The gray is a bit darker than it is in the picture but it's fine with us. We saw some reviews complaining about the issues about the back, that it is too short to slide in - this happened with us too. An easy way to handle this is to loosen the arms so that you can bend them towards each other and thus make it easier for the back to slide in (before installing the legs). The sofa is on the firmer side, which is what we wanted. It does require 2 people to put this together, especially when you encounter the same sofa back issue. Generally a nice product for the price. We'll see if it can last 2 years+.