Does it fulfill its purpose as a writing desk? Yes.  Does it look nice from a distance? Yes. so why the 3 stars?? Well the directions are written like they were translated from one language to another to another more times than the Bible. The predrilled holes don't always line up, and close up you can find all kinds of discrepancies. In the end the desk ended up looking like the picture. It only took multiple hours and a good amount of frustration to get there. 

Pros: the finish compliments our workspace nicely. 
Cons: the directions are terrible and the predrilled holes don't always line up