Custom IKEA PAX Wardrobe Closet Review

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I recently shared on my Insta Story how excited I was to get a new custom IKEA PAX wardrobe in our bedroom!

I’m on a big storage, home improvement, and organization kick this year, and the IKEA wardrobe closet has already made such a difference in our home.

Also, if you’re looking for some brilliant organization and storage items for things like jewelry and sunglasses, I’m sharing everything I bought on Amazon that I use inside my IKEA PAX closet.

I talk about each of them toward the end of this post, so keep reading!

Start shopping for these organizers by clicking the images below:

FYI, this post is not sponsored by IKEA—I’m just really loving our new custom closet, and friends and readers have been asking about it.

While the wardrobe is amazing, and I’m so happy that we got one, I do think there are some important things to know about it if you’re getting an IKEA PAX Wardrobe.

So, let’s dive into this IKEA PAX Wardrobe review!

Click the images below to shop organization items for the IKEA PAX Wardrobe:

To make things easy for you, you can shop for these products by clicking directly on the images, the shopping buttons, and the text links.

These are my affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission when you purchase using my links (at no additional cost to you!), and I greatly appreciate you shopping with my links!

IKEA PAX Wardrobe Review

Pros: 

Customization

The IKEA PAX Wardrobe is totally custom! With this custom wardrobe closet, you get to decide how many drawers, shelves, and pull-outs you want in your custom closet.

Your first step is to use IKEA’s PAX planner online to map out which size and length system you want, as well as the types of shelves, how many, and more.

There are also a lot of different options for jewelry and accessory drawers, pull-outs for hanging things, and the types of doors.

Price Point

The IKEA PAX Wardrobe is available at a relatively affordable price point.

When all was said and done, we paid around $1,200 for our custom IKEA PAX Wardrobe, including delivery and set up.

Ability to Shop/Design Online

Being able to design your custom IKEA PAX Wardrobe and purchase it online is a huge plus.

While the PAX planner isn’t the most user-friendly, it got the job done for me and made it easy to add what I needed to my cart and checkout.

I will say shopping online at IKEA can be frustrating—if you can get delivery as I did, it’s great, but sometimes in-store pickup is the only option.

Shop accessories for the IKEA PAX Wardrobe by clicking below:

Mirror Sliding Doors

I love the mirror sliding doors on our IKEA PAX Wardrobe!

The closet is a big piece of furniture, so having mirrors on it opens everything up and makes the room feel bigger.

Plus, it’s so great when I’m getting ready in the morning to have a giant mirror in our bedroom.

There are tons of different IKEA closet doors that you can choose from, but the mirrored wardrobe closet was an easy choice for me.

Smooth Gliders

I was really happy to see how smoothly everything glides on the IKEA PAX Wardrobe—the drawers, doors, and pull-out rack for my pants all roll really smoothly.

This was something I was a little nervous about since IKEA brand items can sometimes be wonky, but our closet is perf.

Versatility

The IKEA organizer can be used inside of your closet to keep things tidy (a friend recently put one in her baby’s nursery closet, and it is just perfect for organizing all the tiny socks, diapers, and onesies), OR you can use it as I did as additional storage space outside of your closet.

Cons: 

Materials

I was definitely disappointed to see that the back of the closet isn’t made of wood but thin white cardboard strips.

It’s not noticeable now that all my stuff is in there, and I get that one solid piece of wood for the back would be a really heavy board, but for the price, I was expecting solid walls on all sides.

Difficult Setup

The IKEA PAX Wardrobe setup is very difficult and not doable with one person—hire someone to do this for you!

During the setup process, we actually needed two strong men to lift the mirrored IKEA closet doors while I guided them onto the tracks.

I hired a Task Rabbit who specialized in putting together furniture, and when he arrived and saw that I had an IKEA PAX closet that needed to be put together, he was like…ugh. Lol!

He said he had done these before and that this was going to take more than the two hours we had scheduled through Task Rabbit.

While the Task Rabbit worked on the heavy/difficult parts of the IKEA PAX closet setup, I put together all of the drawers. All in all, the setup took around five hours, which is pretty crazy.

