I bought 2 of these to put on either side of a full-size bed in my guest room -- the room is too small for nightstands so these had to do for lighting near the bed. My first surprise was when I opened the box - the electric cord looked like it had been cut off so I thought I got a damaged item. I checked the other boxes (I ordered 2 of this lamp plus 2 of another similar lamp, all by the same manufacturer) and saw they were all like this. When I looked at the instructions I figured out why: if the plug were attached to the cord, you couldn't get the cord through the cord covers. (There are 3 lengths of cord covers included, which was nice and unexpected.)Anyway, assembly WAS a bit of a pain, as one reviewer pointed out -- it didn't take me 8 hours, but probably close to an hour for the first lamp and then half that for the second. I am NOT mechanical at all but I am usually VERY good at following instructions -- probably half the items in my house I put together myself. Unfortunately the instructions are very poorly written and the diagram is from one view only, the side, which wasn't very helpful. I figured much of it out by trial and error, which was frustrating to say the least. (Those of you who are more mechanically gifted than I may not have a problem at all!) Once I got the first one up, with a few mistakes along the way, it was worth it -- it looks great and of course the 2nd one was then easier to put up.Overall I am happy with my purchase, but wish the manufacturer would get a better technical writer for the instructions!