The Stuva loft bed from Ikea - an updated review

Since I published my review of the Ikea Stuva loft bed it has been one of my most popular blog posts, and I get plenty of questions about the loft bed from people interested in purchasing one. So I thought I'd share a few thoughts in an update post about the bed, now that my daughter has been using it happily for over two years.

If you are looking for information about assembling the Stuva loft bed along with a few more photos, you might want to check out my original review first, as well as reading through the comments which contain lots more helpful information and answered questions.

So here is a picture of the Ikea Stuva loft bed as it looks now in my daughter's bedroom!

The Stuva loft bed has stood up to the last two years really well. It remains in excellent and sturdy condition, and we've had no problems with the bed at all. It just has a few light scratches on it, but that's pretty normal for furniture in a child's bedroom.

The bed unit once assembled is very heavy and there is no way that it could be easily moved. It also won't fit out of a bedroom door, so will need to be built in the room where it will live. So although the loft bed is designed for a small space, there does need to be enough room to assemble it. You can get some sense of how much space will be needed from my time lapse assembly video below:

Because of the size of the bed, it would be next to impossible to move it anywhere once assembled. So there is very little chance of cleaning or replacing the carpet underneath! Before assembling the bed, it's worth having a good look at the different range of assembly options available. Spend some time thinking about the configuration that would fit your space and needs best, as it is a lot easier to assemble it as you want it from the beginning!

The wardrobe under the bed is quite small, and definitely designed for child sized clothes. We have a much larger Ikea wardrobe elsewhere in the room for her clothes, and this wardrobe is used only for dress up clothes and shoes.

The drawers in the desk are a very good size. We use them for some clothing as well as stationery items. We have some Ikea drawer dividers which are really useful but I can't find the ones that we bought, so if you want to buy some I'd recommend checking with Ikea to make sure that you get the same ones that fit.

Mia has plenty of headroom up in the bed. We have high ceilings (250cm) and there is room for me as a small adult to sit upright in the bed. I think that the height of your ceiling would make a big difference to whether this bed would be suitable for older children or adults.

Changing the sheets is pretty easy. I can throw down the pillow and duvet to change them separately, but you do need to be able to get up into the bed to remove and replace the fitted sheet. It gets quite dusty up in the bed so I go up from time to time with the handheld hoover to go around the edges. There is plenty of space around the edge of the mattress to store teddies and books, and unless you are very fussy there is no need to actually make the bed daily as you can't see it from the floor!

The additional Ikea products that we bought to go along with the Stuva loft bed are:

The ÖRFJÄLL children's desk chair in white and Vissle pink. This is a smaller sized desk chair which fits really nicely under the desk and would also suit a small adult, leaving plenty of headroom under the bed while sitting at the desk.

The MORGEDAL medium firm memory foam mattress. I've slept on this mattress a few times and found it very comfortable. You need to be careful with the mattress that you choose for this loft bed as it must be the correct height for safety.

The STICKAT bed pocket which is very handy for keeping the things you need at night close by. You can also see some alternative caddies below, and I'd definitely recommend something like this or else a small shelf above the bed.