I love the dark ash color of the wood. It's over 250lbs and it shows in the construction of the table in that it's very sturdy and heavy (which is what I was looking for). The box had holes, gouges, and marks all over it, BUT it was so well packaged and protected inside the box that there wasn't so much as a scratch on it! Very pleased with that! Literally the only downside for me was that the top surface of the table is composed of about 2in wide stripes/pieces of wood rather than be one smooth top like I'd prefer. And you can't see the top in any of the pics shown. So unfortunately crumbs will get caught in all the tiny cracks, but I suppose I'll eventually put a table cloth on it anyway. I posted pics of the top and texture/cut marks on the wood.