Pax wardrobe owners: a few questions...

[FatimaLovesBread]

We're off to buy 3 metres worth of Pax on Friday and there's a couple of things I'm pondering.
If you already have Pax could you let me know the following:
a. We're having a 3m length down one wall, would 2 doubles (100cm) and 2
singles (50cm) or 1 double, 4 singles be better?
I'm thinking the latter may be more stable and easier to build? We were planning on having on of those divider sections in the bottom of one of the doubles anyway so wouldn't lose space.
b. I've read about carpet grippers making the wardrobes tilt slightly? Has anyone had a problem with this? Should I request the carpet man not use grippers on that 3m section?
c. Do the mirrored doors look ok? We're thinking 5 normal doors and one mirrored. Or we could have 6 normal and the mirror that attaches to the side.
d. Are the wire basket drawers fine? I was going to have those instead of wood drawers as they're cheaper and no one will be looking at the inside
e. Any must-have fittings?

I think that's all for now

Hi, we've had pax for about 9 years now, it's been great.

With regard to the units we went with the 2 doubles 1 single option and I haven't regretted it, we have full height hanging in the single then 3 wooden drawers and 1 shelf tray ( with the wooden dividers ) in each of the doubles with a hanging rail above, with a shelf above the drawers.

I would recommend going fir the wooden drawers if you can as I have the wire baskets in my kitchen ( also ikea) and it really frustrated me when things drop down or get caught the drawers also have a nicer 'feel' iyswim?

I can't help much with the doors we just had a run of the same ( white with a pane at the top although I had considered having I mirrored door in the middle we have a free standing mirror instead.

Hth

We have 2 doubles 1 single too. Due to dodgy floor, there's a bit of a v shape between two of them, but not so much you notice it. Didn't notice the carpet grippers making an issue - the wardrobes shouldn't be right against the wall anyway to allow for airflow behind (to minimise the chance of mould growth, particularly on an external wall, which ours is)

We have two mirror doors, on adjacent (but not on the same double) doors (one on a single, one on left side of double) so we I can get a decent view of my giant arse from behind just by looking over my shoulder! The mirrors are great.

We have shelves (plain wooden ones) in the doubles. Mine have two storage boxes (yay bargain corner) underneath, DH just has shoe boxes beneath his.

I have 2 doubles and one single. The double size wire basket drawers are constantly falling off the runners and are very frustrating - go for wood!

Once built, you need a carpenter or joiner to make you a pretty strip to make them look fitted.
They cut a piece of wood precisely and fill the gap. Paint it, caulk it. Perfect.

trouser hangers are fab!

We have them in two rooms.

a. I prefer the doubles to the singles, although it may depend what you are storing in them.
b. I don't remember a problem with carpet grippers, though my dp did attach them to the top of the wall with a baton.
c. We have a mixture of mirror and wooden doors, they look great
d. I think the wooden drawers are much better than the wire ones.
e. Have a good think about what you want to store in each one and buy the most suitable fittings - be warned it can get expensive.

We have had the light wooden (birch - I think) for nearly 8 years, they still look as good as new. I do think that the opening doors are better than the sliding doors - they just feel better quality.

Are you having the stuff delivered, they are very heavy and bulky.

I like my wire baskets. Slide out easily and I don't find these get caught on them or any other annoyances. I only have singles with non mirrored doors so can't help with the rest.

I've got the wire baskets - I like them.
I think I'd go 2 doubles 2 singles if I was you.

I just have a double and a single.

The double is for hanging and has the wooden drawers and one shelf, right at the top, where I can't actually reach without standing on my bed (great for hiding Christmas pressies).

The single has shelves and wire baskets. The baskets get used for my jammies and DH's sweaters. I use the wooden drawers as my main drawers.

Ours are all white, as we have a lot of old IKEA white woodwork in the room. Had them about 5 years, now. Never put the handles on the (outward opening) doors, as it keeps the kids out!

We had them delivered. We got the shorter (2m) ones and they were still too long and heavy for our long car.

