We were looking for armoire to store blankets, sheets and towels. Since it was for the guest bedroom, it didn't need to be extravagant or expensive, but I was really suspect of the armoires I saw on the site for $$$. Solid wood assembled armoires were running in the thousands of dollars, so I thought this was a good compromise, it was solid wood and we would put it together ourselves. The armoire arrived in two large flat boxes - completely unassembled. There are 21 pieces of wood and 197 pieces of hardware. The instructions are all pictures (no words), but they were fairly easy to follow. The instructions show two men - believe me, you need two people to put this together. I also recommend an electric screwdriver and a lot of patience. It took two of us about 6 hours to assemble this. Perhaps my fault, I did not realize that the unit only came with 2 shelves. To order 2 more shelves was $$$. What the ?? That doubles the price of the armoire! My husband went to Home Depot & got them to cut 6 shelves out of quality plywood and stained them for $$. The wood knobs for the drawer and doors were scratched and looked terrible, so we bought metal ones that look much better. Finally, the lock does not fit. We don't care to lock the armoire so it's not a big deal. So overall, I am very pleased with the final result, but it took quite a bit of work to get there.