South ShoreStep One Platform Bed with Mouldings, King, Pure Black

3 Years on, This platform is still going strong.Only bad thing, the corners on the platform will knock you for a painful loop if you bang your shins into them.This will happen only ONE TIME, as the pain does its magical work.June 2016This product has not done very well in reviews, but I find it to be a great product.I think its getting a bad rap, from some people who maybe didnt spend the time to get it right.If you don't know its particle board, or that you have to put it together, I suggest you go another route.Prepare for the Construction.Everything comes in the box that you need, but it makes sense to enhance it.There are some things you have to take on yourself. Buy some better screws, some contact paper,generally prepare for the construction. This thing is essentially a box, with flat boards over the top.The box part seems more complicated to construct than it should be.Biggest caution is to be careful with the BLUE TIP cam Bolts. Once you set them, you can only get them outby breaking the board. So TRIPLE Check the drawing before you drop one in.I read through almost every single review on this product, to get information about assembly.Comments that were not very helpful: - "The bed is heavy." (This is the number one review sentence?) - "I had to carry the heavy box, or remove parts from the box to get it in the house." - "The instructions are "hard". - "Cheap" - "I bought this for my son" - "The box was damaged, the parts were broken" - "The bed is made of particle board". - "The package arrived Late" - "The bed is made of particle board"So, I had to read through hundreds of comments, to find wisdom, I thought I wouldsummarize what I found for you:1. "Put the side rails on first so that when you put the end rail on, it lines up perfectly." I found this impossible to do. I had to put the rails on, by laying on my back.2. Use a drill to drive screws. and make any pilot holes as needed. (They are needed for the rails).3. Get some wood glue, use for every screw, dowel and wood joint4. Felt for the bottom is a good idea on a hard surface floor. You can get this at your hardware store for a few dollars.5. The mattress fails to cover the unpainted platform peices. Get some black contact paper.6. Make sure you have the box squared up right. Go to the store and buy a "Speed Square" for 5 bucks. (It looks like a triangle). Use it to truly square the box - it will help.7. I used some small nails to hold the rails in place, and square, while I drilled the holes from the bottom. (The nails were just tapped in behind the rails, to hold them in position until I drove the first screw)8. Go slow, measure 3 times, make sure the blue Cam bolts are in the right place before you set them.9. The Drawing is accurate. Carefully study every move. Take your time.10. The instructions are in the bigger of the 2 boxes, in between some boards. Good luck finding them.11. All the harware is there, I dont think there are any extra's, so be careful with it.Understand that in any construction project, you may need enhancements. Buying a good wood glue,maybe buying some better screws, some contact paper.. You may balk at having to do this, but justabout every "Assemble it yourself" Furniture benefits from enhanecments. Sure you can be mad about it,or, you can be happy about improved results. From the Reviews: - "screws were too short" - "Need wood glue on everything"Other Reviewers said:- "Make sure you put the 2 long, black outer edge pieces that hold the bed in place on first!!! The screws used to hold them in go up and under that flat piece the bed sits on and there's hardly any room for leverage to push the screws into the wood. In fact, I did end up flipping the bed and had a HECK of a time pushing the screws into the wood on those edge pieces."It says to put the platforms ( unfinished wood) on first then the railings on second(the pieces of finished wood that will secure the mattress. Bad idea .PUT THE SIDE RAILINGS ON FIRST ON THE PLATFORMS THAT WILL BE GOING ON THE EDGES OF THE BED.The railing that goes on the front of the bed, well you will just have to either screw it onmanually with a screw driver, which means laying on your back, or get someone to help you liftit high enough where you can put something underneath to support it so you can use a drill.> Need to adjust the box, so that its perfectly square before you try to mount wood to it. if you dont, the holes wont line up, and its not the fault of the design. Suggest using a "Spped Square" - which is a triangle shaped "ruler" that will help you square it perfectly.. Make sure the platforms all are even and use those pieces of wood as a measuring device before using the screws !+- " The molding along the sides of the platform could probably be drilled down before the slats are screwed into the base unit, thus allowing you to turn them over and screw downwards. But there's no easy way to do this with the molding along the foot of the bed, and the instructions don't tell you this until you've already got all the slats screwed down."- "Attaching the moulding (which is the last step). You will have very little room to get the appropriate leverage needed to get the screws to grip. I found that attaching the left and right moulding prior to fastening the platform boards really made it much easier."- " lay out all of the top boards on the base first before screwing them on one by one. "- " i also put 3 (3-LED Lights per tap fixture) on each side for a brilliant under glow about 1 1/2 from the ground."- "The holes in the particleboard ARE in the right spots, if you think they aren't, just double-check yourself. "- " One thing that threw me off was the black painted surfaces all face the foot and sides of the bed, NOT the head!"- I bought some Felt for the bottom of the wood, where it meets the floor.- "the top surface where your mattress rests is NOT FINISHED" ( I got some black contact paper for this)- "Our solution was to apply $10 of black contact paper we got from ACE Hardware (a 18" x 24' roll was just sufficient to cover the entire queen platform bed with just a little left over), which covered the nails and more importantly, the unsightly and rough and splinter-y particleboard. ">>Warranty 5 years:----------------------> production code on the outside of the box > Get it before you throw out the box, or the lack of the code will be used against you in any return situation.

