Ordered this a while ago, but was pretty scared to open up the box after reading some reviews. My boyfriend finally decided to tackle this and put it together. He is a carpenter by profession and it took him about 3 hours to assemble this alone. We did not have any discolored pieces or miss-sized pieces but we did have a few parts that were pretty badly scratched. The top piece was covered in long bad scratches, thankfully they are not as visible. The drawers were scratched up as well, but thankfully I ordered the black and its not as visible. After these things, i actually love this island. It's really sturdy, it was just what my mini kitchen needed and it's pretty spacious. I would love to recommend this to others, but the scratches and assembly might turn them away. Glad I bought this on sale. Forgot to mention, the magnet was not working and the door would not stay closed, something my boyfriend was able to fix. But i cannot imagine dealing with these issues without having someone to fix it for free!