I read the reviews before buying this bed, so I knew it would be darker. I have a few pictures here so folks know just how dark it really is. To be honest, my wife and I both love the "fresh cherry" wood look of the main image (computer render?) much more than the dark color, but we'll live with this. The construction also is not as tight as in the main image, where all the boards have more beveled edges at the joints, making it look cheaper than the photo. Some other notes: The bed arrives in five large boxes, the largest of which contains the entire assembled headboard. The two sides come as fully-assembled drawer boxes. Handling the headboard and drawer box assemblies is a two-person job unless you go full Hulk. Footboard comes in a separate box. Last box contains the plywood mattress supports. Ours was delivered during COVID-10 quarantine, so the drivers dropped it off outside, and my wife and I lugged the boxes upstairs in the house. The hole drilling and t-nut insertion for the various underbody supports was clearly done by hand, by someone not paying much attention. Expect to have to re-drill some holes to clear them out (do this while inspecting the parts, as it is much easier at that point). Some of those parts are also hard to get to to tighten, so small hands can help a bit there. Keep everything loose until you have it fully assembled. Note that there are no extra parts, so don't let any lock washers roll away on you. :) It took me a full afternoon to unpack and assemble this. I used a drill/driver for the L-brackets and the plywood hold-down. Don't over-tighten the latter because they're going into plywood end-grain in many cases, and so will easily strip out. They just need to be tight enough to keep things flat. Speaking of which, you'll want to ensure that the tops of the center leg brackets are not proud of the cross-supports during assembly. If they are, your plywood will not sit flat. One final note: the bed is oversized by several inches in width and length. The new Sealy mattress we purchased at the same time, if moved all the way to one corner, leaves around 2-1/2" to 3" of exposed platform on the side and foot. We centered it, so that cuts down a bit, but it's still just strange to have the platform that much larger than the king-sized mattress. I recall seeing another review which mentioned the same thing, so this is not an anomaly. It's enough that we have to be conscious of it when getting out of bed. Now that I know about it, I can clearly see that in the main image (look at the foot of the bed, far side) In the end, we're happy enough with the bed to keep it, but for the premium price, it really should have been nicer than it is. And, again, I can't overstate just how much darker the finish is compared to the photo. (In the photos, we have a 12" mattress, so you can see how high that ends up)

The wood is 4 shades darker than shown. Platform is 6” bigger than reg queen. Well made. Sturdy. Wish it was lighter like the picture online. (Cat not included!)

Matches older nightstands and dressers that have not been made in years.

I unpacked the headboard with some help. It was packed very securely. Lovely wood and heavy! Have not installed it yet but hope to soon.

Have not had time to install the headboard yet but I can tell you this headboard is absolutely beautiful! Very heavy and well made. The wood graining is just beautiful. My bedroom furniture is old solid cherry and this headboard was made to be a part of this furniture grouping.