This is such a heavy duty rustic looking desk and it is a very nice piece of furniture. However, it took almost a full day to assemble. It was an incredibly arduous task because of all the parts and steps. We literally had to build this desk. This somewhat detracted from the initial appreciation of acquiring this piece of furniture. We chose the desk in the color brown. The brown has a rustic look. The wood grain pattern is visible, but it is not authentic wood. It is compressed wood. Extreme caution is needed when inserting the screws because you can easily strip them out due to the fragility of the faux wood. This happened to us when we were assembling the desk- a piece just fell off. You can adjust the height of this desk by pressing the numbers that are located to the right. A wonderful multi functional desk that requires a lot of patience and skill to put together .