Assembling a flat-pack bunk bed

Clear the floor before you open the boxes

Getting a bunk bed up the stairs covers delivery day. Once the cartons are in the room, you need more floor than the finished bed takes, because the end panels and rails are laid flat before they stand up. Move the rug, the toy boxes and anything under the window. How much floor space does a bunk bed need? gives the finished footprint. Assembly needs that plus room to walk round it and to swing a long rail.

Open the boxes on the floor, not on the bed you are replacing. Lay the panels out and count the fixings against the parts list before you start. A missing bolt is easier to chase with the seller on the first evening than halfway up the frame.

Two people, one sheet

Most instructions show two people for the stages where the ends stand up and the upper rails go on. One person holding a tall end panel while the other finds a bolt is how panels fall. Keep children out of the room while the frame is part-built.

Follow the order the sheet gives. Some makers want every fixing loose until the frame is square, then tightened. Others tighten as you go. We do not give a torque figure, because none of the makers we cite publishes one we could check, and overtightening a bolt into particleboard or a thin metal tube can strip it. Tighten the way the sheet says, with the tool it says.

Before anyone sleeps on it

Fit every guard rail and the ladder exactly where the drawings show. If the instructions say the bed must be fixed to the wall, do that before first use. Put the mattress in, check its depth against the mark on the frame, and keep the spare parts bag with the instructions in a drawer. You will want both when you move house or take the bed down.

Questions people ask