Updated 2024.
Are you struggling to fit a closet into a room with a sloped ceiling? Look no further than the IKEA PAX wardrobe system. While we love the PAX for its customizable interiors and modularity, the best feature of the PAX system is how you can transform it to fit any awkward space, turning what was once a hard-to-use nook into a functional and stylish storage solution.
In this blog post, we look at two IKEA Hackers who have transformed the IKEA PAX system into a beautiful closet under a sloped ceiling. If you’re thinking of DIYing your sloped ceiling closet, these two projects will provide many tips and pointers. Click the links below to jump directly to the IKEA hack.
Lode’s sloped ceiling IKEA PAX FORSAND closet hack
We wanted a bedroom closet that was as big as possible. Since our ceiling is sloping, I had to think of a way to maximize the empty space. First, we were thinking of only using a PAX wardrobe of 236 x 150cm and putting a shorter wood closet next to it. But we’ll lose a lot of closet space by doing this. So, I decided to buy 5 IKEA PAX units and modify 3 of them to fit the width of the wall under the sloping ceiling.
IKEA items used:
- 1 x IKEA PAX 100x58x236cm element
- 2 x IKEA PAX 50x58x236cm elements
- 2 x IKEA PAX 50x58x201cm elements
- 20 x KOMPLEMENT soft closing hinges
- 6 x FORSAND door (4x 229cm, 2x 195cm)
- 6 x BORGHAMN door handles
Other materials and tools:
- MDF wood 18mm
- Wooden beams 38*50mm
- Wooden beams 25*38mm
- Furniture wood 2500*600*18mm white
- Wall plugs + screws
Necessary Tools:
- Cordless drill + drill bits
- screwdriver
- 35mm hinge drill
- miter saw
- a circular saw with guide rail
- spirit level
- laser level
How to hack a built-in wall closet for a sloped ceiling
First, I assembled and set the 2 non-customized PAX frames in place. Then, I began drawing the elements that needed to be cut on the wall, ensuring that everything was exactly parallel to the ceiling.
I don’t have any photos of the PAX element actually being cut, but in the picture above, you can see how they look attached to each other without the doors.
After cutting everything, I mounted them all together with the supplied joining screws (no idea what this is called). The pack that came with IKEA wasn’t enough. I bought a few more at the hardware store to have them attached to more points.
Then, I measured how large the sloping board needed to be and bought a white piece of laminate with the same thickness as the PAX wardrobe frames (18mm). I mounted this with some regular wood screws from the top, so you don’t see where it’s attached.
Secure the PAX to the wall
I wanted to hide pipes and electric wires on the wall, so I attached the closet to a wooden beam that was the exact same thickness as the piping. I mounted a beam at the bottom and one at the top of the wall using wall anchors.
I had some spare parts from the PAX wardrobe I installed in my children’s room, which I used to mount the closet to the lower beam. The closet’s top has only 2 mounting points from the factory.
Now that the closet was in its final fixed position, I made a wood structure that goes on top between the closet and ceiling.
Constructing the wooden frame
I measured the gap between the closet and ceiling and started cutting some MDF sheets to fit in between to create the built-in look. This was a painstaking process since the ceiling was not fully level, but finally, I had the correct fitting. I glued it to the wooden frame with Tec7 glue. I might put some nails and my own molding in it later.
The last step was to cut the doors at an angle. I was really nervous about doing this, but thanks to a friend, I had the right equipment: a circular saw with a guide rail. After measuring 10 times, I began to cut the doors, only to find out the inside of the closet doors were not fully wood but hollow. Too bad, I will close these ‘gaps’ at a later date. For now, you can’t see them with the doors closed.
I needed to redrill the mounting points for the hinges with a special drill bit because I lost a few of them on the cut doors. It was actually quite easy to do. Again, measure twice (or 10 times in my case) and drill once.
Now that the doors were mounted, I aligned them and used my laser lever to drill holes for the door handles. We went with minimalist black door pulls.
Here’s my personalized built-in closet. As you can see, it’s a perfect fit for the space available, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve. It blends with the rest of our bedroom and, in hindsight, it was a wise decision to go for an angled closet. The hack was nerve-wracking at many points, but it was so worth it.
I’ve not fully set up the closet’s interior yet, but the IKEA pull-out drawers, UTRUSTA shelves, and KOMPLEMENT clothes rail should all fit without issue.
~ by Lode
Hugo’s IKEA PAX sloped ceiling closet with REINSVOLL doors
I wanted to make a storage closet on the second floor of our house to store all kinds of stuff (clutter?) that every family keeps and does not use every day.
I had some storage ideas, but when I saw an image on Pinterest with a built-in PAX closet with REINVSVOLL doors from IKEA, I knew immediately: I wanted this too.
Thus began the preparations for this built-in closet project, which, in my case, was a little more complicated than the example that I had because of a sloped ceiling.
Preparations: How do you design a closet with sloped ceilings?
During the construction of our house some two years ago, I started experimenting with the free 3D drawing program from Google called Sketchup.
