Beautiful Sturdy Crib

I ordered the Storkcraft Aspen Stages Crib through Walmart.com back in 2006. I decided to go with the Oak finish. Out of all the cribs I saw in stores and online, I felt that this would be the sturdiest (no flimsy legs) and classic looking.

Shipping: The crib arrived and the box was in pretty good shape (only 1 small tear). When opening the box I noticed all pieces were tightly packed in the box with several sheets of foam in between them. After unpacking all of the wood pieces and inspecting them, only a couple had minor visible scratches. Luckily, the scratched pieces were in inconspicuous spots. The pieces of wood used are either particle board (for the drawer and bottom panel) or sturdy pressed wood (for the drop railing and feet). The finished crib put all together looks great and like it cost a fortune.

Assembly: The crib comes with 4 pieces of instructions. 1 is on the bottom panel that the mattress sits on, and there are 3 other paper instructions. This proved to be very confusing, even though I am very handy. The instruction on the bottom panel of the crib is a general overview of how the crib pieces fit together. The paper instructions were detailed instructions on how separate pieces of the crib go together (for example the drawer assembly). You must keep referring back to the bottom panel to put the whole crib together. In general, the crib pieces fit together very nicely and the finished crib appeared to be sturdy. A bonus is having a big drawer underneath for more storage. The crib also comes with 4 extra wood pieces and extra screws to convert the crib into a daybed. Instructions on how to do this is on the crib (so when you are ready to convert, you don’t have to try and locate paper instructions). According to instructions, you must buy a conversion kit if you want to convert the bed into a headboard and footboard for a full sized bed. There was only one problem with assembly (other than the confusing instructions). The wooden dowels that are included don’t fit well in the head board and foot board. In following the instructions, I tapped a few dowels into the holes that were predrilled for them. Each time I did this, the wood split. I would recommend if you buy this crib to either strip the wooden dowels first so that they fit in the holes better or drill a bigger hole. The pieces are secured with long screws.

Assembly time was 1 1/2 hours for a handy person. While this crib can be assembled by one person, but it is easier to have another person help with the bottom panel that the mattress sits on.

Mattress: The dimensions of the crib are 58x32. I thought it was going to be easy finding a mattress for this crib, but I was mistaken. Most were either too long or to short. We finally found one at Babies R Us.- The Serta Perfect Sleeper. Back then it was $79.99.

The Drawer: I thought having this extra storage space was going to be nice. It ended up being a headache when my daughter became old enough to pull the drawer out. Since it is so low to the ground, it is easy for children to pull it out and throw the contents of the drawer all over the room. The drawer itself is very sturdy and safe. My daughter (who is 26 pounds) has stood inside the drawer when it was pulled out and it did not break – nor did the bed tip over. There is a small space between the drawer and the bottom of the mattress so you don’t have to worry about little fingers getting pinched. The drawer hardware that allows to the drawer to come out is safely placed at the back of the bed – so again no pinched fingers.

Sheet Set & Bumper Pads: If you decide to get a bumper pad with this crib – be forewarned that this crib is not very bumper friendly. I found that I had to attach pieces of fabric to the crib bumper to make the strings longer to reach to the bars.

The lowdown: My daughter has been sleeping in this crib for over 2½ years now and it this crib has really held up. The only problem I can see is the bottom piece of wood that the mattress sits on is starting to sag a little bit. There is no real support under this board to keep it from sagging. We are still very happy with our purchase though. We have converted it into a daybed (taken the railing off) and the bed is still just as sturdy as ever. We never had any problems with it crib drop railing sticking or not working. I have two large dogs and they have bumped in to the crib several times and it still maintains its shape and balance.