So a new client called and asked if I could put a bed frame together. Sure, I said. I figured, two of those steel bed frame doodads, put on the four wheels, 2 sets screws, and done. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Silly me.
So it turns out it was a Woodcrest Pine Ridge Mission Captains Bed. It seemed simple enough, three boxes on a pallet. Off we go.
The trick to any self assembly furniture is to not think too much, or try to do anything without consulting the directions. I will say, as a reviewer, this kit gets about a C- from me. One problem was, the bag of connectors was kinda hard to work with:
In better kits, each different connector comes in its own re-sealable plastic bag. This was one bag with 10 or more compartments, so once you cut things open it was VERY easy to mix things up or lose them. If I had it to do over, I would bring a bunch of little tupperware containers to keep them organized, as there were almost 180 connectors, and many of them were almost the same size. ANYWAY back to the job!
Of course it is always a thrill when it starts to take shape!
I will also add, as part of my overall product review, this was harder than it had to be because the slats here were not uniformly cut, and I had to do some sawing on one or two to make them fit. But hey, I am a handy . . . person.
More pix . . .
Once I got to this point I figured I was almost done, but NOOOOO . . . I literally had to build the drawers, all three, pretty much from scratch.
Another issue, the posts for the knobs had been painted, making them too big to fit in the holes, so all 6 had to be sanded down with a file. Yeesh. But, success.
I hope I don’t sound too negative here, I love putting furniture together, it’s like doing a massive jigsaw puzzle, and often it’s very much of a “me vs. them” challenge which I adore. But I will say about this particular item though, the directions were more difficult than most– there were at least two points where I had to make a critical decisions, and I simply had to make an educated guess. I guessed right, but it was close. And I was a little surprised at how barren the drawer parts were, I would have expected more pre-drilled holes in a kit. Things were so basic I found myself wishing I had clamps and a workbench, but, I managed to make do with tools at hand. Also many of the pre-drilled holes for the bed slats were either nonexistent or not in the right place and I had to work around that.
On the plus side, the client was fabulous, supplying me with snacks and bottles of water throughout the 6 hours. So, despite the many difficulties, it was a success. All in a day’s work 🙂
