I bought this for myself and my fiancé after we thought a fireplace would look great under our TV and next to our cozy Christmas tree. I found this TV stand/fireplace combo, and instantly bought it, as it looked great in the photos, and had the fireplace included. It was exactly what we were looking for. I do woodworking on the side (specifically, I have made a good bit of furniture), and opted to buy something like this versus trying to build it during the busy holidays! Packaging - first opening the box, the stand was decently package. Everything was covered in a mess of Styrofoam though, and I think the glass door pieces could have been protected better, but ultimately everything was in excellent condition, except for the base (see pictured). One end was pretty much busted off. I ended up drilling it together with some pocket holes. The base is all held together with plastic mending corners, most of which are stapled in. I was disappointed to see the base, which supports the weight of the entire unit, held together by staples. Another piece that wasn't broken but annoyed me, was the top base, where the TV sets on. One routed end piece of it was not perfectly lined up, and had this ugly black gap in it (pictured). I disassembled it and reassembled to rid it of the gap. Everything that came pre-assembled looked very rushed and thrown together. Assembly - this is a more difficult piece to assemble. If you haven't put together furniture before, this might be in a little over your head to put together. There's a lot of pieces to it, and a lot of locking mechanisms that have to be perfectly centered up and hammered into place, or the unit can't be assembled correctly. I recommend having a power drill and rubber mallet in your possession to put it together in a non-destructive and timely manner. Post assembly - this is a beautiful piece of furniture. There are quite a few small gaps in spots after assembly, but most can be hidden with a furniture putty gap filler. The biggest downside, to me, are the doors. Not only are they not properly sized for the stand, but the hinges are cheap, low quality hinges. The adjusting screws on one were broke, forcing me to use a washer to try to level out the door, forcing me to have both doors to have an ugly black gap to look even with each other. Final thoughts - this is a great TV stand, and I would buy it again! It is a beautiful, realistic looking (wood grain) piece of furniture. The pickiness regarding the gaps and doors are largely coming from the woodworker in me, but I felt they were still important to point out. If you want an absolutely perfect piece of furniture out of the box, this is not for you. But if you enjoy assembling things like this, and have some know-how as to level up pieces and fill in the gaps, you'll have no problems with it. Even professional furniture has touch up work done in the end. My last comments are on the fireplace itself - the fire animation is beautiful and fairly realistic. The heat output is decent, but we were a little disappointed, as it doesn't quite heat our downstairs up as well as a quartz heater we've been using for years. All in all, though, I would recommend this product. PROS - Beautiful piece of furniture at a steal of a price - Decent heat output with nice fire animation - wood grain model looks beautiful and realistic - Unit seems very sturdy and well-built when all put together - Perfectly fits our TV and the shelf-section is great for game systems as well as decorations - Not overly heavy or cumbersome to move around CONS - Advanced assembly for newcomers - Poor craftsmanship and gaps in areas - Door hinges suck - Fireplace could be warmer, and is missing climate controls