I bought a gently used Kura on Craigslist and the panels for that one were blue on one side and white on the other. So I flipped the white facing out on 2 sides and facing in on the other 2 sides (so all sides in view showed white. I'm not sure if the blue/white is unique to an older model or not. We are using a standard twin mattress. That leaves maybe a 3 to 5 inch amount of "safety wall" above the mattress (so she doesn't fall out. It made me a little nervous at first but she's been fine. If you want your child really sunken down, you may want to consider the Ikea mattress. However I love being able to use a regular mattress with regular sheets. We actually have the blue canopy as well but she only used it one night - she didn't like only being able to see out of the foot of the bed and not being able to see her sister.

Did you paint the blue panels on the Kura loft bed white? Also, can you use a standard twin size mattress with it or do you have to buy the ikea mattress?