I'm IN LOVE! First off, the package arrived WAY earlier than I was expecting.. so that's always a plus! The color is very close to the pictures.. probably closer to the example in the third picture with the white background. Kind of lighter than the first picture. But it is so sturdy and solid.. I'm so glad this is real wood. It looks so polished. This will be going in my son's nursery so I didn't need anything cheap! It took my husband about 3 hours to put it together, so not too terribly bad.. but what do you expect for something that comes in a lot of pieces? My husband isn't a carpenter by no means but I promise with a little hard work and reading the instructions carefully that anyone could put this together. I am overall VERY pleased with this product. If you are being skeptical about it.. DON'T BE!!! Buy it!!!