Wardrobes (oh the excitement)

[Lordfrontpaw]

We are looking for some smart storage for the bedroom. It’s a smallish room so we don’t have oodles of space. At the moment we need hangers and drawers and room for a couple of shelves of books. Oh and we have a large home printer too (so need somewhere for that too).

I saw some IKEA systems where you ‘build’ your shell, add the insides and doors and you are done.

Has anyone used this? Are they any good or will we need to replaced them in a couple of years? How long do they take to fit?

I have the IKEA pax system - we put it together just over 10 years ago and it's still going strong (although I'd like to replace it with built-in cupboards, to make better use of our alcoves). But the Pax is good value; solid and very customisable - there's an online space planner which lets you play around with different sizes and layouts so it fits your needs.

We need the narrow version and I think it will need to be anchored to the wall so might need to get a wee man/woman in to do it for me. I have been playing with the online planner (it's horrible!).

I have the ikea pax wardrobe. I love it. I love that the insides can be resigned when your needs changed. I had lots of rails and I’m in the process now of changing to add some drawers following a declutter.

What colours have you got? The white looks all sparkly and nice but will it go a weird yellowy over time?

Definitely recommend getting help with putting it together - it drove us to tears! It's a two-person job.

I think I would come unstuck trying t drill it onto the wall.

We've got the white Ikea Pax without doors in our small bedroom which is now a dressing room. They're brilliant and still nice and white 18 months later

We have got the white with no doors. We also use the second room as a dressing room. I’ve had mine around two years and they still look brand new

IKEA pax is amazing. The white doesn't change colour I have a triple the tall deep ones. One with shelves for shoes (I have lots of shoes) and one with a rail at the top then a shelf and 4 baskets. I love it! We even took
It apart and reconstructed it when we moved.

Has anyone got the narrow ones? It will replace some large drawers which are pretty roomy but we desperately need more hanging space but the deep ones would just take up so much space.

We also had the narrow ones and had the two pull out rails at the top and 3 baskets. They were roomy enough.

Are the rails pretty sturdy? I am really heavy handed and managed to snap 2 metal door handles (Lord alone knows how - I’ve even cracked a cast iron pot!)

We have the narrow 75cm ones; extra-tall though as we have high ceilings despite the tiny alcoves.

Pros: sturdy as anything, roomy as the Tardis, DP has a totally different setup inside to me but the wardrobes look the same on the outside.

Cons: v heavy and hard to construct (though indestructible once up); the ugliest piece of furniture I've ever seen in my life, they make me want to weep.

I think if you get the thin ones 35cm, you can’t hang rails from left to right. If you want rails you would have to get the deep 58cm ones. I have one some 35cm ones for shelves and drawers. They fit quite a lot in.

The thin ones have hangers that go front to back rather than side to side - do not huge amounts of space but it’s really for DHs suits and shirts. The deeper ones would just be a wall of doors and leaving only about 2 feet gap between it and my side of the bed.

I have just spotted something called Plasta - any experiences?

For me, narrow wardrobes are a bit of a waste of space as you really can’t hang much up. Unless you can have a wardrobe for hanging space elsewhere in the room?

I guess it depends if the small amount more space at bedside worth the much-reduced hanging space, or if there’s another way to arrange the room!

We have used the PAX carcasses, but had them "hacked" by a joiner to (a) get them floor to ceiling with cornicing etc, and (b) shaped into alcoves, and then bought made to measure doors from somewhere else. You get a "built in" look, with the bonus of IKEA interiors but much cheaper than true custom made built in wardrobes.

If you go on Pinterest, and search for PAX hack or similar, you'll get all sorts of ideas.