These are cute and perfect in our guest bedroom. We got 18.5" ceramic lamps for bedside reading to go on top of them and they seem fine (a bit taller would also work). Getting the bottom shelves on was a bit tricky but I could do all the assembly by myself. They tell you not to tighten the screws until the end and they mean it: you need the jiggle room in the legs to fit the shelf in. Also, the holes for the shelf were pretty tight and I found it worked better to enlarge them slightly with the screwdriver before putting in the screws and hand tightening them. Don't worry if they go in slightly crooked. When you do the last little screw, make sure it goes in straight, then you can undo any crooked ones one by one as you go around to tighten.