We have ours fastened to the wall with a baton so any tilt isn't there anymore.

I love my jewellery tidy drawer thing. I also roll up belts and ties and store them in there.

We initially had the wire baskets for shoes and miscellaneous crap but switched to the wooden drawers as the baskets kept collapsing off the runners. I think I've read of others having a similar issue.

The wire drawers work better around the hinges I think - you will be restricted about the positions where you can put wooden drawers.

Yes I have the jewellery tray draw thing with a glass shelf above - love it.

We have two doubles and two singles. For the stuff we don't hang we use the singles as it saved buying dividers - it quickly adds up but makes you feel very organised!
We've also used the Alex drawer units from the office dpt - same depth but only 40cm wide so that sits in DH double for underwear, it's a fab set of drawers
I have the trouser hangers, jewellry tray (but never used it yet!) wooden drawers and the slim pull out knob thing that goes on the side of the unit - that I do use for my costume jewellry necklaces. Shelves at the top (we have the tall units) for longer term storage)
I think they're fab!

Love ours and I love the wired baskets too ! Never had an issue with falling off runners.

Wow, fab thanks for all the replies. I'm getting a little bit excited about getting them and being able to organise things. We've been living in the living room/DDs bedroom for the last 4 weeks with only one drawer of clothes while the room has been torn out and replastered.

I'm going to have another play around with the planner on the website. I'm swaying toward 4 singles, one double as the other double will have a divider anyway.

I'll add a jewellry tray and the hanger rail thingy to the list too.
I might buy a couple of wooden drawers and the rest wire, or maybe all wire and then upgrade to wooden at a later date. We're getting the Hemnes chest of 6 drawers too so bigger clothes can go in those.

We're getting the longer ones so thought I'd get those material storage boxes for the junk we put on the high shelf.
Also borrowing a van from DH's work as we're getting the long ones.

I remembered another question...
Do you have the normal hinges or the soft closing hinges? Which are better?

We've had 3 doubles (2 for dh; 1 for me) with 2 mirrored doors. Felt could have done with one less mirror once they were in as it was strange having so much reflected, but wanted them to be symmetrical. Were white gloss. Looked fab. Didn't have drawers and ended up with lots of baskets for underwear so things weren't as visible as they could be which dh didn't like. One wardrobe had two lots of rails for dh to hang just his shirts.
Second time we had 2 doubles and a single. All oak veneer. And a chest of drawers.
Then had a purge of dh's clothes (he has everything in 3 different sizes depending on his waistline / training regime at the time) and vacuum packed the non-current clothes for storage in the attic. Got rid of the single (to ds's room for toy storage.
I always put lots of hooks on the inside face of the doors in my wardrobe for jewellery (one side) and bags (on the other side). Have a hanging storage thing and most of my stuff is in baskets so easy to pull out.
Want to add a mirror to the inside of the doors when I next go to Ikea in dh's side so I can see myself full-length on the few occasions I want to. Have played around with number of shelves, rail heights over time.
Never had issue with carpet grippers (always gone for tall version of wardrobes), but do screw them back to the walls as they're heavy things without anything in them even. Picture rails in current house have made that very easy.

We have wire baskets in the kids wardrobes, they are fine and work well.

We have soft close hinges. I would say they are definitely worth it.

Just make sure ceiling are high enough if getting the tall ones. Fixing to wall is necessary if you have heavy mirror doors.

The thing about having doubles is you will pay less for one drawer than you would for 2 single drawers. Worth bearing in mind.

Wire baskets hang from the top edge of the basket, drawers from underneath so the hinge is a massive issue. I have Pax everywhere in my house, I have (I should know this as I say it all the time on here ) 6 doubles and 12 singles.

I have wooden drawers, shelves and plastic tubs (they have stopped selling the plastic tub drawer thing, sigh, they were fantastic and much cheaper than a drawer.)

We have normal hinges which are fine for me and Dh but I do hear the bang of the door when the children slam close them in their rooms. Doors wise we have both wooden and mirrored doors.