Allow me to say, at the beginning, the bed itself does exactly what it says. It's a very basic platform bed, arrived without issue. However, the cons are listed below:1. Instructions are ENTIRELY pictures. No text at all.2. Half the pieces weren't marked with their part #. So I was guessing whether the board was a B, B3 or B2 half the time.3. The dowels used in the support structure are plastic and easily bent.4. (I realize this is nit-picky) By the time you've finished putting the pieces together, the decorative trim which hides the sharp edges of the support boards, is IMPOSSIBLE to attach. You have to bend under the bed and squeeze a screwdriver between the floor and the platform and SHOVE the screw up into the base (there are no guide holes on the trim). That means you have to have someone sitting on the platform itself to hold the trim in place and hope for the best that the screw doesn't go in sideways (happened 4 times with me), get rug burn on your knuckles from having to squeeze the screwdriver under the platform and you will spend 5 minutes PER SCREW trying to get it flush to the platform. (I wound up having to use wood glue because I just couldn't handle the burn on my knuckles anymore)The pros:1. VERY sturdy bed2. Once it's put together, it's very stable, with a TON of internal support under the platform itself.3. The trim didn't chip while putting it together.All in all, the bed itself is a good choice if you have the patience to put it together and are good with jigsaw puzzles. Looking back, I'd probably order another bed similar to this one but would probably go back to a brand like Prepac, whose beds arrive with much better instruction and are more easily assembled.

Much like others have said, assembling this bed is a pain in the rear. So many pieces and boards, it's a bit overwhelming especially if this is your first build. It took my wife and I almost 8 hours to put it together. It can be confusing as they do not really provide clear instructions, you have to assume xyz is what they wanted you to do. It's like they expect you to how to build it based on minimal instructions. Don't just show me the model picture and the boards and screws and tell me that A & B goes together using xyz screws.. Assume I have never built a thing in my life. For example.. Tell me to grab board A and B with xyz pieces, put A against B, take X piece and put it in between A and B, and then Y and Z on opposite ends to tie down.Other than the confusing and not really well put together instructions, the bed quality and build is much better than I was expecting. Once you can get passed a full day of putting it together, it's a great looking bed. My King size DreamCloud Hybrid foam mattress fits it perfectly! If I knew it would be this painful to put together, I probably wouldn't have purchased it. I'm very happy with it now, but if I had to do it all over, I would either pay someone to do it, or just spend an extra 200-300 for something not so complicated to put together.

The bed looks great and it’s quite sturdy. The assembly was going quite well until we started with the mouldings. That’s the worse to manage. They have not given any screw holes on them and hence screwing them to the bed was the biggest flaw the company could do. Took us almost an hour in comparison to assembling the bed which was done in 1hour.Hope when we move it it’s easier.

We assembled this bed last night and it took us 3 hours with two people. Instructions were good at the beginning but as you go towards the end, the instructions on crown moulding were terrible. Crown moulding itself was very lame in terms of how it is meant to be installed. I wish it was already installed on the board so it can be sturdy. I used wood glue and drill machine to install it even though it says no drilling machine required. there was no hole given on the crown moulding so you would have to make your own but drilling it in or using a screwdriver. The main reason I bought this bed was due to the look of crown moulding, now I am afraid if one of my 3 kids uses it as a stepping board, it will fall apart. Like everyone else who reviewed, I agree, once you assemble this bed, you can not move it. so make sure you really want to stay in your home for a while or will have to break it down.

This line of furniture is ok. For the price we paid its good. Sadly, it is difficult to assemble and we will not be able to take it with us when we move because it kind of falls apart. Nice looking and sturdy once assembled, just not designed to be easily disassembled without damaging the MDF.

Wow, what can I say. This thing is like a brick. Once you build it, don't plan on moving it. I feel like I could have a party on this bed and invite 10 people. It took a couple hours to setup, and you definitely need someone to help you.

The quality is great for the money, The only thing I had problems with were the instructions. It would be much better if they had marked the head and foot of the bed on the instructions. Otherwise everything went together well. It took my husband and me about 4 hours to put together with several breaks and a few slight disagreements. We are old!