IKEA KURA Reversible Bed Assembly in London

The KURA is one frame that builds two ways. Turn it one way up and you get a loft bed with 83 cm of clear play space underneath; turn the same parts the other way up and the mattress base sits near the floor. The decision is not cosmetic and it is not made at the end — the instruction sheet forks partway through the build, and the branch you take is the one you are committed to. Choosing after the fact means stripping back to that point.

It is a long job rather than a hard one. Two end frames, four structural bolts into barrel nuts that sit in blind holes, 46 hex-socket screws, two steel slat rails that have to land at matching heights over nearly two metres, and 16 slats held by 32 two-part plastic fixings that are tightened by hand and do not survive being taken out again. IKEA specifies two people for the assembly, and near the end the fully built 209 cm frame has to be turned over as one piece.

TaskMan of London builds KURAs across London inside the M25 — low, loft, or converted from one to the other. Send photos of the room and the packaging on WhatsApp and we will confirm everything with you before you book.

Part of our IKEA assembly London service.

Which IKEA KURA reversible children's bed (90x200 cm, white/pine) sizes we build

KURA reversible bed, white/pine, 90x200 cm — art. 802.538.09, live on ikea.com/gb as read on 18 August 2026. This is the only size and colourway IKEA UK lists, and it is currently shown as a best seller.
Loft (high) configuration — footprint 99 x 209 cm, overall height 116 cm, with 83 cm of clearance beneath the bed base for play space. IKEA recommends this configuration from age 6 and up.
Low configuration — the same parts, the frame built the other way up, mattress base near the floor with the open canopy above. The external height is still 116 cm: 83 cm is the clearance under the loft build, not a lower frame. The bed does not get shorter when you build it low.
Build branches — the current instruction sheet (AA-514660-12) forks partway through into three branches. Two are loft builds, differing only in which side the opening sits; the third is the low bed. The low-versus-high decision is the fork itself.
KURA bed tent, space/blue — art. 005.540.57, sold separately and live on ikea.com/gb as read on 18 August 2026. It is an accessory, not part of the bed build.

The current KURA reversible bed (802.538.09) is not being phased out — it is actively listed and flagged as a best seller on ikea.com/gb. An earlier article number for the same white/pine 90x200 cm bed, 502.665.06, is no longer listed on IKEA UK. Those beds are still very common in London homes and on the second-hand market and build essentially the same way, using the older instruction sheet rather than the current one.

How long IKEA KURA reversible children's bed (90x200 cm, white/pine) assembly takes

60-90 minutes with two fitters (IKEA specifies two people); 90-120 minutes where one fitter builds it alone

Difficulty: moderate. Long builds are exactly what we are set up for — message us and we will confirm everything before you book.

Where IKEA KURA reversible children's bed (90x200 cm, white/pine) builds go wrong

The parts of this build that cost people an afternoon:

Every steel screw in this bed has a hex socket — there is no Pozidriv fixing anywhere in it. Turn up with a PZ2 bit and you cam out and chew the sockets on the fixings that hold the frame square, into holes in solid pine that are one-shot. The correct drive is the supplied hex keys (the short 100002 and the long 100092), with the supplied 121030 handle seated onto the long key when you need real leverage.
The tool IKEA flags as needed but not supplied is a flat-blade screwdriver, and it is not optional. Two different fixings have slotted heads: the barrel nuts inside the side rails, and the plastic sleeves in the slat fixings. Without a flat blade you are stuck at the fourth bolt.
The four barrel nuts (121122) drop into blind holes in the long side rails and have to be rotated with a flat-blade screwdriver, so their threaded hole lines up with the bolt channel, before the four long 100391 bolts are driven with the hex key. IKEA prints an explicit crossed-out diagram of the wrong rotation. Drive a bolt against a misaligned nut and it cross-threads and chews out the pine — this is the single most common KURA callout.
Two consecutive steps use screws that look near-identical loose in the bag: a single short 100215 at one, a long coarse 128745 at the next. The instruction sheet prints an X over the wrong screw at both. Put the long one in the short one's hole and it bursts straight through the face of the post.
The two long steel slat rails (147718) must be fixed at exactly the same height on both long sides before any of the 18 small 100343 screws are committed. One hole out on one side and the pre-punched rail holes no longer line up with the slats at the far end — you find that out 1.8 m later, with most of the slats already in.
The slats drop in at an angle between the two rails and then slide along to be spaced against the punched holes. Push them up tight from one end and you run out of travel: there are 16 slats and 16 punched positions per rail, and the last two end up with nowhere to sit.
The 32 slat fixings are two-part plastic expanders — a slotted sleeve (104850) pushed down through the slat, a bolt (105160) up from underneath — and they are nipped up by hand with the flat-blade screwdriver. A cordless driver strips the plastic thread on the first one, and a stripped fixing just spins forever.
Those plastic fixings are effectively single-use. Prising 32 of them out to reverse the bed later shears a good proportion, so spares need to be in hand before a low-to-high flip. This is the detail that catches people out two years after the original build, not on the day.
Which way up the bed ends up is decided at the fork in the instruction sheet, where it splits into two loft branches and one low branch with page jumps between them. Commit to the wrong branch and it is a strip-back to the fork, not a quick adjustment. Confirm low versus loft before the first bolt goes in.
Each of the four long rails has an oval recess at one end that has to face the right way — the instruction sheet flags it with magnified callouts again and again across steps 1-7, and once more at step 14. Reverse one rail and the bolt hole simply is not where the end frame expects it.
Everything stays finger-tight until all four corners are engaged and the frame is square on a level floor. These are coarse screws into solid pine and the holes are one-shot — back one out and re-drive it and the thread is gone.
Near the end of the build the entire 209 cm frame is turned over as one assembly — it is the final step of the low build, and on the loft builds the slats still go in after the turn. That is a genuine two-person move, and in a small room there is often no arc to swing it. Work the rotation out before the second end frame goes on, or you build a bed you cannot turn.
Mattress thickness is the trap that has nothing to do with the build: 12 cm maximum. Parents routinely have a 16-20 cm mattress waiting, which lifts the sleeping surface up towards the top of the guard rail in loft mode and cancels the fall protection. IKEA prints a crossed-out diagram of exactly this. Check the mattress before you start, not after.
Build on the flattened carton or a moving blanket. The frame spends most of the assembly lying on its side, and the white painted fibreboard panels pick up marks from carpet grit almost immediately.