Limited Shallow Versions

There are tons of options for drawers and pull-outs for the deeper version of the IKEA PAX Wardrobe, but if you do the less deep version (what I went with to fit this closet in our bedroom), there are a limited amount of options.

At first, I was disappointed when I realized this in the store because I was particularly excited about the jewelry and accessory drawer options.

I got over it and got creative with ordering separate storage solutions, like pull-out sunglasses drawers, and jewelry holders that are now stacked inside my closet.

But just something to note—with IKEA custom closets, not all the drawers are available for the less deep version.

IKEA PAX Wardrobe Tips

Go into an IKEA store to design your closet

While you can use IKEA’s website to use the software to design your custom IKEA PAX Wardrobe, it’s not the most intuitive software.

At first, I thought designing the closet at home sounded like a really convenient option, but I quickly got frustrated when things weren’t working the way I wanted them to.

It’s also just really helpful to see the different sizes, doors, and accessory options in person so you can get an idea of what you want in your custom closet.

Choose the delivery option for your IKEA PAX Wardrobe

This stuff is heavy, you guys! When the delivery men came to drop off all 22 of the pieces that would make up our IKEA closet system, they were absolutely huffing and puffing—and they had a dolly.

I can’t even imagine trying to transport all of these heavy pieces myself, even if I had a truck that would fit it all.

Have IKEA set up your closet for you

Note that when you are ordering your closet, the IKEA rep will tell you they cannot set up your custom wardrobe closet for you if you have baseboards, unless you remove them in advance.

We have half-inch thick baseboards, and there’s no way we’re about to tear them up, so we decided to just have the pieces delivered, and hire someone to set up the closet for us.

This worked out okay, but it was a time-consuming and tiring process.

What we should have done is say at the store that you don’t have baseboards (even if you do) and schedule the IKEA guys to do the setup for you.

Unless your baseboards are super thick, they will set it up and make sure that the top of the closet is attached to your wall—a friend of mine went this route, and the IKEA guys still set up her closet for her.

I wish I knew that before I ordered mine!

If you do have baseboards, your closet will obviously not be 100% flush against the wall and straight vertical.

This isn’t noticeable when you look at it, but it does mean that due to the slight lean back when I open the drawers in my IKEA closet, the self-closing drawers will always slide closed if I’m not holding them.

Measure everything ahead of time

I was hoping we’d be able to get the deeper version of the IKEA closet, but that just wasn’t going to be possible with the space we had in our bedroom.

If the room where you’ll be setting up the closet is different than where the wardrobe is going to end up, make sure you can carry the tall closet through your hall and doorway.

We had to do some serious maneuvering in order to get our IKEA PAX Wardrobe from the living room, where it was being set up, into the bedroom.

Most importantly, we had to lift the closet up into a standing position by lying it down on its face first and then hoisting it up to avoid scratching the ceiling.

Click the images below to shop for organizers to add to your IKEA PAX Wardrobe:

Think about other elements you can tie together

Make sure your IKEA PAX Wardrobe closet meets your needs since you’ll be using it every single day.

I bought a few additional storage items from Amazon, including pull-out sunglasses drawers and stackable jewelry trays.

I also have a ton of necklaces and added these plastic hooks to the sides of the wall around the shelf where I’m storing necklaces/earrings, as well as these pretty wooden blocks with gold hooks for more earrings.

I’m an earrings girl, so I’ve got a lot of those too.

I like to use earring holders so that I can easily see everything, and I have a couple that easily fold up. I love them!

I also discovered these shoe organizers on Amazon, and they are, quite frankly, brilliant.

I quickly ran out of shoe space in my IKEA PAX Wardrobe, and using these shoe organizers to stack your heels will double the shoe storage space on your shelves.

The last thing that I added to my drawers was these adjustable drawer organizers.

These organizers are especially great for my top drawer, which has underwear, socks, gloves, and sports bras—instead of my socks spilling over on top of my underwear, each category is neatly sectioned off.

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Ok, that’s my scoop on our new IKEA PAX Wardrobe! I hope this closet review was helpful.

Tag me on Insta (@wtfab) if you decide to try an IKEA PAX Wardrobe, or any of these organization tools.

Shop for my favorite closet organization items by clicking below:

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