Ikea Pax Wardrobe Hack: Mastering Small Spaces by Transforming Our Small Master Bedroom Closet

The time has come! It took us roughly seven weeks to finish up our small master closet renovation (we did this all ourselves with no experience)! We built it up using the IKEA PAX wardrobe planner so today I’m breaking down how much it cost and sharing with you our Ikea Pax wardrobe hack and closet reveal!

When we moved into our new house in mid-November one of the biggest downfalls was that there was such a small closet space in the master bedroom. It had only two sliding glass doors (hello 1988) and a few wire brackets behind it. For a master bedroom, this wasn’t nearly enough space to store much for two people. When we toured the house they were using the GARAGE as their closet! And it was FULL. I still am shocked by that, lol. So I knew we really had to revamp it up to be somewhat of a convenience to not only us but the next potential buyers of this home down the road. There was no way to add another room or extend it much further than what we did so we had to work with the space we had. This is what it looked like:

THE BEFORE:

See The After Here: IKEA Pax Wardrobe Reveal The first thing I thought of when I saw the space was focusing on an IKEA PAX DIY project. It’s budget-friendly and convenient, and I just knew it would fit in the space once we opened it up. We reached out to a few contractors for quotes on opening up and installing them and were quoted $2500-$3000. This was on TOP of our pricing for the IKEA PAX systems, that was just too much for our budget. LUCKILY, family comes in handy sometimes and my younger brother came to town and said, “I can do that!” And so, he did!

We demoed out the wall by just a foot and a half to be able to fit three PAX systems in and brought the top up another 12″ as well. This brought it right up to the ceiling. With eight-foot ceilings (standard in older homes), we knew it would be tight but would work. Each PAX system is 39 3/8×22 7/8×92 7/8 ” so they are quite large, and heavy! (One PAX weighs roughly 118 lbs). TIP: As mentioned in our (How to Use the Ikea PAX Planner) post, it is really IMPORTANT to plan for at least 1/2″ of space between any cabinet box and wall and 1.5″ of space between a cabinet box and ceiling. Otherwise, you can run into a situation like we did where once you place them into a space you won’t be able to move them back out or adjust them to make them level. And from experience, this was the biggest pain in the a$$ ever. So make sure to add that little extra space. It can be covered up easily at the end with trim.

You can learn how we used the IKEA PAX planner here.

TIP: I would definitely recommend that you leave spaces at the very top, middle and bottom of each PAX if you choose to go with door hinges otherwise you will run into having to move your interior drawers/organizers around from the hinge holes predrilled all the way down each PAX. It’s also best to add a shelf near the top.

THE COLOR:

When we decided to go with the doors for our IKEA PAX DIY project I knew I didn’t just want them left screaming for color. I wanted them to POP! So we painted them a beautiful deep Dutch Cocoa by Sherwin Williams and the color is just divine.

TIP: Ikea furniture is not the easiest to paint! Make sure that when painting most Ikea products you use a very strong primer. We tried three before we found the right one and I can tell you that THIS ONE takes the cake! The fumes will blow you away so a respirator is a good idea and paint outside (if you can) or open the windows to ventilate the room as much as possible. TIP: In order to get your PAX systems truly level, you may have to add shims to the system even after trying to adjust them with the adjustments the PAX comes with. Here is a really good video explaining that.

THE HANDLES:

I searched all over for handles. Wanting at first something unique and different. We were opening the closets from the bottom for about two weeks before I became so impatient and ran to the nearest Lowes to see what they had. When I came across these brass handles I was sold.

They are the perfect length (not too big or too small) and complement the color so well. TIP: The doors may not align perfectly when you first put them on. This scared us at first until we learned that Ikea’s soft close hinges are all adjustable. This was the biggest time consumer of it all until we figured it out! I think we spent hours trying to adjust them until we came across this quick video explaining it so save yourself the time and headache we did and watch to learn.

THE REVEAL:

By far my favorite part of the closet is the pull-out shoe racks. It is so nifty! You can totally save money by just using shelves but we really wanted to add that touch of class and convenience.

Watch the video of it all come together HERE! 

We added trim all around the system & painted it the same color as the walls to really make it look more custom. We weren’t able to work with the top of the system much because of the vent placement but some crown molding up there would have looked so nice.

Here’s how the budget broke down:

Ikea PAX & Interiors – $2120 Trim & Drywall- $200 Paint – $105 Handles – 6 x $8 = $48 TOTAL – $2473 And there you have it! It was a labor of love and we learned a lot but we are so happy with how our Ikea Pax wardrobe hack for our small master bedroom turned out. I told my husband I don’t even miss my walk-in closet (yet, lol) because of how convenient it is. Special thank you to my little brother for all your help 🙂