Thinking about installing an IKEA PAX closet system? I share everything I love about ours & a few things I don’t!
Jeff and I had been sharing our small master bedroom closet for 7 years when we decided to take the plunge with a bathroom addition (check out our bathroom remodel before and after if you missed it) so you can bet I was including a walk-in closet in that baby!
Our choice of closet system was an easy one because it’s what we installed in our old house and loved it – IKEA’s PAX closet system. It’s pretty much the Goldilocks of closet systems – so much better than a basic white wire system but not nearly as expensive as California Closets or The Container Store’s ELFA closet system.
Today I’m taking you on a tour of our new closet and also sharing my honest IKEA PAX closet system review with everything I love about it and the few things I don’t. Ready to check it out? (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here})
When you walk into our bathroom from our master bedroom, our new walk-in closet is on the left behind a pocket door:
It’s a standard inexpensive 6-paneled door but we dressed it up by adding {this stylish rectangular flush pull} in satin brass instead of the typical small circle pull:
We’ll head inside in just a minute…
but first I’ll quickly share how you start the design of an IKEA closet. Their closet system is based on using PAX wardrobe frames (available in three width, two depth, and two height options) that you then customize with KOMPLEMENT accessories.
Since part of our new closet is where our old bathroom use to be, the width of our closet was determined for us at about 6.5 feet. That meant we had room for the deeper 22″ wardrobe frames on one side but only the shallower 13″ deep frames on the other (if we did all 22″ deep frames, there wouldn’t be enough space in the middle of the closet):
We were able to customize the length of our closet in the building process – we designed it so that three wardrobes (two 39″ wide frames on the ends + one 19″ wide in the middle) on each side are a perfect fit. This is a quick iPhone pic of what it looked like when we had put only the PAX wardrobe frames in our new space:
The wardrobes frames were secured to the walls on the top back side of the frames with drywall anchors and secured to each other with binding post screws near the base and near the top (simply drill through one of the pre-drilled holes from one wardrobe into the pre-drilled hole of the neighboring wardrobe and insert and tighten the screw).
Quick tip: Be sure you’re putting the screws through holes that won’t be used by any of your interior accessories so you don’t have to redo them.
Now comes the fun part – building it out with all of the KOMPLEMENT accessories:
I’ll share how we customized the 13″ deep frames on the right side first:
KOMPLEMENT Pull-Out Clothes Rail
The 13″ deep IKEA wardrobes aren’t deep enough for a typical clothes rod but IKEA has a pretty genius solution for providing hanging clothes space – these pull-out clothes rails that give you the option to store hanging clothes facing forward:
It’s not as easy to find something with a quick glance when they’re hanging in this direction but it works really well for things that aren’t worn daily like my dresses. And the rails extend out which is a neat feature if you want extra hanging space to air dry a few things or hang the outfit you’re planning to wear the next day:
Update: Unfortunately it seems that IKEA has discontinued The Pull-Out Clothes Rail
IKEA KOMPLEMENT Pull-Out Pants Hanger
Below the clothes rail with my dresses I have a 39″ KOMPLEMENT pull-out pants hanger with a standard shelf separating the two:
The 13″ deep size that I have fits one pair of pants per hanger (unless you layer them on top of each other) while the 22″ deep size fits two pairs of pants per hanger with a little bit of overlap. I keep all of my pants that tend to wrinkle on these pull out hangers but all of my jeans, leggings, joggers, etc. in drawers.
IKEA KOMPLEMENT Shelves
IKEA makes shelves that match their wardrobes in all of the width and length options possible. I used them in several places in my closet – over the top drawer in each wardrobe on the left side of our closet (it keeps what’s inside the drawers from getting dusty), over my pants hanger, at the top of most of the wardrobes to hold large storage baskets, and from floor to ceiling in the middle wardrobe along the right side of our closet to hold medium storage baskets:
I use them to hold travel bags & toiletries, bathing suits, hats & caps, tanks, belts, hair accessories, & flip flops – they’re a perfect fit! They’re {these white woven bins} in the medium size and I used {these bin clips} for labels:
IKEA KOMPLEMENT Shoe Shelves
At the far end of our closet system I filled the 39″ wide wardrobe with {these shoe shelves} and LOVE them – I was able to pack a ton of shoes in and they’re all super easy to grab:
IKEA has other shoe storage options too including {this pull-out shoe shelf} and pull-out trays with shoe inserts and rails. I had pull out racks in my old IKEA closet and definitely like these shoe shelves better but it’s all personal preference.
