I looked at so many islands and read a lot of reviews before deciding on this one and it paid off. This was the perfect piece of furniture for my moms new apartment. It is well made and all of the pieces fit together without any hassle. Allow some time and this is one of those that says it takes two people. I assembled it myself but there was one step where I had to have another person help. I used a cordless drill, there are a lot of screws and fasteners- that helped a lot.
It arrived in three very large boxes. Inside, each piece is totally surrounded by foam and/or cardboard. There is a lot of packaging to dispose of but it kept the wood safe and we didn't have a scratch from shipping.
Mom has a small one bedroom apartment in a senior living facility. The kitchen is very small, like you would find in a hotel, with just an apartment refrigerator and microwave above the counter. There were no drawers and only one cabinet. This unit gave her storage and makes the kitchen look substantial without taking up a lot of room. Everyone remarks that it is a beautiful addition to the room.
The top folds down easily but she leaves it up, the stools take up the same amount of room with it up or down. But it does make it easier to clean the floor when you can push in the support arms.

Just received this beautiful piece last week; my husband put it together in about 4.5 hours. I was a little hesitant to purchase such a large furniture item over the internet, sight unseen, but this is a gorgeous piece of quality furniture that I am going to enjoy for years to come! So much additional space for organizing my kitchenware, so versatile and practical too. My husband is not a carpenter, but is very handy & had no problem with assembly per the enclosed directions. Most pieces fit together perfectly, and the 2-3 that were slightly off were easily adjusted to fit nicely. The drop leaf is super smooth on fold out, supported by the slide out legs! There were a 3-4 minor flaws in the wood & 2-3 light scratches in the granite; I am sure this occurred during shipping. Although the pieces were packaged well, they obviously received some rough handling during transport. I can live with it, since it's really just looks like normal use, wear & tear if you are inspecting the piece closely. FYI: We visited Menard's prior to ordering this item, and priced a custom "pieced" island with granite top, created from joining 2 cabinets. The cost for the piece (which would still require assembly) was equivalent to the price of the Aspen, plus additional cost for hardware & other items to complete construction. WE DEFINITELY MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE ORDERING THE ASPEN! It is a stunning addition to our kitchen/dining area, and I would highly recommend it if you are looking to enlarge your work surfaces, storage area & increase your dining accommodations. Very happy with this item.

Have had this island for just over a year and it's holding up well. The granite portion does have water stains from daily use, but it is a solid piece.
Never again will I buy a main piece of furniture I need to assemble (some of the holes did not match and therefore we had to drill a bit) and my husband and I fought like crazy while assembling, but I'm overall happy with it. Be forewarned that you may have damage to pieces while intransit, but I contacted customer service and they quickly shipped the replacement pieces.

It's a solid piece of furniture and serves its purpose, but... it has its flaws. Thankfully my husband is very handy because he had to create a shim to get one of the drawers to level it out inside the cabinet because the drawer was too small for the track. The locking caps were weak and difficult to tighten. In addition, there was some damage from shipping that he could clean up or is hidden from view because the cabinet door covers it up, else we would have wound up shipping it back for replacement. The wood material is solid, so that's a plus. I accidentally spilled some lemon juice on the granite top and now have stains.. which doesn't seem right if it's a truly a granite top. Overall, I like the piece but for the money I would have expected fewer flaws.

We had to have 3 different islands shipped to us as every one of them came in with huge flaws. The first one came in with the granite marred. It looked like they knew it was bad before it was shipped and had tried to polish it and that made it worse.
The second and third came in with chips and gouges in the veneer. We kept the third on because the tops are so heavy with the granite that two of us hurt ourselves trying to lift them. The island is attractive but not as usable as we hoped and we are afraid the wood veneer will scratch. I guess all things considered, we would not buy this again. The granite top is useless as it is not in the part that gold up and down as that would be too heavy so you would have to stand up to be able to reach the granite part. Not really thought out in the design. One bright spot... Amazon customer service was great. Shipped a new one out every time. It would have been nice though if they could have just shipped a new top as that is the only part that was damaged, but we had to receive a whole island every time. And realize before you order, the top is EXTREMELY heavy!