I love the style of this chest, exactly what I was going for. However, in my opinion it is definitely not a $500 chest. Assembly was pretty easy. One of the pieces to a drawer was cracked, but we were able to still assemble the drawer with the crack. I've read the directions about 10x and no matter how I adjust the drawers, I still need to lift up on the top one to close the one below it. I bought this for my son's nursery so it will serve its purpose. I just think you can get better quality for the money.