Full-Length Brass Mirror
On the wall at the end of our closet I hung this large brass floor mirror that I stole from our guest room:
It’s unfortunately been discontinued but {this floor mirror} is very similar in size and shape. Also check out {this mirror} if you prefer squared off corners.
Ready to check out how we customized the other side of our closet that has the deeper 22″ wardrobes?
KOMPLEMENT Clothes Rails
Starting at the top, each wardrobe has a shelf with 1 or 2 of {these storage baskets} in the large size that hold some of my winter boots, totes, larger travel bags, etc. Under them are KOMPLEMENT clothes rails:
I have all of my short sleeve shirts in the left wardrobe frame, long dresses and jumpsuits in the middle wardrobe frame, and long sleeve shirts in the right wardrobe frame. One thing I absolutely swear by are {these non-slip velvet space saving hangers} (pic below is from the IKEA PAX units in our IKEA mudroom where we have {these pulls} on our drawers):
Not only do they look nice and your clothes don’t fall off of them but you can fit so many more clothes in the same amount of space versus using typical tubular plastic or wood hangers.
KOMPLEMENT Drawers with Framed Fronts
All three wardrobe frames also have a set of {these} framed front drawers – these drawers are new at IKEA and I love them! They definitely have a higher end look than the flat front drawers that use to be the only option:
They also have {these glass front drawers} that are stylish options but honestly I just don’t have anything pretty enough that I’m storing in my drawers to want to see through the front 🙂
IKEA makes some nice box set options to organize the interiors of drawers with smaller items like these:
Unfortunately they have been out of stock at our IKEA so those will have to be an add-on at a later date.
KOMPLEMENT Pull-Out Trays with Inserts
And finally my favorite part of our new IKEA PAX closet – {this KOMPLEMENT pull-out tray with inserts} that I’m using to organize my jewelry:
There are a lot of different customizations that you can make because there are different styles and sizes of inserts that you can mix and match (you can see all of your options {here}):
You can also remove the dividers within each individual gray insert which I did for earring storage. IKEA doesn’t have any insert options with smaller compartments that work well for earrings so on the far right I used {this insert} but removed the long dividers for watches and necklaces and replaced it with {this jewelry organizer} I already had, laying the two stackable trays next to each other:
I also did something different with the shelf above my pull-out jewelry tray and chose {this glass shelf} that allows me to see where everything is even before I pull the tray out:
The Finishing Touches
There are a few finishing touches that I added to our IKEA PAX closet system that made a big difference in the final look. For one, we had our contractor add crown molding along the top of our IKEA wardrobes on each side. Our crown molding is one I picked out at our local hardware store that was a good height for covering the gap between the top of the units and the ceiling.
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After install, we patched the holes and painted it in a white that’s a good match for the IKEA wardrobes (I had it left over from the laundry room cabinets we put in last year!). Here’s the exact formula (it’s a custom color) that we mixed in INSL-X Cabinet Coat in Satin (it’s important to use this same exact base):
I also added small decorative strips of molding to fill the gaps between the IKEA wardrobes on the ends and the wall and painted them this same color.
Another key thing to do is to fill all of the remaining holes once you’re done with your closet – it makes a big difference! IKEA has VARIERA cover plates that come in a pack of 100 to fill all of the holes that run along the edges of the PAX frames. It’s tedious work to plug each individual hole but worth it (I paid my daughter to do it 🙂 ). This in-progress pic I took during installation of our PAX wardrobes in our laundry room shows you the difference it makes:
(acrylic drawer pulls found {here})
There are holes at the top of each IKEA wardrobe that I filled too – I covered the IKEA cam lock holes with {these adhesive cover caps} and I covered the ⅜″ open holes at the top with {these hole plugs} – both are a perfect fit:
There are also some tiny holes at the bottom of each frame that I simply filled with caulk. And finally, I took a tiny paint brush and painted the heads of the screws holding the units together with the same white paint I used on the crown molding.
Obviously one other finishing touch was putting in our carpeting – I chose Kaleen’s Peter Island Stripe in Graphite:
While we chose to install our IKEA PAX wardrobes first and carpet after so that the wardrobes were sitting on the wood subfloor where they’re most stable, in our old house our wardrobes were installed on top of the carpet and that worked fine too. As long as your carpet is fairly low-pile and your wardrobes are appropriately secured to the wall you should be good!
Phew… I think that about covers the tour of our PAX closet! Just one last thing – here’s my quick review of the IKEA PAX closet system with what I love and what I don’t love about it:
IKEA PAX Closet System Review: The Pros (+ Cost!)
- The price of an IKEA PAX closet system is one of the biggest pros. You can create a pretty amazing closet for significantly less than other closet systems including The Container’s Store Elfa system and California Closets’ systems. My total cost (without tax) for everything I bought at IKEA for our closet is $1630. While that’s a lot of money, it is far less than higher end closet systems.
