BRUTALLY Honest IKEA PAX Wardrobe Review | PROS & CONS | Should You Buy For Your Walk In Closet?

It looks like Adobe Flash is gone as of 2021 so IKEA has updated their PAX tool! 🎉 🎊 🥳 It even works on Macs! 😲 I haven't had a chance to play with it too much yet, but comment below if you've used it for your wardrobe and let us know how it goes! Happy planning everyone!

Last time I used a planning tool on the Ikea website, it made me a pick list for the branch I was visiting, which told me all the locations to pick up all the pieces (sadly not in aisle order). Simples

"and you know, ...that one piece of whatever you want will never be in stock!"

Any real man would have zero issues putting this together lol

Would you please be so kind and tell me what laundry basket are those? I can't find them anywhere. Thank you!

Get a job and move out of your mother’s house.

very thorough and informative - thanks!

Just bought one the frame is complete shit, Their fucking awful and no way near the price their charging, Go down to a fucking timber yard andm akle your own then just fucking buy the insiserts

I would recommend the click and collect service for this, or any large ikea piece with multiple components! they collect all the parts for you and you only need to put them in your car :) I've recently bought my first pax system for the primary bedroom in my new house, although we've done it a little hardcore, bought the frames and doors second hand from someone who was selling them and only the interior compartments new from ikea. Assembled it all ourselves too. I love how many options there are for customisation, you can really make it exactly as you want without spending a fortune on custom closets. However the quality is really not that great - the back piece specifically is very flimsy, and the little bracket thingies to hang the shelves are not well designed at all, ours badly scratched the shelves when installing them which was quite annoying! We ended up swapping them out for some standard metal ones purchased separately. Overall I think it's a good product, but as always you get what you pay for.

I have that style corner unit, but at least in Australia I don’t think they the same style as mine anymore

Being from Vancouver who did you use to install it? I am considering this for our reach in closets. Been planning and playing with it.

Honestly I put together two of the large wardrobes myself and did ok. I also added all of the accessories. I didn’t find it to be difficult. You just need to pay close attention to the directions that have pictures only and no words 😶

Love the ikea designer today, in the process of doing my walk-in closet. Had 2 in home consults ranging from $8-10k. Got the design from professionals and was able to mimic design with ikea designer.

Question though, does ikea not sale the laundry pullout he mentions early in the vid with the 2 bags cuz I can’t find them at all?

YOUR SKIN IS GORGEOUS ❤

Ikea tables aren't that bad. The Kallax was a bit strange until I understood the great idea behind it all, and then it made sense.
Is this why you don't like the Ikea cloth lamps? Because they're a pain and a half to put together? Not hard, or complex, just fiddly and at times requiring more than two hands. (I used some tape to hold stuff for me, but holy shit was that unnecessarily involved.)

Another con for PAX-- is that you can't really take it apart. I fumbled and put the pants drawer on top, and the clothing bar on bottom. I wanted to switch them because obviously pants are easier to drop onto a bar at waist level rather than slide them up and around. I could not figure out how to take that sliding mechanism out without breaking anything.

Europeans can asemble IKEA with their eyes closed. Men and women - i learnt took me a day to learn. Not hard people.

Wait! I haven’t seen that hamper slide insert before! I almost was going to retrofit a sektion base cabinet with their recycle bin thing as a hamper.

Thanks for the review. It's funny you didn't like the planning software, cause now 2 years later it is my favorite thing about all this right now. Being able to plan it out, fit all the pieces in & see a 3D representation is amazing. I do feel a little intimidated by the construction, but not having doors I feel a little better. I built 3 cabinets by myself for the laundry room & lining up the handles & hanging the doors was a pain in the arse! Then trying to hang them on the wall was a chore. After that I feel like I may be able to conquer these. Only down side right now is we'll be driving all over the southeast to pick up all the parts. Wish us luck! I'll come back an update you,

Our walk in closet has no doors. The corner units are more practical this way. I Installed two corner units, two one meter cabinets and two 50 cm cabinets in a U-shape. The corner units are mirrored.

I appreciate your telling us the cons as well as the pros. I saw a Pinterest post about replacing a traditional reach in closet with a PAX wardrobe. They took of the doors of the original closet and put in the PAX. It needed some wood on either side to finish it. It looked great, though.

Similar experiences with my PAX, however mine is not in a walk-in closet, so I'm forever concerned that the uber-flimsy "backing" that is so cheap and thin will cause it to collapse in an earthquake (San Francisco bay area here lol). However, it's been 5 years now....and although I jerk my head to watch it anytime an earthquake hits, so far it has not fallen apart.

Perfect review, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks man

Could I get a link to the baskets. I can't find them in the store of my country. Maybe they don't have them :(

Love your hair and clear complexion. Nice presentation.

