Pax closet system installation

By now you'll likely have designed your closet system and held onto the several digit code the planning tool generates. More than 90 percent of buyers already have at least some idea of what they want when they come in, McMahon said.

And there's not a design service — at least not yet — as there is with kitchen cabinets. The team member will pull it up on their computer and review everything with you, making sure you don't have anything weird going on, and making suggestions for improvements. After the many hours I'd spent in the planner it was gratifying to hear her say my design was well-done. But she still had a couple tweaks, like glass shelves over the pull out drawers to keep out dust, and the lights you can mount inside the top of the cabinet well worth the extra expense!

But we also found out some unpleasant news. We'd planned to hire someone through IKEA to build the closets for us. Some 80 percent of customers do, McMahon said. But: if we did the online order with delivery and assembly through IKEA, the builders would require that our baseboards be cut out where the closet was going. Wait, what?

The original trim on our Victorian isn't negotiable so that ruled that out. I followed up with McMahon later by email and he confirmed. For this reason the baseboards need to be removed before install. Well, sometimes in old houses with plaster walls that crumble when you hang TVs on them another hard lesson you have to do what you have to do.

We opted not to anchor ours to the walls being a home without children, we're willing to take that risk. But IKEA, if you're listening, I'd put that requirement somewhere unmissable well before customers have completed the purchase. If you've ever attempted your own assembly you don't need me to tell you about the frustration factor. I feared we'd end up divorced if we tried to assemble it ourselves and in fact, Perdomo said she can always tell if a couple is going to stay together when she sees how they deal with an IKEA assembly.

But the whole baseboard issue nixed that so it was up to us. If you opt to hire a pro, you're buying yourself time. For the average person it takes about five and a half hours, Perdomo said, while it takes her or another pro an hour and a half to two hours.

Unless you're doing sliding doors, that is. Welcome to my master walk-in closet! Starting with replacing the carpet on the second floor with a Scandinavian-inspired flooring , renovating the bedroom , and now the master walk-in closet. We walked around all the PAX units so I could pull out drawers and see all the options before adding them to the planner. I am so impressed by this! I was thinking about installing the wardrobe frames without the cardboard back and just letting my shiplap walls show through the back.

Is there any reason why you must install the back panel? We assumed the same thing until we went deep into the ikea hackers forums and discovered how important the back panel is, and thus settled on how to mask the backs rather than do away with them.

Hi Erin, Just wanted to let you know how popular your blogs are. I told her I already had!. I did have a question re: item no. Can you please explain and if possible share some pictures of the build up in process—like an area of the base that was built up next to an area that was not? Was the baseboard you used more in height than the actual base of the wardrobe frame? Why did you you have to build new ones? Did you just add the fronts to increase the depth of the drawers, or did you remove the original PAX drawer fronts and install your own?

I was really flummoxed about this step. Please clarify in as layman terms as you can. Thank you for sharing!

Does that answer your question? We added the drawer fronts purely for aesthetics and to make the cabinetry look built in and custom. I do know of some people who have left the drawer fronts as is and just painted everything, also for a nice effect.

I want to note that all the upgrades we made were purely for aesthetics. I understand now, about why you had to build up the base using the shelves. Do give me suggestions if you happen to have any. If yes, how do we do it? I also understand why you chose to install the drawer fronts and how much of a difference it makes in seamlessly tying into the custom closet look after looking at some PAX installations without the drawer fronts.

However, I am not quite understanding the whole mechanism of attaching the drawer fronts to existing drawers even though it seems from all the comments, that you have really explained it as simplistically as possible. Carpentry always confused me. It is complex for me to understand, simply because I cannot visualize it. Do you, by any chance, have a video tutorial with a step by step explanation, that I could watch, so that I can understand visually, exactly what each and every step in this process is?

I also wish that they offered smaller height and width, paneled, hinged doors, so if one wanted to cover just the top or bottom part of the wardrobe frame with the doors, it could be done. Btw, is there any way that a pair of Besta unit doors can be used to cover the top part of the frame of a single PAX wardrobe frame, but the bottom part housing the drawers could be left as is, or covered with a separate set of hinged doors from the Besta series??

Your closet turned out beautiful. Did you think about that when you were designing the closet? Did you use something different like a spray adhesive? We used the Zinniser primer first on the surface to make it matte and then used Roman wallpaper glue to install the wallpaper. Did you prime first? Unfortunately no… the primer step is listed after the wallpaper. So that explains why nothing is sticking. So much paper wasted!

