Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The IKEA-style assembly of this bed does, as other reviews indicate, leave something to be desired in terms of sturdiness and creakiness. However, with a couple extra hours and about $25 worth of apparatus from the hardware store, it's easy to build this thing solid as a rock. If you've got the time and the inclination, you'll end up with a surprisingly high quality piece of furniture. (And it doesn't look cheap either.) Total assembly time, with the modifications, was about five hours for a moderately capable guy with a drill and a six-pack of High Life. You'll also need a companion to help hold things together as you're slotting together the bigger bits. If this sounds intimidating, it's actually pretty easy. Just buy the hardware and things will be pretty intuitive once you're done slogging through the directions and you return to this. You will need the following from the hardware store. Just ask someone there if you're unfamiliar, and they'll point you right to it: 8 2.5inch/63mm "corner braces" A box of wood screws that are sized 6x5/8. The corner braces may come with screws, but these will be 3/4in or longer, and will poke through the wood. You're going to use the 6x5/8 screws with the corner braces. A box of wood screws that are 1.5 inches long. Just get the narrowest ones they have, whatever gauge that may be. If they don't have something 1.5 inches, anything in that neighborhood will do. 15 feet of 1/2in wide heavy duty felt tape. (Get six rolls of the stuff and you won't run out.) STEP 1: Before you install the slats on which the bed will rest and connect the whole thing together, stick a strip of felt across the top of the two inside support beams. This will help keep the beams from rattling around under your mattress. STEP 2: Once you have assembled the frame, take the longer wood screws and drill them down through each slat into the support beams, right through the felt. Make it nice and tight. STEP 4: Cut the felt tape into 3 inch strips and, without removing the wax paper backing, slip them into the slots where the ends of the slats are fitted, using a flathead screwdriver to stuff them in if you have problems. This will tighten the ends so that they don't rattle around in the metal bracket. STEP 5: Drill the corner braces using the 6x5/8 screws into each of the four corners. It will be obvious where to put them: you're just trying to firm up the connection between the side beams and the ends, so that they don't flex around. I found it helpful to put the top four horizontally (directly above the slats) and bottom four vertically (like an L, inside the opening where the drawer will go). Don't worry that you will impinge on the drawers -- there's room. (It's also helpful to run some felt tape along the bottom of the bed, especially if you have wood floors, so that you can move it around without scratching.) Congrats, you now have an extremely solid (and subtly classy looking) bed. And you spent $350, not $800. Prepac Espresso Tall Twin/Mates Platform Storage Bed (6-drawers) Prepac Monterey Cherry Queen Platform Storage Bed (6-drawers)