A great bed for a great price with flaws that could easily be intolerable for reasonable people.
My son wanted a loft bed, we needed a bigger desk for remote learning, and we needed to make the most of the space in his small room. A half loft was the only thing that was practical, and after looking around a bit I was surprised at how few options there were for a half-loft, and at how expensive they seemed to be (or on the other side, featureless). I was attracted to this bed for likely the same reason you were, because the price is high but not too high, and it seems to have lots of great features. Reading some of the reviews that mentioned the cheap materials, I was hesitant. However without many options, and trusting in my moderate woodworking skills to supplement the build if necessary, I decided to order it. For me this turned out to be a great decision, but there were a number of problems that could easily be deal breakers for people who are more discerning than me. I'll highlight those problems (there are plenty), talk about what's great (also plenty), and give a couple tips about what to do to make up for the deficiencies of the product.
First off, the materials are NOT cheap. It IS made of some sort of composite wood, but that wood is sturdy, straight, and tough. It will scratch if you scratch it, but it isn't soft like a lot of composites. It didn't gouged by tools touching it and it wasn't warped anywhere. Also, the pre-drilled holes were perfectly aligned, so everything fit together really snug and tight. Maybe they changed their supplier since those previous reviews were written, but it does not seem like they cut costs on the materials to meet the price point.
On the other hand, the hardware is of terrible quality (like literally every single piece of assembled furniture I have ever bought). For the most part, this does not matter, as super cheap screws are perfectly sufficient to keep something this small sturdy and tight. I only stripped one screw during assembly. A better screw would not have stripped out, but it was ultimately my fault as I didn't take the time to turn down the torque on my drill, and I didn't position myself to get the right leverage straight down into the screw. The one piece of hardware that should definitely be replaced is the casters. The bed uses a bookshelf to support the desk, and two casters are mounted underneath so that it slides under the bed. These casters are incredibly cheap. They may be sufficient to support stuff that should be put on a desk like books and laptops, but as soon as you put any amount of weight on it from even a slight lean, the caster breaks. Or at least ours did. Its not just how cheap the casters are, but their placement. Any force that isn't straight down is going to put a stress on its components that it is not designed to take. I'll go into more detail about what you can do below.
Another significant problem is that the instructions are awful. For most of the build this is really no problem at all, as the pieces are all well labeled with letters or numbers and the build is basic enough that its hard to do the wrong thing. However the instructions have almost no words and the 3d drawings are poorly made and poorly printed, so when there is any confusion, it is really tough to figure out what is going on. This was a particular problem for me when mounting the ladder. The ladder can be mounted to the right or left side, and so it has cavities for wooden pegs and holes for that hardware drilled into both sides, even though only one side receives that hardware. From the drawing of that portion of the instructions, it looks like one screw is supposed to go into one of these unused cavities, but this wouldn't seem to serve any purpose and would require drilling a hole into the ladder to reach that cavity. I spent a half an hour trying to figure out what I was supposed to do before I realized that the drawing was actually showing that screw going into a different space that was lower down and perpendicular to where I thought it was going. The instructions weren't wrong, just really difficult to interpret.
The final thing that you should really consider is the size. I measured the space it was going into and made some mental pictures and had some plans, but even knowing the exact size the thing turned out to FEEL a lot bigger than I expected. It is really big. I ended up moving a dresser and a small bookshelf out that I had not planned on moving. I suggest taping out the footprint of the thing on the floor (including with the desk pulled out) AND the wall and then using a tape measure or some cardboard or string to mentally mark out the third dimension. Ultimately the size turned out to be a net positive for me, but it was something that diverged from the expectations I had when I bought it.
Okay, so now for some positives and smaller negatives.
As I stated above the size is actually pretty great. This is our first full bed for the kids and it is like an ocean to them. The dog (who can jump up top with no problem) also likes to perch and look out the window. Underneath, behind the dresser and the desk, there is also a massive space that every kid will love as a secret lair. The pictures I saw online made it look kind of like the dresser goes all the way to the back (which made no sense as it would be way too deep to be useful if that were the case). There's actually a titch over 24 between the dresser and the back of the bed (more than that for the desk). Its too small for a toddler mattress but with a couple of firm couch cushions and some gullible children it could be used as bunk bed. Certainly its big enough for a sleeping bag for sleepovers. We just put down a mat, a couple over-sized pillows, and put in a touch light. Even shoved a couple boxes of hot wheels down there and there was still plenty of space for the lair. Still on the subject of size, the desk is absolutely perfect. A lot of full loft setups have these mini-desks that are barely even usable, but this thing is big enough for me to use it. It wasn't ideal, but one day when my son really wanted some company I set up my laptop behind his and used the opposite side of the desk with very little discomfort. As the desk was the main feature we needed for the short term, I was extremely happy with what we got. Another neat thing about the desk is that it needs to be cleaned off to be slid under the bed, which makes it a lot easier to get my kid to clean up his desk at the end of the school day. If he doesn't then he doesn't have as much room to play. This isn't a perfect incentive, he can find plenty of reasons that cleaning up the desk is just too high a price to pay, but sometimes it works.