Oh no! Have you tried using a heavier coat of wallpaper glue? Your project inspired me to believe a plain ole boring closet is an extension of the adjoining space and not just utilitarian. You inspired me so much so that I have now assembled 8 PAX units in my walk in.

The project seems to be getting bigger as the ideas and inspiration from your posts flood in. I am having the same troubles you had sourcing the poplar boards from my local HD or Lowes. I do have a concern this thickness may be too heavy as a drawer front. How did you handle the transition between vertical trim and baseboards?

Your closet turned out really beautifully, and I wanted to do something similar. I did have a bad experience with Zinsser BIN paint, though. I, too, did two coats, allowing a few days for offgassing and curing before the second coat, and keeping windows open and fans running during painting and afterwards. I had much better luck painting my closet shelves with BIN, which I did outside in the hot sun. I did only one coat this time, leaving it outside for hours afterwards, and the smell was barely noticeable when I brought the shelves inside at the end of the day.

The way we did it, we ended up gluing the wire down to the top of the highest shelf and then ran it up the corner vertically in the very back to exit the unit. What is the width of the walkable area between the two cabinets first photo in section 14?

Do you find it is tight? Working on an addition with closet and want to ensure I leave enough space between wall and cabinetry. Your closet is awesome, Erin! We are in the midst of doing ours much like you have and I have a question. Have you had any problems with the wallpaper you used to cover the back wall seams? I have read comments on bubbling, lifting, being difficult to cover with paint, etc.

Would greatly appreciate any input! This is just amazing! Hope that helps, and good luck with your closet! We are in the midst of doin our closet now and just like yours we have a few units on two sides of a walkin closet. My question is concerning the lights when you purchased the puck lights from amazon how were you able to connect the lights from each side of the room without the wire being exposed.

The pack i purchsased allows for you to connect 6 lights but how is that possible for the lights on the opposite side. I hope im making sense! We ended up ordering an extra long cord to connect the two sides through the ceiling we have attic access.

How did you move the electrical outlet? I looks like it is in line with the top drawer. Hello Erin! I am just getting started on my install. My question is regarding the wallpaper. I have one more unit to put together, I am thinking about trying to get very thin plywood instead of using the back with the PAX system, cut to size of course. I will definitely prime it 1st, then paint it!

Your thoughts? Could you please tell me how you were able to recreate the fronts on the drawers? Did you just cover the existing wood fronts, or remove them and remake them? Hi, I believe this is covered in step 8 above, but we cut the wood drawer fronts to size and then attached them to the existing Ikea laminate drawer fronts using screws, screwed from the inside of the drawer. Let me know if you need further clarification. This is absolutely beautiful!

Hoping to create something similar in our master closet. When you painted, how did you keep the paint from filling the holes that you wanted to leave open on the adjustable shelves? I need an extension to one of my cords to reach the bridge connector. Did you have to find extensions for your lights? If so where? This is awesome! How long did the project take in man hours for the install, carpentry, and painting. As you added spare shelves to match the height of the baseboard for the bottom of the wardrobes, I noticed you added a shelf divider shown in your point 5.

Was putting a shelf divider on top of a shelf an issue? This looks incredible!! Do you think this would be possible to do with the thought of moving and taking the wardrobes down in the next couple of years? Hi Erin, your post has inspired me to attempt redoing our walk in closet with the pax system, with customization as well. I was wondering how well the paint is holding up after all this time with use?

Any chipping or lifting of the paint form the laminate? Thanks so much! This closet is beautiful! What advantage did buy the Pax units give you? At that point in time, we had never built cabinetry before, so it was pretty intimidating to do so and would have taken us A LOT more time to build out.

One of the advantages to the IKEA system is that we could use existing drawer bases, internal organizers, and other organization pieces to max out the organization of the closet. That being said, having grown our skills today, we would potentially tackle the full build-out from scratch today if we had the dedicated time , just because we love a new challenge ha!

Erin, this is truly outstanding work. The PAX system is great but it absolutely leaves little to be desired on the esthetic side.

What you have done is quite perfect. As a designer, I am quite critical so grand complements to you. What was the total cost on this project? This is like the best hack ever!! I do have a question though, how do you catch drips when painting with a gun before it dries?

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