The chairs are solid wood, but not the species of wood described on the website. I bought the ""walnut"" chairs. They are in fact Pine, painted the color of walnut. This means the wood is much softer and will show dings and scrapes much sooner. They were fairly easy to put together, as long as you don't use the locking washer. Using the washer makes it nearly impossible. Just leave them out of the assembly. They are still very sturdy with no wobble in the legs.