I was thinking the shelf would come pre-built, but I was incorrect. I am a great handyman, so I wasn't too worried. The instructions say that you need two people to build this, but I did it all by my lonesome just fine.The instructions kind of confused me at first until I started putting stuff together and then they were very understandable. It says to read all the instructions first before building, which I, of course, did not do. So, please do that and you will likely not have any confusion like I did.It took me very little time to put this shelf together and it looks very nice. It looks expensive and it is great quality for being such a low price. It is very sturdy, too. I didn't like that the particle board back was not shown to need to have nails put in there to stay put with the shelf backs because it looked flubby with the three slats just being set together and only secured with the nails around the outer edges. So, I just marked the particle board back with a sharpie pen where the shelf was and then stuck some flat pins in there to secure it in the back better and it looks great.The instructions say to use a rubber mallet, which I did not have, so I used a hammer. The small nails are easily bent with a hammer, hence the instructions saying to use a rubber mallet. If you use a hammer, just be very gentle with hitting those little nails in. I bent a couple into disrepair or else I would have used those to secure my particle board to the back of the shelves and not flat tacks. There are also no extra screws, so be aware that you can't lose any. This shelf is awesome, please buy!!