We have a 4m run in the boy's playroom, 3 doubles flanked either end by 2 singles. They aren't attached to the wall, just connected to each other.

If you go into the store pay close attention to the hinge position and the back plate which is a metal L bracket. It is found at the top at the back in both corners. This affects how high up to you go with something. Also the hinge for the mirrored doors is in a different place by one hole I think than the wooden doors so my advice is count the number of holes up from the bottom. And take your time choosing if your Ikea is miles away.

We have a 3m wall. After much thinking we have recently got 2 doubles & 2 singles. The 2 singles sit in the middle, of which one has a mirror. No issue with carpet grippers. The mirror is great! I use that cupboard as my makeup/ toiletries unit with glass fronted drawers within it. In all others we have hangers on the top, 3 wooden drawers & a wire basket at the bottom. The wooden drawers are definitely better than wire baskets!

Good & bad points-

• soft close hinges - must have!!
• long wooden drawers necessitate opening both doors fully wide...bit troublesome at times. In hindsight we should have had a spilt down the middle with 2 drawers each level. You can then open the drawers with one door open.
• mirror is great!
• the door immediately adjacent to the mirrored door couldn't take a handle (we got curved handles that fit on the inside of the door & curve to the outside..mirrors are a touch wider so the adjacent door couldn't have a handle!)
• slimline drawers with soft velvety placeholders are fab for jewellery
• slimline drawers are good by themselves for ties, tie pins & cuff links etc.
• we have dark brown wardrobes with creamy white doors (the new ribbed look) which looks lovely but I find the insides a bit dark. Wish I had chosen lights that go onside& switch on when you open the door.

Shame about the plastic tubs, they were great.

We have a 4.5m run in our walk in wardrobe and a 3m run in another bedroom. In both we installed the wardrobes onto the wooden floor and had the carpets fitted up to the wardrobes themselves (didn't see the point of putting carpet underneath something that was never going to move) - this also meant no issue with carpet grippers.

We have a combination of the wooden drawers, internal chest of drawers (not sure if they make those now) and the plastic tubs. The wire drawers have an angled shape and so you lose some capacity whereas the wooden ones are rectangular.

PS - before you put things away in your new drawers, watch the Marie Kondo videos () for how to fold your tops and then "file" them, rather than stacking one on top of the other. Makes putting away much easier and you can see them all. It's been a revelation to me!

Oooh going to be watching that video for folding tips.

I've been playing around with the online planner all evening and I think I've designed what I want.
Got a couple of wooden drawers and the rest wire, will see how I go on with the wire can always upgrade later.
Got a couple of pull out shelves so I can get some acrylic make up boxes to put on them, getting quite excited at organising everything

DS and DD2 each have a double Pax in their bedrooms, and in our bedroom we have custom built cupboards in the eaves, but built to Pax dimensions so we can use all the fittings (canny!).

So can't help with single vs double, or glass doors, but here's my input...

The tall version (if you have the ceiling height) is brilliant, and the top shelves swallow suitcases, spare linen and all sorts of things you don't need too often. You'll need a chair nearby!

Wire baskets are fine for clothes, and cheap, and give you more storage space than the wooden drawers. But they do sometimes fall off their runners if overloaded.

Get some of the square canvas pullout boxes for the base of the wardrobe - excellent for shoes and handbags.

I have a brilliant slide-out belt holder (with hooks along it) which I use for all my long necklaces. It hides neatly inside the wardrobe, next to the hanging rail.

Nothing is forever with Pax. The wardrobe in DD2's room used to be a computer cupboard, with a pull out desk and lots of shelves. It was dead easy to change all the interior and reuse it as a traditional wardrobe, and I'm sure it will evolve into something else at some point.

Got to point out that now you get 2 options in the wire basket. One is simple squares (old design) - this is annoying as stuff gets stuck in the gaps. The new option is a floral pattern (much smaller holes/gaps) - much better - but sometimes proves to be unavailable in the needed size/colour. There are 2 colours - white & dark grey. White is quite pretty but we simply couldn't get any on the day we ordered! Living with grey...it's decent.