This is a sturdy and quality bed!  It is as beautiful as it is in the photos. It is a very dark dray closer to almost black. It was very easy to assemble and the instructions were pretty easy.  The only assembly issue I ran into was toward the end the slats were not fitting, they were too long.  But a simple adjustment to the screws holding one of the side panels together allowed me to widen that section of the frame to put the slats in.  Then I went back and tightened the screws and after putting all the slats in.  I would recommend this bed to a friend.