This media stand is very solidly built, and looks beautiful. The unit comes disassembled in a rather heavy box. It took about an hour to carefully unpack and sort the pieces, and about 5-6 hours to fully assemble it. The instructions are long, but very clear and easy to follow. The only required tools are 2 screwdrivers (one flat-head, one Philips). An awl came in handy for starting the short screws for the back panels, for which holes are not pre-drilled. Everything else fit together nicely and had pre-drilled holes. Some reviews mention problems with scratches and imperfections in the finish, but my unit was in perfect shape. The wood and the finish are quite handsome, and it looks great in my TV room! I’m very happy with the unit.This is entirely made of solid wood with a nice polished finish (except for the back panels, which are thin luan plywood, but that’s typical even on solid wood furniture). It’s more expensive than other units I looked at, but its a real piece of wooden furniture, not cheap chipboard, and I feel like it was worth the money.