- IKEA offers delivery of your closet components at a pretty reasonable price (if you’re doing a large closet it’s worth it!) and they offer returns with a receipt for a full year for anything you decide not to use. My advice is to get an IKEA Family Card and use it when making your purchase – they can then always use your card to look it up if you need to return something down the road and don’t have your receipt.
- It’s not difficult to put the PAX wardrobes and interior accessories together, it’s just time consuming. They come with instructions that I think are pretty easy to follow and require no special tools. Putting the wardrobes together and installing them is a two person job but one person can manage the rest. You can also hire out for assembly too (IKEA partners with TaskRabbit for this)
- The wardrobe frames line up and connect to each another well (we were able to connect our three PAX frames so that there are no gaps or spaces between them and they appear to be one continuous unit) and they’re very sturdy. The IKEA PAX closet we had in our old house was over five years old when we sold our home and it was still in amazing shape.
- I love that the KOMPLEMENT drawers have soft close drawer slides so that they close full close with just a little push.
- The finished closet system has an attractive, custom, high-end look, especially if you add the simple detail of crown molding along the top.
IKEA PAX Closet System Review: The Cons
- IKEA has an online PAX Planner that allows you to create your dream closet online but honestly it’s a pretty clunky program to use. I found it easier to just draw it out myself. The one big benefit of using the online PAX Planner though is it gives you a full list of everything you need for your closet once you’ve designed it in the planner.
- It takes a lot of time. I enjoy organizing so the hours spent figuring out the design of our closet and putting it together is right up my alley but if it’s not up yours, you might want to at least get someone to assemble it for you. The pro of using companies like The Container Store and California Closets is that you can pretty much have it all done for you from design all the way through to install (we used The Container Store for our garage organization project and it was such a stress-free way to go).
- The PAX wardrobe frames come in multiple sizes and in most cases, you can create a combination of sizes that will work well for your space but depending on your closet size there might not be a combination that fits completely wall-to-wall like you can get with more expensive closet systems.
- I wish that IKEA made well-priced, stylish baskets that worked well with their closet systems. I love the ones that I found from The Container Store and the two different sizes were perfect fits but they weren’t cheap and that cost added up.
- The drawers and pants rack aren’t full extension – I really wish they were to make it easier to access things in the far back.
Still considering the Elfa system? Since creating our IKEA closet, we tried out the Elfa system too and I share how the two compare in this post:
So now that you spent half your day reading my post (ha – this was definitely a long one!), do you have any questions? If you happen to be wondering where the heck all of Jeff’s clothes are, he now has our old master closet to himself (you can check out the upgrade we gave that closet with closet curtains instead of doors). Considering he used to have clothes spread out between that closet, our guest room closet, upstairs closet, and chest of drawers in our living room, he’s not complaining :). Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!
Want more ideas for organizing your home? Check out my post on 20 favorite home organization ideas!
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
You’re so right Milja – IKEA rolls out some things in the US first and some things overseas first. I haven’t seen the new wire baskets yet but will look at them the next time I’m at IKEA and add some info to this post!
JC says
Do you see many PAX units used outside of the closet on freestanding walls within the bedroom? That’s what I am going to have to do. Any website references, tips or tricks for that?
Kris Jarrett says
You can definitely use IKEA PAX wardrobes as freestanding units. If you look on IKEA’s site at their wardrobes with doors you can see some good examples: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/pax-wardrobes-with-doors-24337/
Dian Owens says
Great diy project, that looks beautiful! Thanks for your detailed pros and cons list. You said the drawers do not fully extend. Could different cabinetry hardware be used with the Pax system in order to fully extend the drawers? Maybe Ikea will consider providing this option in the near future.
Michelle says
Hi, thanks for all this information! I’m wondering how many pull out shoe shelves you were able to stack?
Marv says
Hi Kris! Great write up, enjoyed! If you have a moment, I would like to ask some questions before we proceed with our project. We have not purchased anything yet. Our closet accessed through our master bath is 13.5 ft wide by 9.5 ft deep with two windows on opposite wall of the door. Plan right now includes on one wall (left side of the room) a combo of a 30″, a 20″, and 30″ (rounding to nearest inch and all are the taller 93″ and 23″ deep). There will be about 1″ space left on each end so a near perfect fit. On front wall and right side will be a 30″, a corner unit, a 40″ and a 30″. This will end up with about 7″ of left over wall space. The back wall, between the two windows, we plan to put a thinner 13″ frame, 40″ wide, and 93″ tall and fill 80-90% of it with the metal shoe shelves.
