This bed was fairly simple to assemble. My husband and I did the assembly from box to completion in about 45 minutes. All instructions were clearly marked. I thought this was a platform bed frame, without requirement for a box spring; however, as you can see from thr attached photo, the bed looks unusually shirtwithout a box spring underneath. I sincerely doubt the four wood cross bars would hold up with any hefty person sleeping on the bed without the proper box spring under the mattress to help equally distribute weight. Fortunately, this is for my 5-yr-old and will be fine until I get a box spring.