Great bed. Strong smell initially. Allow plenty of time for assembly.
We were nervous about buying this bed with no reviews, but we are glad we did. My son absolutely loves it and we are happy with it too. Just make sure you leave plenty of time to put it together. The main part of the bed took about two hours to open the boxes, organize the parts, and assemble. The stairs ended up taking a little bit more than two hours even though the parts were better labeled than the bed, and that really wasnt expected. (Keep in mind that we had a boy who wanted to be helpful in this process too. It probably would have been faster if he wasnt there.)
Here are some general comments/feedback about the product and our experience.
It definitely seems to be good quality and quite sturdy. I have no reservations about being up there with my son, and we are probably close to 175 lbs combined. The stairs are very sturdy too. My hubby, who is 220 lbs sits there to read to our son.
Assembly was mostly straightforward and the directions were ok, not great. Its all pictures, no text. There were a couple points that the pictures werent perfectly clear, but we figured it out. The parts for the main part of the bed werent labeled, but the parts for the stairs had stickers with numbers to easily tell the pieces apart.
The parts lined up very well on the main part of the bed, but the stairs were a different story. We struggled more on that part of the assembly and had to re-drill a few holes. You could even see the pencil marks from the manufacturer where the holes were supposed to be. The tower (not shown in the picture I provided), which we waited about a week to assemble, was really difficult. Some of the parts were bent and did not naturally fit together. Unfortunately, I had already thrown away the box that had the phone number on it to call with parts issues. I assumed the tower would be a piece of cake compared to the rest of the bed. So the handful of assembly issues is one of the reasons I didnt give it 5 stars.
The smell of the wood...its pretty bad. I expected there would be a smell, but I wasnt expecting it to be quite so bad. Its been well over a month now and it still smells, although not nearly as bad. If you think leaving the parts out for a few weeks will prevent this completely, guess again.
I put the fabric without the plastic windows in the wash before we added them. They washed well. I wouldnt recommend washing the ones with plastic.
There were no instructions for putting up the fabric, but it was pretty intuitive. Just note that the ones that hang on the bottom go up using velcro that you have to stick to the bed first. Its really easy though.
There are no existing pre-drilled holes for the tower to attach to the bed. This was only an issue because the pieces to the tower (as previously noted) did not line up well because some of the parts were bent. It ended up being fine, but that definitely was a two-person job. Someone has to hold the fully assembled tower in place so someone else can drill/screw it into place on the bed.
Overall, we are very happy with this bed, especially at the price we paid, and would buy it again.
Great bed. Strong smell initially. Allow plenty of time for assembly.
We were nervous about buying this bed with no reviews, but we are glad we did. My son absolutely loves it and we are happy with it too. Just make sure you leave plenty of time to put it together. The main part of the bed took about two hours to open the boxes, organize the parts, and assemble. The stairs ended up taking a little bit more than two hours even though the parts were better labeled than the bed, and that really wasnt expected. (Keep in mind that we had a boy who wanted to be helpful in this process too. It probably would have been faster if he wasnt there.) Here are some general comments/feedback about the product and our experience. It definitely seems to be good quality and quite sturdy. I have no reservations about being up there with my son, and we are probably close to 175 lbs combined. The stairs are very sturdy too. My hubby, who is 220 lbs sits there to read to our son. Assembly was mostly straightforward and the directions were ok, not great. Its all pictures, no text. There were a couple points that the pictures werent perfectly clear, but we figured it out. The parts for the main part of the bed werent labeled, but the parts for the stairs had stickers with numbers to easily tell the pieces apart. The parts lined up very well on the main part of the bed, but the stairs were a different story. We struggled more on that part of the assembly and had to re-drill a few holes. You could even see the pencil marks from the manufacturer where the holes were supposed to be. The tower (not shown in the picture I provided), which we waited about a week to assemble, was really difficult. Some of the parts were bent and did not naturally fit together. Unfortunately, I had already thrown away the box that had the phone number on it to call with parts issues. I assumed the tower would be a piece of cake compared to the rest of the bed. So the handful of assembly issues is one of the reasons I didnt give it 5 stars. The smell of the wood...its pretty bad. I expected there would be a smell, but I wasnt expecting it to be quite so bad. Its been well over a month now and it still smells, although not nearly as bad. If you think leaving the parts out for a few weeks will prevent this completely, guess again. I put the fabric without the plastic windows in the wash before we added them. They washed well. I wouldnt recommend washing the ones with plastic. There were no instructions for putting up the fabric, but it was pretty intuitive. Just note that the ones that hang on the bottom go up using velcro that you have to stick to the bed first. Its really easy though. There are no existing pre-drilled holes for the tower to attach to the bed. This was only an issue because the pieces to the tower (as previously noted) did not line up well because some of the parts were bent. It ended up being fine, but that definitely was a two-person job. Someone has to hold the fully assembled tower in place so someone else can drill/screw it into place on the bed. Overall, we are very happy with this bed, especially at the price we paid, and would buy it again.