Hacking a Pax wardrobe to fit a tight spot

before-and-after-wardrobes

I don’t have a great history of buying the correct sized IKEA wardrobes. In our last flat I bought them too tall. This time too wide.

The alcove on the left of our bedroom is frustratingly not the same size as the space on the right by about 10 centimetres. Rough measures which didn’t take into account the unevenness of the walls (still getting used to an old building) led to us finding out that the gap on the left was about two centimetres too narrow for the 100 centimetre wide wardrobe.

We only realised this once we had all the packaging opened and pieces ready to assemble in the room. I know, I should have learnt my lesson last time.

But having spent a lot of time browsing IKEA Hackers we weren’t going to be beaten by a measly two centimetres!

After a lot of manoeuvring, removing a Victorian skirting board and many re-measuring attempts we stumbled on a solution. By placing the sides of the wardrobe on top of the base instead of either side of it we saved the two centimetres. We did the same at the top, placing the top on top of the sides rather than between them.

This just left the issue of the doors – 50 centimetres wide each.

This is the part of our solution I’m most proud of. Look back at the before/ after pic – doors look normal right? Two 50 centimetre doors with metal handles? Wrong. Here’s the inside of the doors on our hacked wardrobe…

wardrobe-fix-2

wardrobe-fix

More info available on my blog.