hmmm....
With a little propping up of parts along the way, I (63 year old woman) put this together single-handedly!!) POSITIVES: the bed is solid wood & sturdy construction; the instructions, which are only pictographic, were very easy to follow. For the most part, the pieces were well-drilled, things lined up nicely, and overall the bed was easy to put together. I "cheated", however, and ended up using a power drill for the slats that support the mattress. I can't IMAGINE doing all 26 screws with a hand-held screwdriver!!! (The instructions said not to use power tools.) NEGATIVES: even though the bed is solid wood, the finish makes it look like fake veneer! I think the "honey color" is just a tad too bright - almost lurid. Several of the vertical bars in the headboard were not well-joined and a bit off-kilter. It came with a big scratch, probably from the shipping. This is soft wood; it dents and scratches easily, so be gentle with it, and use lots of padding. Once I had it put together, I noticed that the side rails bowed out a bit, and I'm not 100% sure the whole thing was square! The wooden joining pegs are too soft and break easily. A few extra pegs and screws in the hardware packet "just in case", would have been nice. Also, there were a couple of "drippy"looking bits in the finish. And, I did make a couple of mistakes - didn't notice that the mattress slats were counter-sunk until about halfway through attaching them (Duh!) and almost put the headboard on backwards - a few words of guidance in the instructions would have prevented this. YET - 3 hours later, I had a nice soldi bed that, once made up with pillows, sheets, etc, hides the flaws. Note: platform beds are harder to make than regular beds - you have to lift up the mattress to tuck in corners, etc - not good if you don't have a strong back!!! With the free shipping, and *** off coupon, I think this is a pretty OK bed for the money; I like the simple design, and the solid feel, plus it matches the other furniture in the room.