My questions are: 1) since we need to replace the carpet, we’re contemplating ceramic tile (like the bath has and make continuous through closet (wife does not like that option) or re-carpet. My concern is how well the PAX frames will set on carpet and remain level and maintain a uniform look from one frame to another? 2) Since the frames don’t have a notch in the back bottom to fit around baseboards, did you remove / re-cut baseboards, or cut a notch from the back of the PAX frame, or just sit against the baseboard and managed to secure to the wall while keeping vertically straight? Thanks in advance and sorry for long message! – Marv
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
Hi Marv,
When we did our first closet with IKEA PAX in our old house, it was part of an addition to our house – we debated ceramic tile vs. carpet too and ended up going with the carpet. We were able to make the PAX frames sit completely level and uniform from one frame to another by doing a few things. First of all, along our long wall where our frames almost completely covered the wall, we removed the baseboard so that the frames sat flush along the wall. For our other wall where we only have one unit and it would be obvious if there was no baseboard, we rested the PAX frame up against the baseboard and then used a small square of wood that’s the same depth as the baseboard as a spacer between the PAX unit and the wall where it was attached to the wall (our screws went through the PAX frame, then through the spacer, and then into the wall – we made sure we did it where we would hit studs). Then for the walls where you have more than one frame, we attached the frames to one another so they lined up perfectly and stayed lined up over time. Good luck with your closet!
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
Sorry – I don’t know the answer to that since I don’t have any of the narrow PAX units.
Anonymous says
Thanks, it does help. Unfortunately ours are already assembled and installed. We couldn’t find our studs so we made do and attached to the wall as we best we could with the recommendations of the hardware pro at the local hardware store. Here’s hoping the big one doesn’t hit any time soon (we’re in California). So far, though, I’m LOVING my Pax closets. Thanks for your blog – it’s beautiful and very inspiring. Take good care.
Anonymous says
I paid Ikea (who outsources it) to put it together. I think it crazy to do it yourself. $350 to assemble. Money well spent.
AY says
that is very helpful!
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
We installed our PAX closet system a few years before I did this post so we’ve now had it for over five years. It’s in great shape with no problems!
Laine says
Thanks for this review…how much weight do you find that the clothes rod can hold? We are thinking about buying a PAX closet system, and I’m trying to decide if we can put all our hanging clothes in there or if that will strain the bar too much—
Thanks!
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
Hi Laine, I’ve found the clothes rods to be very sturdy – at times ours have been packed full of hanging clothes and we’ve never had any issues with the rods not holding the weight.
Jacob says
Is there any way to put half doors on? I didn’t see them in the designer but thought they would be pretty cool.
Franklin Parrish says
This is a great article and I too am looking at the PAX system to solve my issues with closet space. I intend to use it in a den and turn it into a walk-in closet a lot like the “apartment” set up from an earlier comment. Budget is an issue. I used the PAX planner and found that my system (gonna rethink the baskets now) without doors is $585 and with doors is $1230. Can I add doors after it is built?
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
Hi Franklin – you can definitely add doors after the fact but the hinges for the doors attach in certain holes and sometimes it can be the holes that you already being used by your interior organizational components so it’s possible you’d have to change around the inside components a bit.
Anonymous says
We just purchased ours and the lady who helped said that you can add doors after but you need to consider which kind first. Certain drawers at the bottom wouldn’t work with certain doors (I can’t remember which, but they have sliders and hinged doors. The mounting for one would be obstructed if you had a drawer at the bottom.) Also, you can only get sliders if you have two units of equal size right next to each other.
BCGramma says
We just finished installing our Pax system. Boy those frames are heavy!! Once we got the first frame together, which took us 4 hours, the others went quickly. We thought it would be nice it Ikea would label top/bottom left right. It is obvious once one is complete, but while in the middle of assembly it’s a bit confusing. The video was very helpful. There are LOTS of pieces; I laid everything(not the whole system, just each drawer, chest, etc.) out first and then assembled it all We have 9’ceilings so there is plenty of room above the frames for whatever. I’m thinking all my Vera bags. Our frames are 93″ tall.
It also would have been helpful if a template for installing handles on the chest of drawers would be included in the box. We made our own template, but since handles are necessary to open the drawers, an included template would be nice.
I still have 5 more Komplemnt drawers to install, but they won’t arrive until Tuesday, they were back ordered. We had them pull the order and deliver it. It did add $180.00 (we live way oustside the cheap delivery area) to our bill, but it was well worth the cost.
The unit looks great and was way cheaper than the “closet lady”, $1,800 vs.$3,700.
