Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Merlot Twin Over Full Staircase Bunk Bed

Merlot Twin Over Full Staircase Bunk BedFirst, I have to say that the bed is awesome! I had some problems getting it and I lost a half day of work sitting around waiting for Fed-EX to show up. That's another story though, and has nothing to do with the bed.

It came on a pallet and the 6 boxes were shrink-wrapped together. We decided to put the staircase on the right side and the directions were a little confusing, but not too bad. All in all, it was actually quite easy to put together and it looks great once assembled. My eight year old is thrilled! It can be put together by one person, although it is nice to have someone to help. I would say that it took less than three hours, including the unpacking.

One thing worth mentioning is the photo shows three drawers under the bottom bunk. I thought I was getting those three drawers, but they did not arrive with the shipment. When I went back and read the detailed description, I noticed that the drawers were optional. I feel this is a bit misleading to show a photo with the drawers and then have the fine print say something else. To be honest, I looked at so so many beds, that I missed this detail in the description. I am not sure if I could have gotten a better deal elsewhere, but I would definitely look a bit closer if I was shopping again.

To be specific, I have the single over full mission bunk with steps (and drawers under the steps) by Discovery World Furniture.

The bed was for two small kids to sleep on the bottom full bed, so I had a narrow end (opposite side from drawers) placed against the wall. That way each child can get out of the full bed on their own side without having to climb over the other. Unfortunately, there is a piece of wood at the bottom of the drawers that is unfinished. In all the promo pictures, this 'hidden' side is against a wall and can't be seen. Nowhere in the descriptions does it say only 3 sides are finished. I assumed all 4 sides were supposed to be finished.

Thinking this was a mistake to have the entire 'hidden' side beautifully finished with the exception of a single unfinsished board, I called the manufacturer. Their number wasn't listed on their Discovery World Furniture website, so I had to look at a Sanford Florida white pages and type in the business name. Lisa, the customer service rep at Discovery World Furniture said they don't deal with customers, & that I'd have to talk to the vendor that sold the product to me. So I did that. The vendor was very cooperative and called me the next day saying Discovery World Furniture said the unfinished board was intentional. So I called Discovery again and spoke to Lisa again. She said it was never intended to have that side of the bunk bed be away from a wall and visible.

All I wanted was to have a finished board sent to me so I could tack it over the unfinished board. If you need to do this, the description is as follows: From the exploded view of the bunk bed in the instructions, look at item 13; I needed a piece of wood identical to the top horizontal piece of wood on number 13.

After a bit of going back and forth, she finally agreed to mail a piece of finished wood to me so I could cover up the unfinished board. Assuming I get the board I'm expecting, I'll be pleased, though annoyed with all the fuss. My 10 year old already loves the new "fort" in the house, and the kids love their new play ground. Clamp some sheets hanging from the top bunk and the bottom bed becomes a play house with walls. Endless hours of fun with that bed.

Oh, the drawers that are under the bottom bed in all the pictures don't come with the bunk bed. Somehow, you are supposed to know that and know how to order them separately.

The bed is beautiful so I would have given a 5 star, but the fact that nowhere on the ads do they say only 3 sides are finished and the drawers under the bottom bed don't come with the bed would have garnered a 3 stars. The fact that I am supposed to receive an extra piece in the mail raises the 3 star to 4 stars for tolerable (it did take some persuasion to get them to agree to mail the extra piece) customer service.

Hope this helped.

I also own a full over full bunk from same company. There were 2 problems with that one: 1) not having the holes drilled in the right places. The manufacturer said they had changed designs on that model a while back and I must have new and old parts mixed together. With some fuss, that got straightened out and the newly shipped parts fit correctly. 2) one of the wooden slats had a large knot in it and when I held it from one end of the slat, it broke in half at the knot. Not wanting to have to deal with the company again, I went to a local lumber supplier and bought a 1x3 board to replace it. Again a 4 star on that one, beautiful, but clearly some inherent problems with a supply chain that sources everything from Vietnam.

Buy Merlot Twin Over Full Staircase Bunk Bed Now

Not hard to assemble but it does take some time and it is important to follow directions Finished beds are really nice and the grandkids love the beds If you don't mind assembly would highly recommend this bed

Read Best Reviews of Merlot Twin Over Full Staircase Bunk Bed Here

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