We're pretty experienced at assembling furniture. Most of our stuff is from Ikea, and when it wears out, we usually replace it with...stuff from Ikea. So we've assembled A LOT of furniture over the years. We chose this bed for a stupid reason: we could get it shipped by Prime, and not have to drive to Ikea! But also because reviews of other Walker Edison products seemed quite positive.
The bed is assembled now, holding a Tempur-Pedic twin Original Bed mattress, and it's sturdy, with no wobbling, and supports our 11YO with ease. We purchased the one with the desk, rather than the one without, because it seemed like the extra cross-bracing would come in handy, and from the looks of things, it helps. We did not put the keyboard tray on, but otherwise it looks just like the picture (DS even asked for lime green sheets).
Where I take off a star is for the assembly instructions. We had a lot of trouble at the beginning, because the paper made it look like we were putting parts together backwards. Pretty much we had to abandon the paper for the first few steps and work it out by walking around the room, holding the pieces up and trying to figure out where they'd be after assembly, so that we wouldn't make a mistake and have to undo everything.
Once we got the four corner posts in place, everything was smooth sailing, except the clips to hold the bed slats in place were effing difficult to put into the little slots. We ended up using one of the desk brackets to push them into position.
In the end it took two adults nearly three hours to assemble (including the "walk around and figure things out" part), which to me is just too much. I would order this bed again, if I needed one, because it's a quality item...but I'd try to pay a couple friends to assemble it for me!
Excellent product, but it's a PAIN to assemble
We're pretty experienced at assembling furniture. Most of our stuff is from Ikea, and when it wears out, we usually replace it with...stuff from Ikea. So we've assembled A LOT of furniture over the years. We chose this bed for a stupid reason: we could get it shipped by Prime, and not have to drive to Ikea! But also because reviews of other Walker Edison products seemed quite positive. The bed is assembled now, holding a Tempur-Pedic twin Original Bed mattress, and it's sturdy, with no wobbling, and supports our 11YO with ease. We purchased the one with the desk, rather than the one without, because it seemed like the extra cross-bracing would come in handy, and from the looks of things, it helps. We did not put the keyboard tray on, but otherwise it looks just like the picture (DS even asked for lime green sheets). Where I take off a star is for the assembly instructions. We had a lot of trouble at the beginning, because the paper made it look like we were putting parts together backwards. Pretty much we had to abandon the paper for the first few steps and work it out by walking around the room, holding the pieces up and trying to figure out where they'd be after assembly, so that we wouldn't make a mistake and have to undo everything. Once we got the four corner posts in place, everything was smooth sailing, except the clips to hold the bed slats in place were effing difficult to put into the little slots. We ended up using one of the desk brackets to push them into position. In the end it took two adults nearly three hours to assemble (including the "walk around and figure things out" part), which to me is just too much. I would order this bed again, if I needed one, because it's a quality item...but I'd try to pay a couple friends to assemble it for me!