If we ever move, we will install another system. Though we might pay to have it assembled. We are not getting any younger.
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
I felt the same way – there was a big learning curve but once you got the hang of it, it was fairly easy. And definitely much, much less expensive than other options! Thanks for the kind words about our new house – I love it but I sure miss my old closet!
SpecialK says
Thanks for your post. I was planning to have a contractor do a custom closet for me, but in his delay getting back with me, I found PAX. And I found this great blog article (thanks Kris!). BCGramma, your comments have convinced me that I will definitely go with PAX and not worry about custom closets from a contractor.
Alyssa says
HI Kris! LOVE this review! We have planned the closet and purchased the frames and components. Do you have any advice for installation? Not sure that the frame mounting brackets will line up with studs. Do you recommend using furring strips that would be anchored to wall and then frames mounted to strips? Or screw directly flush into drywall. Also, do you have any wall anchor (L-bracket) recs? Thank you!!!
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
Hi Alyssa! When we installed our closet, the units had to go in a particular spot so we weren’t able to position them where they would line up with the studs. To secure the units to the wall, we used our own drywall anchors & screws (specifically, the metal Cobra Wall Drillers). Hope that helps – good luck with the install!
Melissa says
Thank you so much for the detailed review! I’ve been comparing various closet systems for months but after spending hours trying to sort out the details and dimensions, I usually give up! Your post makes the PAX really approachable and I’m ready to take the plunge! So glad to discover your blog today!
Anonymous says
This is perfect! I’ve been planning and planning which Pax setup I’m going to choose for our new closet organization. I’ve been trying to decide if the 39″ KOMPLEMENT elements hold up to lots of use – namely, the drawers… I’m worried the drawers will sag over time (they’re just SO WIDE) or fall off the rails, etc. Have you had any trouble with the extra wide Komplement drawers?
We had also considered the black/brown finish but were afraid it would scuff/scratch easily, so were thinking about the lighter birch finish. Have you had any troubles with this?
Finally, I know the shelves create a really deep ‘pocket’ of a shelf. I had considered using those shelves to stack jeans/pants or sweaters. Would I be better off with drawers, baskets, or hangers? I’m thinking now that it’ll become a messy sweater pit. 🙁
Thanks again for this review. I’ll ask more questions as I think of them. HAHA. But no really. 🙂
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
We had our old PAX closet system for over five years and had no problems at all with the wood drawers – they weren’t sagging at all and still rolled in and out smoothly. The black/brown finish in our old PAX closet didn’t scuff at all. As far as the shelves go – you are totally right. There is a some area in the back that isn’t super easy to access so I recommend either going with drawers instead (if they’re lower down) or using baskets on the shelves if they’re higher up. Good luck with planning your closet!
Mike says
As for the deep shelves, there’s a PAX shelf that’s only 13.75″ deep, vs. the full-depth 22&7/8″. I used some as the topmost shelves in a 29″ wide PAX system in my garage, and they make seeing things on the top shelf much easier. The 29″ ones are plenty strong for the yard chemicals, spray paints, etc., I have on them, so I suspect 39″ ones would be strong enough for clothes and stuff. The black-brown one is 602.469.33.
And Kris, thank you so much for your article. I’ve looked and looked at PAX at the store (and we got a quote from The Container Store, wow), but after using PAX in my garage and reading your post I’ve decided to finally do my wife’s closet in it. Now I’m off ot read the rest of your blog!
Anonymous says
This is a fabulous review. I have been wanting to do drawers under hanging clothes for some time now, but surprisingly have not seen many examples of that configuration. Thanks for posting!
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
That arrangement worked out great for us in our previous home with PAX so we knew we wanted to repeat it in this one!
erika barnes says
I too am really glad you posted this. I have been going over and over the Pax system online, trying to configure everything and wishing there were reviews. This is great. Thanks!
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
I remember how overwhelming that process was. Good luck and hope you love your new closet!
Kris @ Driven by Décor says
No problem – thanks for the comment Becky!
Lindsay @ A Walk in the Closet says
I only recently started following your blog but I’m so glad I did. Thank you very much for posting up this review and photos. We’re really lacking in storage space but low on budget so the PAX has been the main contender for a wall of closet space. It’s nice to see it in action!
Kris @ Driven by Decor says
I’m glad that you found it helpful Lindsay!
Brittany Irwin says
Same I’m in college with an apartment without closets… I’ve been researching the PAX and I’m so glad I saw this review! Pros and cons are always necessary!
Debra says
I love the framed fronts and bought and installed 5 of the 17 drawers I needed…and unfortunately they have been out of stock over a year. Giving up and moving to flat front. Thanks for all the great tips.