What was the name of the part with the pull out laundry basket, your #2 organizer highlight?

I didn’t have any trouble putting together my husband’s PAX closet system. Did the entire thing myself and it has two mirrored doors. Love it.

I love ikea but their stuff isn’t térmite proof unfortunately 😒

IKEA does has an on line service. You don´t even have to go to IKEA to get a PAX :)

Great review nick. Very helpful.

This was very helpful. Love my clothes and think it might be worth investing a little more to get exactly what I want. Glad to see a really comprehensive review on these from an actual designer finally!

wish color options were still a thing...just white now and cant stand it!

great review! i need the 2 things that you recommended.
we recently bought a house and now i have my first ever small walk in closet (yay :) ). because it has sloped ceilings i am going to build the shelfes myself but will probably add some of the complement inserts from PAX. i am really looking forward to it.
i had the pax system in the past (just normal wardrobes, nothing wild) and it always worked well for us. but i find that they don't use the space efficent enough like they could (to much space between some compartments) i will see if i can fix that with my custom build.

Not sure if this is a comment already but the corner door problem could be solved if the second door was hinged to the first door 👍🏻 awesome video

Where I'm from, most of the locally produced warderobes were of lesser quality and incredibly non functional. I settled for a PAX, fixed it for 5 days in total (not easy, but not too hard, except for the closing mechanisms of the sliding doors.) Quite happy with it so far.

Why would you put doors on the inside of a walk-in wardrobe

I bought an original PAX wardrobe when IKEA first released them, and it's still going strong and looking like new. In fact I've just bought some large drawers for it to change the space up. Love the fact so many years (decades) later I can still buy parts to change things up.

My ceiling is like only 2cm taller than the tall version of the Pax. How are you supposed to put it up? Cos most ppl assemble it before rolling it to stand upright, but we can’t do that due to the height…… I’m hoping to still use the taller one cos it’ll look more custom built

Excellent & unbiased PAX review.
After listening to your each & every word, I finally decided to purchase an alternate brand unit.
Thank you for your succinct review… 👍🏽

I paid to have my Pax installed. Worth every penny. And I love my pax system.

I got quotes for my sons bedroom for a full built in wardrobe system from a wardrobe specialist. 5000 euro! We went to IKEA to buy a cheaper system. It cost 1800e, less than half.
The finished ikea product was a lot better quality, better built, more sturdy, and looks better too.
Genuine bargain.

I agree that the availability of colors/styles in different sizes is a problem. Unless you are having a closet custom made from scratch, closet systems are usually bad with corners. The worst being the bulky units with the diagonal fronts that are like a black hole. The best way they could fix this is to create a unit similar to an easy reach kitchen cabinet with just shelves up the entirety. I do think that there is a way to do hanging bars but it would be a very inefficient use of space. Personally, I love to put together stuff like this. I think it is fun and generally speaking IKEA stuff is pretty well thought out. Also the service part is not really an issue at the IKEAs (I live about half-ish way between two) in our area. They do not let you just pickup kitchen cabinets or the Pax wardrobes. You have to speak to the sales people in the display area or in the self service area and they will enter the entire order into the computer. You are given an order slip that is then taken to the register to be paid. Once paid, you will collect your order which someone in the back has already placed on a flatbed for you to take to your car. Basically, they are trying to make sure that you do not have to know every little piece that must be purchased separately to get what you want and also so that you aren't having to come back 23 times to get what you need and ending up annoyed with the whole process. If the salesperson does their job properly, you will walk out with everything you need and the process will be as painless as possible.

Thank you so much for this review. Adding in the supply chain issues we're currently facing, the Pax system is just not a good option these days. I'm searching EVERYWHERE for something similar that I can assemble myself and doesn't require a professional installation. Obviously my budget isn't huge. 😅

Hello! Thanks for such a detailed review of the Pax. You have made me think twice about going with the Pax in my small walk-in closet. What do you think about the Aurdal system?

I was relieved to hear that others had trouble with the planning tool! Im glad it wasn't just me. Great Review!

Thanks!

I’m turning my office into a dressing room/office and have been considering PAX because of the cost and flexibility. This was a great overview! I’m not afraid of getting all the correct parts and pieces (I design and sell complicated commercial systems furniture for a living hahaha) but I’m anxious about putting it together. If I mess one thing up, it could get bad quickly. Did you hire an IKEA team to put it together or did you go third party? I’m not sure what IKEA offers in house. I know this video is a year old now so I’m late to the game, but thanks again for your input!! Very valuable.

this is a brilliant must have review before making your purchase - it consolidated what I already suspected. I think the planner has improved since this review.