I chose to assemble this bed alone in spite of helpful advice #2's recommendation for two adults given my fairly extensive experience with furniture assembly. Even with two adults, this would be a challenging assembly. Start with the assembly instructions offering six (6) "helpful advice" tips. That's the end of your verbal cues. The entire assembly offers only visual drawings to follow with parts identified by numbers and letters. I confirmed all parts and hardware were present and organized them ahead of time. While helpful advice #2 suggests the assembly takes approximately 40 minutes, it took me over 4 hours. Some of that extra time was looking for tools beyond what was provided and recommended in helpful advice #3 because you will need a few more if you have the problems I experienced. Helpful advice #5 suggests that you leave all components loosely assembled until advised to tighten. This advice never comes. While it is important to leave the bolts connecting the leg assembly to each corner loose until you can square the frame, you will need to anticipate when to fully tighten all components before they become inaccessible as you proceed with the assembly. Once the base of the bed frame was assembled, and I confirmed it was square and level, I tighten all bolts and thought I had gotten through the worst. Then came the center rail installation. The rail was about 3/8" too long to slide into place. I reviewed the bed frame base was properly assembled, which it seemed to be. In spite of that, there was no way that center rail would fit without some reduction in length. That's where course sandpaper or a saw is needed. A rasp is too course for the center rail as it's manufactured with glued plywood strips. With the center rail reduced and fit in place, I proceeded without bolting it into place as the holes were not aligned. The bed slat assembly would serve to hold it in place so I moved on. Installing the three center rail legs can be tricky, especially if you don't have experience with barrel nuts. You'll need a Phillips head screwdriver to align these nuts in their hole properly while bolting the designated bed slat through the center rail and into the leg. The slats in this assembly are numbered as 3/13, 7/13, etc. to identify which of the total of 13 slats you're lining up to the three center legs. Don't roll out the entire slat assembly all at once or you'll lose access to attach the legs. Also, before moving on, slide under the partially unfurled slats to level the adjustable foots as you go. I used a needle nose plier to gently adjust the foot. The last two steps to the base frame assembly is connecting all the points of the bed slat assembly to the frame with bolts and screws. While the bolts all aligned on this step and the screws all had holes in the bed slats, there were no pre-drilled holes in the bed frame support boards to receive the screws. Maybe you would want to get your drill and bit and drill those holes. I surrendered at this point.... Finally, be aware that this bed frame is actually only nine (9) inches high. Not twelve (12) inches high as advertised which was the big reason why I chose this product in the first place.
