The lamp was packaged extremely well. The shaded tends to lean more towards a very light grey ... and not as 'beige' as pictured ... but I like the colour very much. Very sturdy. The base is quite heavy, so is good. I would not call the base 'bronze' ... bronze should be more of a brownish colour, this leans more towards black. Easy to put together, just follow the instructions and put together from the top down ... works good in a smaller corner because of the shape of the shade. Very happy with this purchase.