At the time, I drew the entire home design and most of the rooms in Sketchup and the garden to see how certain choices we made would turn out in 3D. The knowledge of Sketchup became very useful when preparing the closet.
I measured the space available and looked at the dimensions of the PAX elements. (All the dimensions information can, of course, be found on the IKEA website. I recommend using their PAX planner if it’s a straightforward wardrobe installation.)
With this information, I started drawing in Sketchup. It turned out that 6 PAX elements would fit into the space: five PAX frames at 50 cm wide and one at 100 cm wide.
The advantage of drawing the whole thing here was that I was able to see (with high accuracy) which elements (high or lower model) and doors would be needed due to the sloping roof. This obviously saves on purchase costs.
I did some further research online, including here on IKEA Hackers, and based on that, I was able to create a list with all the materials and tools needed.
I have the following basic elements used in my setup:
- A wooden structure as the foundation for the PAX elements to stand on;
- The same wooden structure around the PAX elements to fixate the drywall;
- Drywalls are then screwed onto the wooden structure to get a smooth wall.
Used materials
I purchased the following materials:
IKEA materials:
- 1 x PAX element white 100x58x236
- 2 x PAX element white 50x58x236
- 3 x PAX element white 50x58x201
- 4 x REINSVOLL door and hinge 50×229
- 3 x REINSVOLL door and hinge 50×195
- 5 x KOMPLEMENT shelf 100×58 for PAX
- 2 x KOMPLEMENT shelf 50×58 for PAX
Building Materials:
- 10 x Wooden bar 50×50 (44×44) Height 420 cm
- 3 x Drywall plates AK 300×60 cm
- 1 x Drywall Rasp
- 1 x Filler for drywall
- 200 x drywall screw
- 20 x Bracket 40×40 (for beams corner joint)
- 200 x Woodies wood screws 4,5x60mm
- 1 x plaster knife
- 50m Fiberglass Tape Drywall
- 1 x Bevel square
Miscellaneous
- 1 x Circular saw blade vzv. 60 teeth
- 8 x Flat leather handle cognac with black screw (Handlesandmore.nl)
- 20 x Shim plates of various thicknesses
What I already had:
- Acrylic sealant + sealant gun for sealing the edges
- White matte wall paint
- Primer
Required tools:
- Circular saw vzv. saw blade with fine teeth (borrowed)
- Miter saw (for shortening wooden beams)
- Guide for circular saw (borrowed)
- Tape measure
- (Laser) spirit level
- Cordless drill
- Hammer
- Bevel square for measuring angles
- Plaster knife for smoothing corners
Sloped ceiling closet: Construction phase
Step 1: Floor foundation
I wanted to put the PAX frames off the floor in order to:
a. Let the drywall go around the elements completely (‘floating effect’);
b. To be able to level everything properly;
First, I made two long bars for the front and back of the PAX elements. On those, I then sketched out where the cross beams should be so that the sides of the elements would rest exactly on them.
In this way, the elements are supported on all sides. You must think carefully about how far the front bar should be from the back (wall). In my case, I wanted to make it fit exactly with the front of the PAX elements.
Later, the drywall will be placed ‘on top’ of this, and the doors will be placed on top of the PAX elements. Since the doors (16 mm) are slightly thicker than the plasterboard (12.5 mm), the doors will protrude slightly from the wall.
I also considered that the wall next to the elements on the left would be as wide as the wall on the right, and the floor’s height would be the same as the sloping part along the hood.
I then attached the cross bars to the main bar in front and the bar in the back with wood screws.
Then, I filled the entire framework with shims until it was nice and level.
(From the two sockets you see, the left one is hidden in the back of the closet, and the right one moved to the wall next to the closet, but I will not go into detail in this how-to.)
Step 2: Expand the wooden structure
Next, I expanded the wooden structure on the right side and the top of the elements. I ensured the structure was solid and that I had enough material to mount the drywall plates. When making the connections, I used steel 40×40 corner pieces in various places for strength and to ensure that the corners were 90 degrees.
Step 3: Build and place PAX elements (from right to left)
Before starting to make the wooden framework on the left, I decided to build and install the closet elements first. This way I could access it better and I was sure that I could then build up the rest of the frame nice and tight against the elements later on.
I first did the 3 easy PAX units, where I didn’t have to shorten anything.
Then, I adapted and built up the next elements one after another from right to left. Doing this piece by piece makes measuring the available height easy because you always know exactly where the next side of the element you have to shorten will be.
The two sides and the back wall of these elements had to be shortened. I did the sides first and then built the elements up. After this, you can easily see and measure how much the back of the element needs to be shortened.
Making clean cuts
I shortened the sides with a circular saw with a guide rail. I had never worked with a circular saw before, but watching some YouTube videos and making some experimental pieces offered a solution.
Using a saw blade with fine teeth is especially important to avoid splintering the wood too much. Work calmly and slowly through this cutting process. I sawed the first few in miter to make it fit nicely with the sloping hood, but that turned out not to be necessary afterward because you will not see anything of it later on once the drywall is in front of it.
