Tips for Assembling Ikea Pax Wardrobes

[Theonlyoneiknow]

Apologies in advance for all my Ikea threads!

Have just bought four wardrobes (4 x 75cm) which are 236cm high with sliding doors ( half mirror half white stained oak).

I am already dreading having to build them! Have found a few threads already on here with some tips ie/ cutting out skirting board if need to screw them to the wall.

Any other tips? Do you build them on the floor then lift up or build them up against the wall t make sure they don't scrape against ceiling when lift up? I am hoping they will fit! The Ikea designer measured herself and said they will fit so hoping she was right!.

Haven't done the interiors yet for the wardrobe as thought my head was going to explode in Ikea yesterday so that will be a whole different thread!

Thanks in advance!

Sorry, last night was my anniversary so didn't get chance to check back.

Floors are flat, the carpet gripper is laid down at the edges of the room and then underlay is laid up to the carpet gripper. The underlay sometimes isn't as thick as the carpet gripper, meaning that when the carpet is laid although not obvious to the eye the carpet is raised up a little bit when it reaches the wall.

It is only mm but when you shove a wardrobe all the way back to the wall the two side pieces go all the wall to the floor and therefore sit on the carpet gripper. If you stick a level on it, you have to adjust the feet at the front as technically it is tipping forward.

This is really obvious in this house, the carpets are the original ones from when the house was built 14 years ago so the underlay is dead. We have just built an extension so all our money has gone on that, we now need to replace the carpets. Wasn't that bad at our last house as we had very thick underlay.

I do totally get being Ikea'd out We are lucky that we have one a few miles away so it means we can get stuff in stages and also have a think about something rather than being forced to get it there and then because the journey is horrific etc

The shelf just helps the wardrobe's stability, it is when the wardrobe is put together upright, you are trying to hold it in a rectangle shape and it can easily become out of shape if it leans to one side. I hope that makes sense. Wish you lived near me, I could whip them up in no time and I love doing it

Hope you had a lovely anniversary!

Thanks for all the tips, I am a 4.5hr round trip to ikea in Edinburgh so need to do it in chunks, I would love to live closer to one!

Have measured the ceiling, it's 239.5 cm for the 236 cm wardrobe. Am I in trouble?!

You need an empty room.

Read the instructions carefully first

An electric screwdriver

At least two people.

We have the extra tall pax in our 'new' room. They fit well. Almost scraped the ceiling so just take care.

Don't expect the wire baskets (if you use them) to hold too much weight. DS has them in his wardrobe, and the bottom one drops all the time. But he does have heavy things in, like school books.

I use mine for scarves, and handbags..

You won't have room to tip them up so you will have to make them upright. It honestly isn't that difficult, just do it so you have access to both front and back of the wardrobe whilst you build it. One person on each side or at the front and the back.

Also have a stool so that the person turning the cambolt screws at the top can reach them easily and quickly. They are only a quarter turn or half a turn so not a time consuming thing.

Your instructions should show that you can attach the bottom to one side and then upright it, meaning that you can put the appropriate screws in whilst it is lay down. both the top and the bottom just slot onto the screws and are then locked in place with cam nuts.

Good luck! Sadly I live in West Yorkshire or I would honestly help you out

when it says 2 people you NEED 2 people. we learned that one

Hi we built a 1 x double and 2 x singles at 236cms high with sliding doors in August. The gap was 204cms and width of wardrobes 200cms. It took us 4 days to build (2.5 for the wardrobes and interiors and 1.5 days to hang the doors). First time for any Ikea furniture and we have managed to stay married!

I would say the flatpacks are extremely heavy - all of them except perhaps the handles. We had a set of instructions each for the first wardrobe, printed an extra copy from their website and then we took it very slowly one step at a time. I think we did single, double then single, then put in the internal shelves, drawers and hangers then finally hung the doors which was quite tricky as the gap was snug and we are short people.

We didn't remove any skirting or fix them to the wall, just connected them together. We built them on the floor and then lifted them up but our friends built them standing up.

We also had 2 x bedside cabinets and 1x big chest of drawers - by the end of it I loved doing it [very sad emoticon]. I prefer an electric screwdriver, DH doesn't. Trying to remember anything else.... Oh yes as we had sliding doors we checked all the time with a spirit level to ensure the wardrobes were level on top before we popped the tracks on. We also built them in the bedroom and pushed the bed to the wall to have the room. I used the little lids off the liquid soap powder, counted out all the screws and bolts etc and lined them up against the wall in order as on the instructions.

I think I will stop now even when I read this back it is making me look strange

Probably easier to attach a baton of wood to the wall rather than cutting the skirtings. That's what we've had to do in rooms with stud walls.

