There are a lot of pieces and I mean a ton of pieces. There are twice as many as the big box stores. Also the instructions were missing and it was missing some bolts and screws, like 20 of them. But I had some of my own and used them. Since I had put the nightstands together first and had the instructions for them, it helped with understanding how to put it together. But steps 1 and 2 were missing with the nightstands. It took about 4 hours with all of it and the nightstands (throwing in the missing pieces too) and I'm kind of handy. It is definitely particle board with wood veneer. The amount of drawer space is not a lot. I could maybe put 3 shirts folded up in one drawer. For the size the dresser is, we thought there would be more space. We definitely like the look. We had been looking all around for this look.