This piece is absolutely beautiful. The pictures really don't do it justice. The fireplace emits a good amount of heat. Behind the fireplace insert is open space, so there's room to tuck any cords you don't want seen. The item itself is very heavy, so plan on having two people available to move it. Assembly was fairly straightforward. Be aware that there were a couple of errors on the assembly instructions, but it's easy to see what they are.