IKEA PAX - as good as the reviews? DIY edition ⚒️

One of the main furniture in your house - the wardrobe! Being not a fan of built-in stuff, I was searching out for suitable wardrobes.

Considering my fails in Taobao, this time round I decided to go for IKEA!

If you search for PAX wardrobe, you will see alot of positive reviews and the level of customisation.

Does it live up to its hype? Sharing my personal experiences + pros and cons!

🔧 DIY

This item is VERY heavy. The cheapo in me (again) decided to DIY instead of paying for assembly and it was a pain lol.

You need lots of space to assemble this, and definitely need 2 or more individuals to help out. I did one solo and the other with help from my partner, and I was covered in sweat, along with some frustrations.

The main frame is very tricky to set up, as we know IKEA, there is not alot of joints to support. For the backboard placement, since it is pretty much like plywood (or some flimsy particle board), it was challenging to align them well before nailing them down (along with the noise pollution I contribute to my neighbours)

Door alignment is also a new found frustration - due to the height of the door, it was hard to get the door properly flushing (mine still comes with a gap), and at this point I am too tired to bring them down to see if it’s a product defect or a defect by my own hands 🤔

Also, due simple packaging, I so decided to drive my penknife down the box nonchalantly and scored a nice scratch on one of my door 🥲

⭕️ Pros

Some may not like the laminated simple finishing, but me being a fanboy of Ikea Kallax, I am quite fond of the finishing and it’s pretty easy to maintain too.

Plus the ability to design your own wardrobe is also a bonus!

❌ Cons

Not exactly cheap, if you use Pax Planner and work out your design. With the same cost (or maybe top-up a little), you could get someone to build an equivalent wardrobe (and probably slightly better materials than IKEA). My combination works out to be around $1k~ and there are definitely other options within this budget.

🤔 Would I recommend this?

If you are into simple basic design, and it being an IKEA product, I would say it’s still a decent option at that price point. Please do engage their service for assembly as the cost saving is not worth the time and sweat (I pride myself someone who likes to fix and build things, but I wouldn’t want to go through this again)

IKEA provides the Pax Planner that will help you design your own wardrobe so do use the tool to see if this works for you.

Do note that the 1m width option comes with hinged door only (no sliding option) and 75cm comes with both sliding and hinged door. However the sliding variation is pretty bad (I tested it in the showroom, not ideal at all) and the hinged door is also weirdly designed (25 x 50 door, so one door is bigger than the other).

That’s all for today and do comment down if you’ve any experiences with Pax Wardrobe ✌️

#renovationsg #IKEA

#summerdiary