Ikea bunk beds?

[Rebecca]

They look really flimsy online. Are they sturdy enough for 2 little boys? My ceilings upstairs are only 7' so I need a low set or a short loft and a mattress on the floor below. Anyone have ideas of what might work for me? I've been searching online like crazy and am getting discouraged. I'm looking for solid wood (no particle board/laminate), mounted ladder (no room for an angled one) and about 50" high for the top mattress height.

[luvmy2boys]

We bought this one.

http://www.ikea.com.sg/products/prod...ay.asp?id=2563
(This is on their Singapore page. I can't find it on the U.S. page, but I've seen it at our local IKEA plenty of times and never can find it online. Go figure).

My requirements were:
- solid wood (no particle board)
- beds can be separated/unstacked (I'm not ready to bunk the beds yet because DS4 thinks he's a gymnast, and I also wanted the option to put the boys in separate rooms when they're older)
- low height (we have ceiling fans and small bedrooms).

I haven't bunked ours up yet, but the separate beds feel pretty sturdy. I did have a problem where I fell backwards onto the bed and the side beam
busted in half. When I looked at it, I found that there happened to be knots in the wood right at one of the mounting points for the cross beams, so the wood was definitely weak there. I'm pretty sure it was a fluke. They replaced it for me for no charge, with no problem. I had my receipt which they used to look up the bed model, but I don't think they required one to replace the piece.

This one is about 56 inches tall. It was the shortest one that they had on display. It's a big cramped underneath there and the bottom bunk is pretty low to the ground, so I can't imagine getting one much shorter.

One of my friends has one of the loft beds and it doesn't feel very sturdy to me. I think the stackable ones are better, because they tend to have more crosspieces to stabilize it.

Overall I've been very happy with it so far! We've had it for about a year and a half.

[jocelyndale]

Originally Posted by luvmy2boys

I had my receipt which they used to look up the bed model, but I don't think they required one to replace the piece.

I've had faulty parts in packages from Ikea and they *always* required a receipt to replace the piece. Maybe this isn't the same everywhere, but the Ikea nearest me (couple hours away) certainly does. The one time the receipt left my wallet (darn hubby and his budgeting compulsion), I had to call him and get the transaction number before the parts exchange could be made (short piece of wood for a shelving unit).

I recommend that anyone who wants Ikea furniture visit a store and give the furniture a workout. Shake it, move it, check to see if they've gorilla glued the joints.

I'm happy with a lot of my Ikea furniture, but I don't buy the flimsier varieties.

[Rebecca]

Ooh, that's the one I was looking at. Do the legs seem strong enough to you? Do you need to buy slats to support the mattress seperately? There is frustratingly little information on the website. I wonder how much space between the 2 bunks there is when they're stacked?

[annethcz]

We chose not to buy Ikea bunk beds because they didn't seem sturdy enough. When we went into the store and looked at the displays, every single bed wobbled when we put our hands on it and shook the bed. If the bed wobbles that much when we pushed on it, could you imagine how much it would shake when you have kids climbing, jumping and bouncing on the beds???

[emptymug]

DW and I have looked at bunk beds at the Ikea in Schaumburg, IL and have never been impressed with the overall sturdiness with the piece. I love Ikea for shelves, tables, and other things that aren't required to hold people above 3 feet in the air, but beyond that I tend to shy away theor products.

[LemonPie]

We bought the Kura Bed from IKEA for our son. You can use it like a loft bed and put another mattress underneath, or you can flip it, so the mattress frame is on the bottom (if you hit the alternate pics you'll see it done both ways). We bought a canopy tent to go over the top. We had it as a loft bed, but it made me nervous to have DS (almost 4) climbing up and down unsupervised, so we flipped it.

This bed is *extremely* sturdy. We were pleasantly surprised. My DH was able to put it together very quickly. A PP mentioned that the furniture in the store didn't seem very sturdy, and I think I noticed that too. They change their displays around all the time, so I suspect they don't put much time into putting them together.

Anyway, our son LOVES the bed. We've had it for about a year now. With the canopy over it, it feels sort of enclosed. He plays on it all the time--it's been everything from a school bus to a glass-bottomed boat to a tractor. This last week it's been a fire plane (we went on a field trip to see the US Forest Service Smoke Jumpers)

HTH
Jen

[emptymug]

You know, I saw that. That one did seem to be promising, but we were hesitant to take the risk at the time. I might have to go back and rethink it. Thanks.

Originally Posted by 2Bugs

We bought the Kura Bed from IKEA for our son. You can use it like a loft bed and put another mattress underneath, or you can flip it, so the mattress frame is on the bottom (if you hit the alternate pics you'll see it done both ways). We bought a canopy tent to go over the top. We had it as a loft bed, but it made me nervous to have DS (almost 4) climbing up and down unsupervised, so we flipped it.

