I love this shelf. I will start out with the obvious: it is made of plastic and not a high quality, pass-on-to-future-generations, can-take-a-lot-of-abuse piece of furniture. It IS a very nice looking, sturdy, functional, versatile shelf. I am using it on its side behind my couch to separate my family room from my dining room and it looks fantastic. It's pretty heavy so I put felt pads on the bottom, but even with them, it doesn't slide unless you want it to. The cubes are large and I have tall books in a few of them that don't fit on other shelves. The design is such that it could be used (on its side) as a tv console and would be certainly be sturdy enough. No wobbling or rocking. The color is very, very dark brown- almost black with a fauz wood finish. I have both black and espresso furniture and it blends with both. Assembly took under two hours with me doing it by myself, stopping for a snack, etc. The instructions are pretty good, but once you start assembly, it's self-explanatory. It comes with small stickers to cover the holes for the bolts and screws. At first I thought they were cheesey but honestly once you put them on you won't see them unless you are looking for them. For the price this is an excellent product.