Personally I love the nightstand and found it fairly easy to put together. I did take me a whole evening to put it together. It is important to use hand tools since the wood is soft. Also, I recommend sorting all the pieces beforehand so you use the correct boards for each side. The drawer bottoms and backs are particle board. I wanted to use the nightstand and matching dresser I bought right away, so I used the particle board drawer bottoms. I did replace the back with plywood. There will be some dowels and nails left over at the end of construction.