Canwood Skyway Loft Bed with Desk and Storage Tower, Twin, Espresso

I was very nervous about purchasing this. When it comes to assembling furniture, I tend to screw up whatever I touch. Plus, a lot of reviews for this and other pieces similar in nature talk about sagging and not feeling very solid. But, we needed an upgraded bed for the kid, so I puled the trigger.It came two days ago, a Friday. Based on the other reviews I was fully expecting to work on it off and on throughout the weekend since I knew I would be doing it on my own. Well, mostly on my own - my 5 year old helped. I opened the first box and got down to it. I was surprised the instructions were little more than a single sheet with the diagram showing how each piece connected. The single page was a little busy and it took some staring to make sure I was positioning things right, but in the end it was helpful having the entire plan in one place where you could easily see the direction you needed to go. The first box took me a little over an hour and I was surprised to be done.I was so excited to open the second box to find that the drawers were already pre-assembled and resting in their tracks within the pre-built cabinet. Anyone who has had to assemble a bunch of drawers knows that they can be the biggest pain and I always seem to get the tracks crooked, meaning the drawers never close the way they're supposed to. I put together the shelving that goes in behind it, and was able to move on to the third box much sooner than I expected.The third box contains the bed itself. It was the most awkward because of the length, and I had to wrestle with the pieces a bit since I was putting it together myself. I decided to build it on the two pieces I had finished previously and that was the right move for me. I was careful not to ruin the finish, and it came together pretty fast overall.In the end, I was expecting to kill a weekend working on it, and it only took me 5 hours. My daughter was able to sleep in it that night, though the other reviewers are right about it being stinky. I went ahead and let her sleep in it because sometimes I'm stinky too, and I don't make my daughter stay away from me. She was so excited that first night that I'm surprised she slept at all.

Arrived on time, in three giant boxes. It's nice that drawers come pre-assembled but at the same time two face panels simply fell off when we removed the button from the inside (they are screwed in from the inside for shipment), gluing was very crappy. I Must note when we reported this to Amazon we immediately got a partial refund which gave me the budget to call someone later to fix it. :)Took me 3 evenings after work to put it together alone, with a single, old-school screwdriver (Murphy's law: electric drill battery died, about 10 minutes into the first evening.).I'm 6.3" and ~210 lbs and when I was putting the fully assembled bed frame in place I did need almost all my back & lifting power so you should keep that in mind for a lone attempt. :)Smell was pretty bad for several days, we kept a fan running practically for a week or so... whatever they use it's pretty stinky, we were able to smell it for several weeks.All in all it's a pretty sturdy thing, easy (even if laborious) to assemble and for the price it's pretty much unbeatable ' and most importantly it is huge, I bet my already tall 6-y old princess will be able to use it all the way until our newborn son reaches the same age... :)PS: make sure you put something under the ladder hooks or they will scratch the surface right away, regardless where you put the ladder (you can move it anywhere.)

I ordered 2 beds, one for each of my daughters. The product was delivered on time, and comes in 3 different packages, front shelf, rear shelf and the bed/rail/headboard/footboard box. The delivery had a few scrapes, but there was enough padding and Styrofoam to take the impacts. The directions are extremely vague and the illustrations are poor at best. Many of the parts are not labeled and the instruction pictures are not very helpful. Working alone on the first bed took me over 5 hours. The first problem was that (I figured out later) that I was sent two of the same pieces so I was extremely confused. The second delay came (as it took very long to figure out) that 6 of the lag bolts were 1/2 inch too short to attach key component shelves and support. I had to go out and buy $10 (for both beds) of lag bolts that would be long enough to put the product together. Bottom line, quality control from production on these beds is/are very poor. Once I worked through the problems I was able to assemble the product and another quality problem popped up. While assembling the drawers, I found hairline fractures along a routed section of the outside of the drawer. Needless to say, three sides of 5 drawers were fractured and I could not assemble them. I once again went to the hardware store and this time purchased wood glue in an attempt to bond the part. As of right now I need to contact the manufacturer and re-order 3 side drawers, 12 lag screws, and a guide rail for the keyboard. In summary, the product has some serious quality control problems but once it is built it looks nice and serves its purpose.

Unlike some other reviewers, I was not missing pieces nor were there any damaged pieces. However, one of the drawers split when assembled and I had to use extra wood glue in the seams. I hope it holds up.Before I started, I made a list of all the recommendations by other reviewers so I thought the assembly would go smoothly. Took six hours to put together with some time-eating problems.The biggest issue was putting together the first set of shelves. The directions told you to assemble the three shelves concurrent with the assembly of the sides, which is impossible. It should have stated to lay the side piece flat and then add the shelves. Then you should add the other side piece before standing it upright. The directions should also have instructed you to use wood glue.I'll give it 4 stars for looks and 3 stars for assembly but the biggest unknown right now is how it will hold up over time.Addendum: Had it for a year now with no problems. The other bunk bed I got for the twins at the same time has already fallen apart and been replaced.