Overall the three features, the desk, the dresser drawers, and the bookshelf are all great. The drawers are pretty small, but they slide in and out great, and the tracks can be adjusted easily so they teeny bit higher or lower to keep the drawer faces from scraping each other. The bookshelf on the back is sturdy and a good size. Its a perfect depth (most bookshelves are a little too deep in my opinion, but the shelves are a little short so over-sized books won't fit in them (that's on the books as far as I'm concerned). The big problem with the bookshelf is that you need to be aware of the space needed to use it when placing the bed. If you want to place the bed in a corner, then that bookshelf will either have to go unused or flipped around so it can be accessed from the lair. The bookshelf that serves as the leg for the desk is basically unusable as a bookshelf because of how much motion there is. Its not rough to pull out and put away, but any books on there would just spill out to the floor unless they were wedged in really tight. You could DIY a small bungee around the front to hold books in too I suppose. We just put stuff on there that is heavy enough that it isn't going to fall out. Right now its a couple pairs of shoes and an abacus.
So finally, some simple ways to make it function better. I understand that for a lot of people it seems completely wrong to spend a lot of money on a brand new thing and then have to buy replacement parts. Yes things should work right out of the box. If that's something that causes you lots of frustration, then you probably shouldn't buy this bed. The way I look at it is that I'm spending $500 on a bed and another $100 on a mattress so spending another $20 to make it work exactly the way I want to isn't a bad deal.
First is the casters. Casters are a weird thing to buy. They seem to be categorized by wheel size, but those sizes don't seem to be standard (eg. I found some categorized as 2 that were 2 and some that were 1 and 7/8). The total height is what is the most important measurement in this case (wheel and mounting mechanism). Too high and the desk will scrape up against the bottom of the bed and won't go in all the way. Too low and it will be a little bit slanted. The total height you need is 2.25. The ones I got are 2.3 and they work but the desk is really close to scraping the bottom of the bed. If the floor has ANY imperfections (or a dime gets in the way), you will might have an issue. Personally I also think the thing needs 4 casters located close to the 4 corners. Kids should under no circumstances be climbing on top of the desk but if (which of course means when) they do, or if (again when) they lean on it too much, or if you blamelessly take a hold of it without thinking while pulling yourself off the floor, then having two wheels will be unstable. The thing isn't going to go anywhere, but it might wobble or tilt, which could pop a mounting screw or something. If you have 4 located near the corners, then it will be pretty tough to do anything that would compromise them. The bed comes with eight mounting screws for the 2 casters, so don't forget that if you are going to use 4 then you will need to get some mounting screws too.
Anyway, here is a?
A great bed for a great price with flaws that could easily be intolerable for reasonable people.
My son wanted a loft bed, we needed a bigger desk for remote learning, and we needed to make the most of the space in his small room. A half loft was the only thing that was practical, and after looking around a bit I was surprised at how few options there were for a half-loft, and at how expensive they seemed to be (or on the other side, featureless). I was attracted to this bed for likely the same reason you were, because the price is high but not too high, and it seems to have lots of great features. Reading some of the reviews that mentioned the cheap materials, I was hesitant. However without many options, and trusting in my moderate woodworking skills to supplement the build if necessary, I decided to order it. For me this turned out to be a great decision, but there were a number of problems that could easily be deal breakers for people who are more discerning than me. I'll highlight those problems (there are plenty), talk about what's great (also plenty), and give a couple tips about what to do to make up for the deficiencies of the product. First off, the materials are NOT cheap. It IS made of some sort of composite wood, but that wood is sturdy, straight, and tough. It will scratch if you scratch it, but it isn't soft like a lot of composites. It didn't gouged by tools touching it and it wasn't warped anywhere. Also, the pre-drilled holes were perfectly aligned, so everything fit together really snug and tight. Maybe they changed their supplier since those previous reviews were written, but it does not seem like they cut costs on the materials to meet the price point. On the other hand, the hardware is of terrible quality (like literally every single piece of assembled furniture I have ever bought). For the most part, this does not matter, as super cheap screws are perfectly sufficient to keep something this small sturdy and tight. I only stripped one screw during assembly. A better screw would not have stripped out, but it was ultimately my fault as I didn't take the time to turn down the torque on my drill, and I didn't position myself to get the right leverage straight down into the screw. The one piece of hardware that should definitely be replaced is the casters. The bed uses a bookshelf to support the desk, and two casters are mounted underneath so that it slides under the bed. These casters are incredibly cheap. They may be sufficient to support stuff that should be put on a desk like books and laptops, but as soon as you put any amount of weight on it from even a slight lean, the caster breaks. Or at least ours did. Its not just how cheap the casters are, but their placement. Any force that isn't straight down is going to put a stress on its components that it is not designed to take. I'll go into more detail about what you can do below. Another significant problem is that the instructions are awful. For most of the build this is really no problem at all, as the pieces are all well labeled with letters or numbers and the build is basic enough that its hard to do the wrong thing. However the instructions have almost no words and the 3d drawings are poorly made and poorly printed, so when there is any confusion, it is really tough to figure out what is going on. This was a particular problem for me