Sad PAX to beautiful built in wardrobe

pax built in before

I’m in the slow process of remodeling my house and once I had all the walls and ceiling done in the main bedroom I decided to make my new PAX wardrobe look built in.

As I said to a friend, it was only like 20-30€ in materials and couple days of work. But the difference is huge.

From a sad IKEA PAX wardrobe left on the side of the room …

Pax wardrobe frame

… to a nice built-in wardrobe.

IKEA PAX built in hack

Process was quite simple. Here’s what I did.

IKEA items used:

  • PAX frames x 2
  • BERGSBO glass door x 2
  • BERGSBO solid door x 2
  • KOMPLEMENT drawers x 3
  • KOMPLEMENT Clothes rail x 2

PAX built-in process

First I carefully removed the tile baseboard pieces around the wardrobe area.

Then, I cut a 19mm wide plywood piece (60x200cm) with the same depth as the PAX modules. This is to raise the modules up a bit.

raising off the floor

After that, I bolted the drywall profile to the left wall and ceiling. I set them 15mm recessed of the PAX frame. (This is so that the 13mm drywall panel will almost sit flush with the PAX frame.)

Next, I placed the PAX modules above the new base and secured them to the wall making sure they were level. I placed the left module 10cm away from the wall on the side.

Before lifting the PAX structures in place, I bolted drywall profiles to the upper part of the structures. (It’s a tight space once you lift them).

Then, continued bolting drywall structure around the cabinet and also to the right side wall.

magnetic wristband
Having a magnetic wristband is handy

Once the drywall structure was done it was only a matter of bolting the drywall panels to it to “close” the gap between the PAX structures and the walls or ceiling.

Finishing the drywall

After the drywall was bolted I did the usual taping/plastering on the bolt heads, panel unions and wall-ceiling corners, metal corner beads. After some sanding all was ready for paint.

Last step was to cut the ceramic baseboards to suit the floor tiles. Once cut, I glued them to the skirt of the PAX structures with some polyurethane adhesive.

pax with bergsbo doors

After the adhesive was dry it was quite quick to grout the joints and make the whole set look like it was always there.

tile baseboard

After installing wallpaper on the wall with the headboard, the room was finished.

I integrated the PAX wardrobes with BERGSBO glass and solid doors. The interior are fitted with KOMPLEMENT drawers and hangers.

IKEA PAX built in
IKEA PAX built in

To complete the room, I also have MALM bedside tables and chest of drawers.

~ by David from Barcelona, Spain.