If you're tipping you don't need two people, just don't tip it up on its side, lie it on the front to build and then tip it straight up. I built DD's wardrobe on my own, at seven months pregnant, it was fine. The shelf in to add stability is a total top tip. As is building upright in lower rooms. Although DH and I nearly divorced over him being shite at helping me build our corner wardrobe. He is shite though.

Marking my place as will soon be buying them. Thanks for the useful tips!

I need to print this off for DP! Wow, lots of useful tips! I wish you lived nearer too Potterer. My mums side of the family are actually from w.yorkshire but she somehow ended up in NE Scotland!

I've committed a crime, I'm from Lancashire and now live in Yorkshire, I'm surprised I haven't been shunned

Having looked at the Ikea instructions for your wardrobes, it does say that if your ceiling height is greater than 240cm you can tip them but if you are less than 240cm you have to put them together upright.

Check your measurements in different places and see if your 239.5cm is the same over where you are erecting the wardrobes.

Clearly you are very close! Trust me, they are easy.

Will get DP to measure tomorrow as he is 6'3" so most of the way there! Is the fact i dont have a shelf to put in going to scunner me a bit? We are off to Northumberland on hols soon so I think it might have to wait till we are back!

We attached a batten to the wall when we built ours.

Prepare for me to be back mid build! ;-)

As I haven't as yet bought any of the interior fittings, any tips? Must haves? I like the look of the shoe holder :)

BoundandRebound - how were unflatpack? I am thinking of booking them to put my wardrobes together so am keen to hear a review!

They were extremely good and hard working and tidy and I am really pleased with what they've done

They were here for 5 hours, but it was a big job.

5 hours! How many wardrobes did you have and how many of them were there? How much did it cost?

Just got my quote from unflatpack and it would be £160 for my wardrobes (4 x 75 cm) with four sliding doors. They said it was £71 per wardrobe and that I had two ? Anyway, think that's more than I'd be happy to spend....

That's the same price as what ikea would charge via their own assembly service (20% of price of goods being assembled)

6 wardrobes, 4 drawers, shoe shelves, shelves, lights and a small ceiling height so they had to build upright, plus they removed some skirting board so it fit against wall and had to cut into 2 wardrobes for the power socket behind. £250

Interior fittings wise it depends what you are storing.

In my room Dh and I have a double wardrobe banked by two singles for clothes, plus another double.

So in one double we have a hanging rail for mid length stuff, Dh is also 6'3" so his shirts are looooong.

Under that we have a drawer then 3 of those fabric tubs ie these but mine are full depth around 58cm deep. They hold handbags, toilet rolls and bedding.

Then Dh and I each have a single wardrobe, mine has a hanging rail for longer stuff like dresses and the I have the plastic drawers which I love. They hold all my folded t shirts, vest tops etc anything that doesn't need hanging up.

Dh in his single wardrobe (which is 201cm high) has 8 plastic drawers, they hold everything from sports stuff, underwear, sleep stuff etc.

The children have one wardrobe full of plastic drawers, then another with a hanging rail for uniform, shirts and trousers.

I can't see the point of the wooden drawers unless you aren't having doors because no-one sees them. Plastic ones are much cheaper.

The only thing to avoid is the two massive fabric tubs that fit a double as we have over-filled ours and they weigh a tonne!

We have shoes in, yes you've guessed it, those plastic tubs They are in the double wardrobes in the children's playroom as it is off the hall.

Thanks Potterer, i already have some of those fabric tubs so thats handy !!

Does anyone have two sets of double sliding doors, now have you set them up? Is it possible to use soft closing on both and still gave them flush in the middle (if that makes sense)

We've just built two 236cm Pax wardrobes with double sliding doors. I would recommend building in an upright position, unless you have really tall ceilings - ours fit, but only just, and we wouldn't have clearance to do the tilt. If you have a willing friend, I would recommend three people to construct the carcass - because they're so tall, sometimes you need two people to hold them steady while the third attaches the fixings. We didn't need an electric screwdriver, but you will need an electric drill to attach the two carcasses together (they supply fittings, and you use a shelf-fitting hole which has to be drilled completely through).

My one tip would be to read the instructions for fitting the sliding doors before you construct the carcasses. There's some stuff that needs to be done to the top panel of the wardrobes to enable the sliding doors, and we found to very fiddly to do once the carcasses were finished.

Thanks cornflake. Our doors are half wood, half mirror. Does this mean they cant both have the soft closing option ? Ikea said that the third door along wont be flush with the second door if i want to have it soft closing. Does that make sense??

I don't think we have the soft close, so can't help I'm afraid. Can you just always leave the doors so that you've got a front one, then a back one, then front, then back, so that you don't notice if they're not flush?