The chest arrrived in what else, a thousand pieces. The base was severly damaged but I worked around that with apoxy glue. The whole back corner was smashed in. The instructions were okay, took a long time to assemble and was fairly difficult. The pieces looked kind of cheap but when finally assembled, the quality actually looks betterhan I know it is. All in all, a good value for its price...just don't look at that back corner. Calling it a "cedar" chest is a bit of a stretch...there is just a super thin shaving of cedar veneer. lol, looks like it was painted on!