Safety and wall fixing

IKEA recommends the loft (high) configuration for ages 6 and above. In the low configuration there is no such age restriction — the instruction sheet applies the 6+ marking to the two loft branches and not the low one.
Maximum mattress thickness is 12 cm, at 90x200 cm. This is a safety limit, not a fit limit: a thicker mattress raises the sleeping surface relative to the guard rail and defeats the fall protection. IKEA illustrates the too-thick mattress as a crossed-out diagram.
IKEA's wording on wall clearance: the distance between the bed and the wall must always be less than 6.5 cm or greater than 23 cm, to stop a child's head becoming trapped in the gap. Anything in between is the dangerous zone, and it governs where in the room the bed can sit.
Maximum load is 100 kg. IKEA defines this as the static load the bed withstands when you lie or sit on it — it is a total limit for what is on the bed, not an allowance per person.
IKEA warns against screwing hooks or handles onto the bed, and against hanging ropes or belts on it, because children can become caught in them.
The KURA is not supplied with a tip-over restraint, and its assembly instructions contain no wall-fixing step — there is no wall anchor, no wall fixings and no wall-fixing operation anywhere in the parts list or in any of the three build branches. Its stability comes from the four bolted corners and the 100 kg load limit. That is different from IKEA chests of drawers, which do ship with a restraint and must be anchored. Anyone telling you a wall anchor comes in the KURA box is wrong.
TaskMan of London will still fit an anchor on request — we think it is worth considering in loft mode against a plasterboard wall, or where an older child will use the frame to climb. That is our own trade practice rather than an IKEA requirement, and it needs fixings correct for the wall type plus a cable and pipe check before anything is drilled. It is an addition, not a supplied kit.
Both end frames must be fully bolted and the frame square before a child uses it. A racked frame develops a rock that only gets worse under use.
In the loft configuration the space underneath is play space, not sleeping space, and the guard rail must be left intact. Removing an infill bar to widen the entry is a modification IKEA does not sanction and one we will not carry out.
IKEA specifies two people for the assembly of this bed, and prints a crossed-out diagram of a lone builder. Near the end of the build the whole assembled frame is turned over in one piece.

IKEA KURA reversible children's bed (90x200 cm, white/pine) assembly in London homes

The KURA's London problem is logistics before it is assembly. It arrives as two packages, 207 cm and 204 cm long, with a combined package weight of roughly 46 kg, and a 2-metre rigid box is exactly what a Victorian or Edwardian terrace staircase with a half-landing and a tight newel turn will not accept. The same goes for purpose-built flats, where lift cars are frequently under 2 m internally. We regularly break the cartons down on the landing and carry the parts up loose, which is worth planning for rather than discovering on the day. Once in the room, the finished frame is 99 x 209 cm and near the end of the build the whole assembly is turned over in one piece, so a genuine London box room in a converted flat often has no arc to swing it — we work the rotation out before the second end frame goes on, or build partly on the landing. Headroom is the other London question, and it is worth being precise about it: the frame stands 116 cm tall in both configurations, so building low does not lower the bed's outline under a sloping loft-conversion ceiling. What building low does buy you is headroom above the mattress — the sleeping surface sits near the floor with the open canopy above it, instead of on top of 83 cm of play space — which is usually what matters in a top-floor flat or a loft room with a knee wall. We check the ceiling above the intended mattress position before committing to the loft build. On anchoring, London splits sharply: pre-war solid brick and blockwork take a proper fixing without drama, while newer flats and stud partitions are plasterboard, where a plain plug is worthless and we need to find the stud or use a suitable heavy-duty plasterboard fixing, with a cable and pipe check first. We cover all London inside the M25 — send photos of the room, the stairs and the packaging on WhatsApp and we confirm everything before you book.

