This is one of those beds that looks so good in pictures that you can’t help but think it’s going to be a disaster when you finally get it home and assemble it. You read through the hundreds of CB2 reviews to find the handful of negative ones in the ocean of positives, and attach yourself to the idea that this is likely to go very wrong for you.

Or maybe that’s just me, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

So what is wrong with this bed? From the reviews I read before making the purchase, there were a couple of things that came up with a frequency that worried me:

The wood color didn’t match the image on the website. Ok, I get why this could be upsetting, but I also don’t expect every tree to take stain the exact same way, and I realistically don’t expect CB2 is producing these all with the exact same stain brand & type. For me, this was a low risk one.
The bed is great for a couple of nights or weeks and then squeaks uncontrollably. Yikes, really? That’s a deal breaker. Nobody wants a squeaky bed. I change positions about ten thousand times in a night, and I certainly don’t need an audible reminder of that every time it happens.

I took what I felt was actually a huge risk and ordered a potentially squeaky bed because it just looks sooooooo beautiful in the pictures.

The day it arrived, I unpacked it and was pleased to find nicely weighted pieces of solid wood. The cushion on the headboard even felt like a reasonable grade polyfoam – materials for the price seemed about right. Ok, off to a good start.

Putting this thing together isn’t rocket science but it’s a little laborious. One person can do it without many issues, but it’ll take some time, so clear at least a couple of hours off for it. In terms of the construction process and quality, I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse. I would have liked to have seen some jointed connections but it’s basically all screws, nuts and bolts. Still, the frame felt solid once I had it together.

The platform is slatted which removes the need for a boxspring and allows for a mattress to “breathe” a little better when it comes to pressure alleviation, but from the reviews I read were also the most likely source of the “squeakiness” problem.

I had luckily come across one review where the reviewer said they fixed their initially squeaky bed by tightening the slat screws further, and so when I installed these I made sure to take extra care that each slat was nice and tightly installed. A couple of the screws did not secure into the wood properly, and with those I added some wood filler to solve for it, so you may want to have some wood filler or wood glue with you during this part.

Fast forward to many months on an incredible Room & Board Encased Coil with Serene Foam mattress over the beautiful Drommen bed, and I couldn’t be happier. Not a squeak to complain about, although if I had to be picky I’d say the fabric on the headboard doesn’t appear to be the easiest to clean.

For the price, this has to be one of the better beds you can buy in terms of materials & style, with the only real sacrifice being construction type (bolts and screws) which is pretty standard fare on deliverable build-’em-yourself furniture items.

Time for me to get some sleep!

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