I havent had a chance to use it, yet. It looks nice, but it is terrible to put together. The wood dowels provided to put the standalone bench together were too long, we had to saw them down. A screw to the back of the corner (of the corner bench) angled incorrectly and drilled right through the front. The instructions can be confusing and there is a lot of screwing into wood that has no pilot hole with an Allen wrench. Try to have someone help you, I did it 95 by myself and it took a total of about ~8 hours through the span of 3 days to finally get it built. Also, it does scratch very easily so invest in tablecloths, placemats...etc. I dont know about the lifespan of the set but I have a feeling it wont last long.