Don't think about using this as a writing desk. The distressed wood pattern embossed into the surface is extremely deep, and would make writing or signing anything difficult at best. If you will be doing anything with a pen and paper, you will also need to get a desk-pad to write on. The color on the desktop is much darker than the pictures indicate. A step between charcoal black and charcoal ash color, deep deep dark gray. Other than that, the quality is acceptable, and assembly went quickly.