Before we arrive

Decide low bed or loft bed before we arrive. The instruction sheet forks into separate low and loft branches, and switching afterwards means dismantling back to that fork.
Have the mattress to hand so we can check it before we start: 90x200 cm and no more than 12 cm thick. If you have a standard 16-20 cm single mattress waiting, tell us in advance — in loft mode it makes the guard rail unsafe.
Clear a working area of roughly 2.2 m x 1.5 m, plus enough room to turn a 209 cm frame over near the end of the build. In a London box room we may need to build partly on the landing.
Check both boxes have been delivered and are the right ones. The KURA ships as two packages: one 207 cm long at a package weight of about 26 kg, one 204 cm long at about 20 kg. It is very common for only one to turn up.
Confirm the boxes are already in the room, or tell us where they are. Two 2-metre rigid boxes will not go round a tight Victorian half-landing without planning, and many flat lifts are under 2 m internally.
Old bed dismantled and out of the way — or tell us when you enquire and we will include taking it away in what we confirm before you book.
Protect the floor or tell us about it. We build on the flattened carton, but carpet grit marks the white panels.
If you want the frame anchored to the wall as an optional extra, tell us whether the wall is plasterboard, brick or blockwork so we bring the right fixings.
If this is a low-to-loft conversion of a bed you already own, expect to need spare slat fixings — say so when you enquire and we will bring them.
Send photos of the room and the packaging on WhatsApp with your enquiry — we confirm everything with you before you book, so there are no surprises on the day.

IKEA KURA reversible children's bed (90x200 cm, white/pine) assembly FAQs

Can you build it low now and flip it to the loft bed later?

Yes — that is the point of the KURA and we do it regularly. It is not a quick turn-over, though. The frame comes apart back to the fork in the instruction sheet and all 32 slat fixings have to come out, so budget a similar visit to the original build. The catch is that those fixings are two-part plastic expanders and a good number shear when prised out, so get spares from IKEA before the visit or ask us to bring them.

What mattress do I need, and why won't my normal one do?

90x200 cm, and no thicker than 12 cm. A thicker mattress will physically sit in the frame, but in loft mode it lifts the sleeping surface up towards the top of the guard rail and cancels the fall protection — IKEA specifically illustrates this as a don't. Most standard UK single mattresses are 16-20 cm, so you generally need a thinner children's mattress rather than the one you already own.

Does the KURA have to be bolted to the wall?

No. Unlike IKEA chests of drawers, the KURA is not supplied with a tip-over restraint and its instructions contain no wall-fixing step at all — stability comes from the four bolted corners and the 100 kg load limit. What IKEA does require is the gap rule: the bed must sit either less than 6.5 cm from the wall or more than 23 cm away, never in between, so a child's head cannot be trapped in the gap. If you would still like an anchor added in loft mode we are happy to fit one as an extra; we just need to know the wall type so we bring the right fixings.

Will the two boxes get up my stairs?

That is the question worth asking before delivery rather than after. The packages are 207 cm and 204 cm long, with a combined package weight of about 46 kg. A straight-run staircase is fine; a Victorian terrace with a half-landing and a tight newel turn, or a lift car under 2 m internally, often is not. Send us a photo of the stairwell and we will tell you honestly — and if it is tight, we will break the cartons down and carry the parts up loose.

My child is four — can we have it in the high position, and can an adult lie in it?

IKEA recommends the loft configuration from age 6, and we will not build it high for a younger child without being clear about that. The low configuration carries no age restriction, and the bed is designed so it can be flipped when they are ready. On weight: the maximum load is 100 kg total static load, not 100 kg per person — an adult over that figure is outside it on their own, and an adult plus a child is over it. We would not put an adult in the loft configuration, and we would not use the guard rail or the space underneath as something to lean or climb on.

How long does it actually take?

For two of our fitters, 60-90 minutes for a straightforward build; nearer 90-120 minutes if one fitter is working alone. It runs to 26 or 27 steps depending on which configuration you choose, with 46 hex-socket screws, four structural bolts and 32 individual plastic slat fixings, so it is a long job rather than a difficult one. IKEA specifies two people, and a first-time DIYer should realistically allow 2.5-4 hours.

The bed already wobbles — can you fix it rather than rebuild it?

Usually yes. A KURA that rocks is almost always one of three things: the four main corner bolts were tightened before the frame was square, a barrel nut inside a side rail was never properly seated, or coarse screws have been driven and re-driven into the same holes in the pine until the thread is gone. We can strip the affected corner, re-seat it and repair the stripped holes rather than replace the frame.

Book IKEA KURA reversible children's bed (90x200 cm, white/pine) assembly in London

Send us a photo of the boxes or the product name, your postcode and when suits you. We will come back with everything confirmed before you book — no obligation, no call-out surprises.

WhatsApp us to get started or call 07700 170 070, 7 days a week.

Every job is done by TaskMan of London's own DBS-checked, insured team and carries our 12-month workmanship warranty.

IKEA KURA Reversible Bed Assembly in London