The bookcase itself is as described. The color and construction is accurate. It's decently constructed (quality matches the price) and took very little time to put together. I did it myself in a couple of hours. The only annoying thing about the shelf is it's odd shelf spacing and configuration makes it hard to put books on it vertically. This is a minor annoyance, as you can set books on their side instead, but I'm lazy and don't want to lift books to get to one lower in the stack, so if that doesn't bother you, even better. As I mentioned, the odd configuration of the shelves makes it tricky for decoration because your objects have to fit nicely into unconventional spaces. Just keep that in mind before buying this shelf. I wish I had thought of that, but we made it work anyway.