely recommend!