Ikea Pax aficionados help!

[Iamnotausername]

I've never been to Ikea but I know pax wardrobes have a huge following. I suspect I won't be able to go there and will need to buy blind online unfortunately. If someone could advise I would appreciate it.

• I know they are laminate but does the oak look really laminate-y or is it OK?
• What drawers go with it? I'm struggling a bit to get a good internal layout so I'm considering a separate chest of drawers.
• What tips do you have for designing them?
• would a standard full size mirror fit on the inside of one of the doors or will I need a normal mirrored door?
• how much room do you need to assemble them? It's in a small room.

What’s your ceiling height? If you’re getting the taller ones then think you need 4/5cm clearance to stand them up. But you can build them standing up.

I really like them as they’re so versatile.

The Oak looks ok to me.

Thanks @Rummikub . Ceiling height isn't an issue it's more floor space that I'm worried about. I have seen comments about assembling them upright but I'm really short so I don't know how doable that is. I'd have help.

I booked a Task Rabbit to assemble our Pax - 2 guys came and they assembled 2 units pretty quickly.
re the mirror - one of the Pax has the wider drawers so it has 2 standard width doors, with a narrow mirrored door, which works v well imho.
I would choose a full mirrored door, rather than attaching a mirror after assembly. I feel it gives the room a sense of additional space.

@Iamnotausername I have a lot of pax wardrobes in the bedrooms but also a 4m wall of them in the children's playroom meaning I have assembled a lot of them.

I think the oak doors look decent, my children have the white oak doors. Re drawers, the best thing about internal drawers is you can space them out height wise meaning you can overfill them which you will never be able to do with a chest of drawers. Are you having double wardrobes, singles or a combination?

I assume you are having hinged doors, you cannot put a wooden drawer at the very bottom of the wardrobe due to the metal runner allowing the drawer to be pulled out also being at the bottom of the drawer. The hinges for the doors use the bottom holes. Your possible solutions are put a metal pull out basket at the bottom as the metal basket runners are at the top of the basket or you leave a gap at the bottom under the wooden drawers. Bear this in mind for where the middle hinges go too for shelves. The mirrored doors are very heavy. Unless you only have a hanging rail inside then an internal mirror would be difficult to fit in due to the possibility of the internal shelves etc touching the mirror on the door.

Re space, have a look at videos on YouTube lots show them being put together and upright too. I have literally laid some across my bed rather than on the floor to put some together. You can always make them in another room but be aware of height and tipping them under door frames. Putting them together upright is more difficult as you have nothing to push against whereas if you do it on the floor or bed you at least have something relatively solid underneath.

If you know what internal fittings you are having, attach the runners or shelf supports to the side panels before you put it together, just makes it easier. If they are going on a carpet floor those adjustable feet at the front will come in handy as the wardrobe will sit on the carpet gripper making it slightly higher at the back. We screw the wardrobes together, not with the connecting bolts but just a long screw that goes through one wardrobe side panel and half way through the other one. A pair of clamps or another pair of hands is helpful for lining them up to do this, also a spirit level. And attach them to the wall for safety. Any more questions, just ask.

How big is the room? My dd room is 2m x 2m and I have a run of 3 x 75 width. With a mirror door on the middle.

Agree with pp mirror door gives a better feeling of space. I have the malm drawers to go in the same room.

My favourite thing is to plan out a pax!

Oh im short too and had had to have help With assembly

That's all really helpful, thanks!

I was tempted by the task rabbit but I know my husband will see it as wasted money / demasculating. I'll have to work on him.

I hate mirrored wardrobes. Nowhere else for a full size mirror though so I'll have to suck it up.

Can the doors go on either side or is there a left/righ side door?

I think sliding doors might be better space wise but it keeps telling me I can't have them on my confuguration and I can't work out why. It's not a deal breaker.

@Rummikub if you fancy a challenge... 😉

• it will be our only bedroom storage apart from 2 small bedside drawers.
• we have a maximum of 170cm
• we'd like the tallest wardrobe
• need to be able to coose the doors on all of it.
• prefer sliding doors
• shared between my husband and I
• mostly hang tops but I do have a few long dresses / coats
• need lots of drawers for folded trousers etc
• we also keep bedding in there
• some space for shoes
• some space for random stuff like crafts

😉😆

I was going to suggest sliding but I’m guessing you need 2m so each door is 1m.

@Thelondonone that'll be why. Thank you! Seems obvious now. 🤣

We assembled a Pax wardrobe in my son's box room recently! (It was a narrow one but full depth). He has a small double bed in there so floor space was minimal.

I'm not saying it was easy but it was absolutely doable.

The configuration we came up with for his room was one half width full depth one for hanging, one 75cm wide/35cm depth for half drawers/half shelves and an open shelves 35cm unit at the end.

Using the shallow ones allowed us to get more storage given the limited floor space.

We couldn't fit that in @SoupDragon and I definately don't want open shelving. For almost 2 decades we've had one of those pine ones that look a bit like a frame with canvas on. Only we had to get rid of the canvas a few years ago because moths would nest (?) in it. I'm fed up of looking at an open, messy wardrobe!

We assembled 2x75cm ones upright in our box room, DH mainly did it and I was just the help if needed, he used some steps for some bits but it was not too bad, the second one took a lot less time than the first. Sliding doors will on 1.5m and 2.0 wardrobe.

You need a minimum of 1.5 m for sliding doors, our space was about 1.7m in our box so we have a gap at the end where I store stuff as it is right at the corner of the room

We have - and love - Pax in our bedroom. I can't answer all your questions but in response to the first two - it looks good quality, even though it's laminate; and we have Malm chests of drawers as well, they look good together. We chose White Stained Oak for both.

If you can, I'd go with the hanging rail for trousers rather than a shelf. If you get the 50cm deep wardrobe, you get at least two pairs on each rail. The space underneath is great for things like shoes or duvets

We have pax in DSs bedroom. Can’t comment on oak finish as his are a modern white grooved pattern. We used the online designer to design ours, he has one double with drawers (metal pull out basket at bottom as a PP has mentioned) and rail above, one single with just a rail, one single with drawers & shelves and one single with trouser hangar and rail. We added a full length mirror to the inside of one of the doors. It’s just a mirror - so basically the thickness of a sheet of glass, no frame - it doesn’t touch any of the internals of the wardrobe.

I have a run of 3m pax wardrobes with sliding doors all build in a 3.3m x 2.3m room with no issues.

The wardrobes are really sturdy and dead easy to build, the doors were the trickiest part to put together.

The planner is brilliant for getting the right configuration and seeing what space it takes up. I went for the 75cm deep wardrobes but wish I'd gone for the shallower ones as they'd have worked just as well and given a bit more space left over. The room is used as a dressing room though so doesn't make that much of a difference

I also didn't want a mirrored door on one set so I just hung one of their thin mirrors on the end so it's there when I want to use a full length mirror. Looking now it was maybe Lärbro or Drömmare or something similar.

Can you put a long mirror on the back of the door of your room?

We used to have one of these and it worked well.

You can buy special glue made to stick mirrors up without damaging the backing. Just get a plain undrilled mirror.

Even if you have hooks on the back of the door you can remove the dressing gown if you need a full view.