This bed is *extremely* sturdy. We were pleasantly surprised. My DH was able to put it together very quickly. A PP mentioned that the furniture in the store didn't seem very sturdy, and I think I noticed that too. They change their displays around all the time, so I suspect they don't put much time into putting them together.

Anyway, our son LOVES the bed. We've had it for about a year now. With the canopy over it, it feels sort of enclosed. He plays on it all the time--it's been everything from a school bus to a glass-bottomed boat to a tractor. This last week it's been a fire plane (we went on a field trip to see the US Forest Service Smoke Jumpers)

HTH
Jen

[SleeplessMommy]

I have been satisfied with real wood furniture from Ikea, but disappointed by the particle board stuff... I assemble the furniture with wood glue at various joints, to decrease wobble. (though for a bunkbed, not all joints should be glued!)

They also have very affordable mattresses. With a low ceiling, a thin mattress could buy some extra room. [By the way, in a former cape cod-style house, we had a low ceiling replaced with a vaulted ceiling with spectacular though non-frugal results. In the long term you could try this.]

We recently got Meldal (the metal twin bed) and it is nice too.

[Christineincali]

We have the Ikea Tromso metal bunk beds and they are VERY sturdy. My 11 and 9 y/o kids have been sleeping and climbing on them for 2 years so far with no problems whatsoever.

-Christine

[kittywitty]

Bump!!!

I need to get some bunk beds for my kids and I am going to drive to IKEA this weekend. I am trying to decide between the KURA loft with a mattress below, or the TROMSO.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20050292
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/pr...ProductDisplay
Anyone else with opinions on their sturdiness?

[californiajenn]

This isn't what anyone is looking for but my 8 y.o. dd has this bed:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50019950

It is very sturdy, surprisingly. I too was worried about IKEA quality so I went to the store and hung all over the bed like an ape! I got some weird looks so I loudly explained to the sales person so everyone didn't think I was doing it for fun.

[Rebecca]

I ended up buying the one from Walmart. It was less than $200 and is solid wood, not MDF. The only thing I didn't like about it was that there was a strong urethane smell for a few days and that not a single thing was already put together. We (ok, dh) had to assemble every little slat in the headboard along with everything else. It's very sturdy and attractive. Because our house is listed for sale, I have the bed separated for aestetics. The rooms look bigger with the beds apart and each staged nicely.

We got this one because it's inexpensive and I plan to cut the legs off the bottom bunk to the level of the first ladder rung. I wouldn't want to ruin a more expensive bunkbed, you know? The 250 yr old seaside cottage where we're moving only has 6'9" ceilings in the bedrooms (though ours in this house are only 7' and it was built in 1940!).

[sabrinat]

Originally Posted by jocelyndale

I've had faulty parts in packages from Ikea and they *always* required a receipt to replace the piece. Maybe this isn't the same everywhere, but the Ikea nearest me (couple hours away) certainly does. The one time the receipt left my wallet (darn hubby and his budgeting compulsion), I had to call him and get the transaction number before the parts exchange could be made (short piece of wood for a shelving unit).

I recommend that anyone who wants Ikea furniture visit a store and give the furniture a workout. Shake it, move it, check to see if they've gorilla glued the joints.

I'm happy with a lot of my Ikea furniture, but I don't buy the flimsier varieties.

I hear you, don't lose the receiept. We made the mistake of not putting ours together right away and when we did some 6 months later it was a disaster and major drama to get the parts for it!
We have a bunkbed. My dh has had it for 3 years and I can say it didn't withstood him completely, but I think it's probably a decent piece of furniture.

[gwen's mom]

I have never been impressed with IKEA's bunkbeds with regards to stability.

I highly recommend this company as a loft source:
http://varsityloftclub.com/

They are sold through Denver Mattress Co. so you can check them out in the store. I work in student housing and these are the same beds we put in to college student's rooms. The beds are completely adjustable so you can practicly lower one all the way to the ground if you would like or you can set them up higher to for more storage space. You can add many pieces to the set and there are a variety of set-up options. I am lucky enough to be using a set for my DDs right now and once we leave the halls we will be buying our own set!

[kittywitty]

Ok. I got the solid wood ones at IKEA. They even fit in our van with all the kids!

They are really nice and very sturdy. I am very pleased. Probably the best $129 I have spent in a LONG time.

[miss_sonja]

We have the LO bunkbeds and they are great. I don't know if they still sell them though, as I haven't seen them in store for a while, but it's a great set. Very versatile, we've had it set up four different ways in the time we've had them. Sturdy wood and metal.

[etoilech]

We have these and they are extremely sturdy. Two small kids jumping on it and me on the top bed. No wobbling. They can be un-bunked too.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10045381