when mounting the ladder. The ladder can be mounted to the right or left side, and so it has cavities for wooden pegs and holes for that hardware drilled into both sides, even though only one side receives that hardware. From the drawing of that portion of the instructions, it looks like one screw is supposed to go into one of these unused cavities, but this wouldn't seem to serve any purpose and would require drilling a hole into the ladder to reach that cavity. I spent a half an hour trying to figure out what I was supposed to do before I realized that the drawing was actually showing that screw going into a different space that was lower down and perpendicular to where I thought it was going. The instructions weren't wrong, just really difficult to interpret. The final thing that you should really consider is the size. I measured the space it was going into and made some mental pictures and had some plans, but even knowing the exact size the thing turned out to FEEL a lot bigger than I expected. It is really big. I ended up moving a dresser and a small bookshelf out that I had not planned on moving. I suggest taping out the footprint of the thing on the floor (including with the desk pulled out) AND the wall and then using a tape measure or some cardboard or string to mentally mark out the third dimension. Ultimately the size turned out to be a net positive for me, but it was something that diverged from the expectations I had when I bought it. Okay, so now for some positives and smaller negatives. As I stated above the size is actually pretty great. This is our first full bed for the kids and it is like an ocean to them. The dog (who can jump up top with no problem) also likes to perch and look out the window. Underneath, behind the dresser and the desk, there is also a massive space that every kid will love as a secret lair. The pictures I saw online made it look kind of like the dresser goes all the way to the back (which made no sense as it would be way too deep to be useful if that were the case). There's actually a titch over 24 between the dresser and the back of the bed (more than that for the desk). Its too small for a toddler mattress but with a couple of firm couch cushions and some gullible children it could be used as bunk bed. Certainly its big enough for a sleeping bag for sleepovers. We just put down a mat, a couple over-sized pillows, and put in a touch light. Even shoved a couple boxes of hot wheels down there and there was still plenty of space for the lair. Still on the subject of size, the desk is absolutely perfect. A lot of full loft setups have these mini-desks that are barely even usable, but this thing is big enough for me to use it. It wasn't ideal, but one day when my son really wanted some company I set up my laptop behind his and used the opposite side of the desk with very little discomfort. As the desk was the main feature we needed for the short term, I was extremely happy with what we got. Another neat thing about the desk is that it needs to be cleaned off to be slid under the bed, which makes it a lot easier to get my kid to clean up his desk at the end of the school day. If he doesn't then he doesn't have as much room to play. This isn't a perfect incentive, he can find plenty of reasons that cleaning up the desk is just too high a price to pay, but sometimes it works. Overall the three features, the desk, the dresser drawers, and the bookshelf are all great. The drawers are pretty small, but they slide in and out great, and the tracks can be adjusted easily so they teeny bit higher or lower to keep the drawer faces from scraping each other. The bookshelf on the back is sturdy and a good size. Its a perfect depth (most bookshelves are a little too deep in my opinion, but the shelves are a little short so over-sized books won't fit in them (that's on the books as far as I'm concerned). The big problem with the bookshelf is that you need to be aware of the space needed to use it when placing the bed. If you want to place the bed in a corner, then that bookshelf will either have to go unused or flipped around so it can be accessed from the lair. The bookshelf that serves as the leg for the desk is basically unusable as a bookshelf because of how much motion there is. Its not rough to pull out and put away, but any books on there would just spill out to the floor unless they were wedged in really tight. You could DIY a small bungee around the front to hold books in too I suppose. We just put stuff on there that is heavy enough that it isn't going to fall out. Right now its a couple pairs of shoes and an abacus. So finally, some simple ways to make it function better. I understand that for a lot of people it seems completely wrong to spend a lot of money on a brand new thing and then have to buy replacement parts. Yes things should work right out of the box. If that's something that causes you lots of frustration, then you probably shouldn't buy this bed. The way I look at it is that I'm spending $500 on a bed and another $100 on a mattress so spending another $20 to make it work exactly the way I want to isn't a bad deal. First is the casters. Casters are a weird thing to buy. They seem to be categorized by wheel size, but those sizes don't seem to be standard (eg. I found some categorized as 2 that were 2 and some that were 1 and 7/8). The total height is what is the most important measurement in this case (wheel and mounting mechanism). Too high and the desk will scrape up against the bottom of the bed and won't go in all the way. Too low and it will be a little bit slanted. The total height you need is 2.25. The ones I got are 2.3 and they work but the desk is really close to scraping the bottom of the bed. If the floor has ANY imperfections (or a dime gets in the way), you will might have an issue. Personally I also think the thing needs 4 casters located close to the 4 corners. Kids should under no circumstances be climbing on top of the desk but if (which of course means when) they do, or if (again when) they lean on it too much, or if you blamelessly take a hold of it without thinking while pulling yourself off the floor, then having two wheels will be unstable. The thing isn't going to go anywhere, but it might wobble or tilt, which could pop a mounting screw or something. If you have 4 located near the corners, then it will be pretty tough to do anything that would compromise them. The bed comes with eight mounting screws for the 2 casters, so don't forget that if you are going to use 4 then you will need to get some mounting screws too. Anyway, here is a?