My fiancé and I love the durability and quality of these nightstands! They are undeniably beautiful pieces of furniture. The only problem was that they do appear to be darker than in the photos, although it might be due to the fact that they are in a darker area. The pieces came pre-assembled. The only thing in need of “assembling” were the handles that were screwed inside of the drawers that needed to be unscrewed and screwed back on to the outside of the drawers. We were a little disappointed that the drawers were on wood slats instead of metal sliders, but they slide pretty smoothly. The color didn’t match the room like I hoped it would — shipping to return was so much that we didn’t feel like it was worth returning. So we’ll eventually need to buy a new bed frame.