I love this bench!  It looks great, fits well in a small space, and has a good sized storage area under the seat as well as a shelve for shoes.  It came with the hinges already attached to the padded seat/lid.  I would have given this a 5-star rating if it had better instructions and the pieces had been  labelled.  I can imagine a novice might have some difficulty figuring out how to put it together.   But having assembled several  pieces of furniture lately,  I managed to do it in less than an hour.  It was actually the easiest  piece I have put together so far.