Ikea Pax System Tutorial

Ikea Pax System Tutorial

Your complete post for how to make your own built in closet from ikea storage system! 

Hello readers! Here goes with the large built-in closet systems I built for our large walk in closet both the ladies side and men's side. 

Before you get started you need to look at the ikea closet planner on their website. You can find that here Pax Online Planner . 

Do all of your measurements and do an "inventory" of your clothes, shoes, bags, and other items you need to organize. 

Here is what we were working with, from our new home blueprints: 

My vision included having the left side as the ladies side and the right side as the men's side. Once the house was built, I was able to re measure (after the baseboards were in) and confirm the dimensions. Please note we have 9 foot ceilings hence we were able to purchase the taller built in versions. 

After messing with the ikea planner for weeks (literally) I decided I could not be bothered with doing the closet in one design, so I had to split them up into two designs, men's side and ladies side. 

HERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LADIES SIDE- IN WHITE:

For my inventory I needed space for: 

Lots of long dresses and skirts, short sleeve tops, sleeveless tops, long sleeve tops, coats, vests, jammie tops, belts and scarves, bags, shoes and higher boots. Also, I wanted to eliminate the need for dressers (for underwear, bras, bathing suits, jammie pants, yoga pants) in the master so, a number of drawers needed to be factored in. 

I also wanted doors that were mirrored, and some drawers with glass fronts and shelves with glass tops for pretty stuff like pictures, jewelry and perfumes. 

Here is after using the planner on ikea my rough built ins looked in a cad like drawing. 

You enter your dimensions and get a picture like this, note the blue wall is going to become my vanity, so I am not putting closet there and I had to split the right wall so I know I only have 6' 5" to work with there for closet, because the rest of it is open area. 

If you would like you can virtually paint the walls and choose your carpet color to make the virtual closet more realistic but for this I am keeping it black. 

With the Pax system there are only a certain number of sizes, depths and widths for each section. Lets start with the left corner. Here on the whole left side I am able to install the deeper cabinets, they are all going to be 22 7/8 deep. Some will have doors some will not. I am adding my first cabinet, this will be for my jammie tops and bags. 

These are your choices in white, but they also have darker and wooden colors:


If you want hinged doors and to be able to hang clothing by hangers on a pole:
higher--9 foot ceilings
19 5/8 x 92 7/8 x 22 7/8
39 5/8 x 92 7/8 x 22 7/8
shorter--8 foot ceilings
19 5/8 x 79 1/4 x 22 7/8
39 5/8 x 79 1/4 x 22 7/8

If you want hinged doors and NOT be able to hang clothing by hangers on a pole:
higher--9 foot ceilings
19 5/8 x 92 7/8 x 13 3/4
39 5/8 x 92 7/8 x 13 3/4
shorter--8 foot ceilings
19 5/8 x 79 1/4 x 13 3/4
39 5/8 x 79 1/4 x 13 3/4

If you want to be able to hang clothing but not have doors add this size:
tall and short sizes--
29 5/8 x 92 7/8 x 22 7/8
29 5/8 x 79 1/4 x 22 7/8
29 5/8 x 92 7/8 x 13 3/4
29 5/8 x 79 1/4 x 13 3/4

You can see how you can choose the height, depth and width. The 19 inch cabinets can have doors and the 39 inch cabinets can have doors, but not the 29 inch cabinets. 

So here I added a 19 inch cabinet that can have a door.  

So now lets add accessories. Here I added two shelves and a clothing rod. 

And then add a door- This is a Vikedal mirrored door, there are lots to choose from. 

Lets keep going and add more. Now for a larger cabinet with room for laundry baskets. This will be my dress cabinet, then my non door cabinet for drawers, then more hanging cabinet. Now we have this. 

Here is the view with the doors: 

Now for the other side of the closet where shoes and pants (the slide out pants hangers are awesome! and that funny looking hook thing off to the right side is awesome too its for hanging hangers and towels) will go along with some drawers. Because the left side of the closet contains the deep shelves, in order to have walking room we will install the shallower units 13 inches deep, and these will have no doors. 

So, with this... you will get a shopping list and price so you will know exactly how much it costs before walking into the store. Know that they won't pull it for you, and you will be shopping in chaos. It will be heavy and you will be overwhelmed, then you will have to get it home and unload it and all of this stuff is very very heavy. My kids could not go to the kids club cause it was full, but I was on a mission. So I brought them with and took my list and went to the store.

Here is a screenshot of the bottom of the list. And price- Look- now everything is on sale cool! 

My Assembly print out:

Just shoot me! Yes, This is all my stuff for my closet, both carts:

WARNING- EMBARRASSING STORY--I will skip the details of the story of loading the pieces and the Ikea loading helper dropping my glass piece and shattering it, and having both kids, my minivan, and a manager continuously fussing at me to move my parked car out of the loading zone, even though I had to go back in and exchange the piece the worker dropped and... was NOT moving my car. Turns out I made such a fuss that the manager and undercover security came to "help me"- read, "make me angrier" and moved me out of the way of the public because I was so angry and causing a scene. In the end, I was personally escorted out of Ikea by a man who looked like a Redskins Linebacker. And on with the project......

Here was my empty closet space before the cabinetry was installed. 

I brought it all home and started to put things together. The paperwork tells you how to do everything- even which numbered hole to install shelves etc. Here are some action shots: 

You have to lay everything on its side to build the frames, make sure you have a lot of room . 

Deep cabinets.

Shoe Shelf- shallower cabinets.

Joining Cabinets together you will need clamps. 

And when filled it looks pretty good! 

Shoe and Pants storage. 

Please note,  that since the early stages of my closet I have changed things around and added a lighted vanity, still have to spray paint the mirror, but my FIL (a Naval electrical engineer), taught me how to turn a fixture into a plugged in fixture since we did not have the light hardwired into the wall. The Malm vanity is also from Ikea. I love it! That's the beauty of the Pax system, you can change things around as you like. 

Sorry, bad pic,,,,,My vanity area, and YES, I am spray painting the mirror silver.

 And here are more updated pics of my closet:

Perfumes and jewelry.

Love the hanging space. 

Shoes 3 or 4 pair per shelf.

Jammies/ Bags Closet 

Hope you all like my Ikea Pax tutorial, you really can do it yourself! 

Email me- Facebook me - whatever you want! 

Peace, Kristen