Night & Day Cinnamon Twin over Futon Bunk Bed

Review

Night and Day Furniture has started out as a futon frame manufacturer, and this is what they are still best known for. However, they have since broadened their assortment and are today producing a complete bedroom furniture collection including bunk beds, so it's only natural that futon bunk beds have become one of their stronger offerings -- starting with the Night and Day Cinnamon Twin over Futon Bunk Bed.

The Futon version of the Cinnamon line of bunk beds does not differ much from the basic twin/twin configuration: it is the same contemporary design, featuring characteristic Mission style vertical slats, and is made of the same material: Asian rubberwood, an environmentally friendly type of hardwood that is best valued for its dense grain and minimal shrinkage, but also for the attractive color and acceptance of different finishes.

Certainly the most interesting part of this product is the futon. At first glance, it looks ordinary enough, because that what sets it apart from other futons is hidden from view: the revolutionary futon mechanics, what they call Shoe Fittings™ Operating System at Night and Day Furniture. This hardware based approach to simplifying the assembly and the conversion of a futon frame utilizes the meticulously researched and tested components such as the Snapper™ and the Sea Horse™ in order to achieve the convenience, ease of use, reliability and replaceability thus far unknown in the world of futons.

In addition, Shoe Fittings™ will ensure the futon frame remains sturdy and reliable for years to come; the key stress points being made of natural rubber, they are designed to take the impact and the stretch, but also to be the first to fail in the case of serious abuse -- to fail before the wood fails, before there is significant and expensive breakage.

Since there is little feedback on the futon version of the Cinnamon line of bunk beds out there, what follows is a summary of user opinions on both twin/twin and twin/futon configurations of this product.

Durability -- you would need a really big magnifying glass to find a buyer who is not happy -- no, scratch that -- who is not thrilled with the quality of this bunk bed. No kidding. Sturdiness and durability are the very first thing mentioned by nearly each reviewer. Expressions such as: extremely sturdy; good material; excellent finish; good hardware; strong slats; very well crafted; quality workmanship -- are repeated over and over. The quality of wood receives much praise too, as does the mattress support and the attention to detail -- everything fits easily, as one reviewer put it. No wobbling or shaking, even with a 230 pound dad lying on the top bunk. Quite often there is an element of surprise to these comments; one can pick up a general feel of surpassed expectation. What's even better, these are not all initial impressions, some users reported their findings after months or even years of use -- or, should we say abuse -- by some extremely rambunctious kids. And their friends. But even with all that action the bed reportedly stays sturdy as a rock and the finish still shines -- now, that's impressive.

Attractive design -- something that's easily checked just by looking at the pictures. You should be aware, however, that a number of users feels the bed actually looks better than in the images. Expressions and phrases are used such as: beautiful piece of furniture; gorgeous; attractive style; finish makes it look really classy; great design; an elegant looking piece of furniture. Note: it's been mentioned several times that the beds' colors are not quite accurately represented in the images, that is, in reality the finish is reportedly a shade or two darker; for example, medium oak looks more like dark oak.

Ease of assembly -- the product is supposed to arrive in five boxes -- don't be alarmed if you only get four, though, as one of the boxes reportedly has the fifth box inside it. The assembly itself shouldn't be a problem; "easy to assemble" is one of the most often repeated phrases associated with this product. The process is referred to as straightforward, the assembly instructions praised as clear, accurate, simple and easy to follow. For illustration, there is a report out there by a seven month pregnant woman who have assembled the bed by herself, with a two-year-old running around trying to "help." Obviously, she couldn't have put the top bunk in its place by herself, you need two people for that at least, but the message does get across: it's easy and pretty much anyone should be able to do it.

It really bodes well for the product if the worse thing you can hear about it has to do with stickers that are hard to remove. This is a quite common complaint with this bunk bed, actually; it comes with three stickers on the footboard which are reportedly rather unsightly and quite sticky and difficult to remove. In defense of the manufacturer, these are stickers with safety information and the manufacturer is actually obliged to put them in a conspicuous place where they are in full view. And they are actually not supposed to be removed (hence the stickiness), although most people does just that. Other than that, there is an occasional (rare) report about missing screws or bolts or (even rarer) broken piece; things easily fixable, if vexing to deal with.