After assembling the elements, I also mounted the doors of the three first elements. First, I wanted to determine where I could put the drywall and what space the doors would need, and second, I wanted to see how it would look.
Step 4: Finishing wooden framework and drywall
Now that the PAX elements had been placed, it was time for the next step: make the last wooden bars on the left side of the cupboard and some pieces of the beam on the left above the elements on the roof to be able to screw the plasterboards on this too.
Making the drywall
After this was done, I could begin to tailor-make the drywall pieces to get a strip of drywall against the lath screw and, of course, as tightly as possible against the PAX elements. You can easily cut the plasterboard to size with a utility knife and then break it. Also, you can watch some videos on YouTube, and you will get there. I have always chosen to place the rough fracture side towards the floor/wall/ceiling side and the neat side towards the doors.
After all drywall pieces have been placed, they need to be finished:
- Plate transitions with fiberglass tape;
- Smearing and sanding holes (2x)
- Grease and sand plate transitions (3x)
When this is done, you can prime the wall. I have done this 3x. New drywalls are real suckers.
After priming, I used acrylic sealant to seal the edges between the elements and the plasterboard. This connects the drywall and the element nicely and ensures that the cupboard is installed super tight.
After the sealant, I painted the wall 3 times with white matte wall paint. Despite the priming, this was really necessary 3 times.
Step 4: Shortening the doors
Perhaps the most difficult and exciting is measuring and sawing off the REINSVOLL doors.
You don’t want to make a mistake here because this will cost you a door. You also want it to be super tight to look nice. I measured each door three times to be sure of the correct sizes. I have kept a 5mm clearance for the top and bottom. Looking back, I should have used 8 on the bottom side, as it’s really tight there.
These cuts I made with the circular saw and the guide rail. To prevent the veneer layer on the door from splintering, I took several measures:
- Fine saw blade must be used with a minimum of 60 teeth;
- Mask the saw cut on the door all around the door with masking tape; this will prevent splintering;
- Set the saw shallow and first saw the cut 5 mm deep;
- After that, put the saw ‘deeper’ and cut through – and – through.
The result of this is that the doors have a really clean cut, without any splintering.
After this, I hung the doors. With the sawn doors, I noticed that the door turned against the drywall on the hinge side and top. I solved this by scraping the doors at the top point and inside a little more (approx. 5 mm). You don’t see any of this on the outside.
Step 5: Finishing
After the doors have been sawn and hung, you can adjust them with the hinges.
Then, I mounted the leather handles. To align everything nicely, I projected a line on the doors with a laser spirit level. Marking the drill positions was then very easy, and mounting was done in no time. Because the rightmost closet element has double doors, the second door from the right is the only one that opens to the other side from all the other doors.
To make the handles all look the same, I have chosen to deliberately mount the handle on the wrong side for this door. This handle is, therefore, on the hinge side and has no function. To open the door, you must first open the other door. It needs a little more work and is a little less practical, but it looks nicer and calmer.
We filled the wardrobe frames with adjustable shelves, as we did not make this for clothes storage. No closet rod is needed. We’re going to fill the cubbies with transparent storage boxes and bins for easy organization.
Then, I painted the top of the chamfered doors with matte wood lacquer. This is for the aesthetic effect and to (somewhat) prevent moisture from penetrating the doors, causing them to expand. I got color cards from the Gamma (dutch building material store) and had the smallest amount of paint mixed. I applied this with a small toy brush. In terms of color, this looks exactly like the original color of the doors. The color number is GN 062-05 Suit from Gamma (NL).
Finally, I mounted a plinth against the bottom side so that the plinth ran smoothly against the other walls.
After that, all that’s left is to tidy up the cupboards… and enjoy it every time I walk up the attic stairs.
Costs and time required
Costs incurred
Cost for IKEA items: EUR 1128.00
Cost of materials: EUR 244.84
Cost for blades: EUR 45.00
Cost for handles: EUR 55.00
Total costs: EUR 1,472.84
Time
The result is very nice, but it was quite a time-consuming job. All in all, I spent about 8 full days on all the preparations, research, and implementation, which, of course, spread over several weeks. If you don’t have a sloped ceiling, the built-in closet job is much easier. And it can probably be done in 60% of this time.
I hope someone can use this for their own project – and maybe post their result to inspire others.
~ by Hugo
All images remain the property of the Author. Do not use without permission.
How to use the slanted ceiling space?
Readers have responded with suggestions to use the pitched space above the closets. Other than sealing up the triangle portion from the finished wardrobe to the pitched ceiling, you can also:
- Create open shelving with a few levels of plywood or melamine shelves. Use baskets and bins to store off-season clothes and other lesser-used items in the extra storage space.
- Close it up with custom doors. Cut a few more REINSVOLL doors to fit the space above the closet. Align the timber internal frames to the doors below so you can affix the top level of doors to them.
- Add a sliding library ladder with a rail along the top of the 3 wardrobe doors to access the top shelves. For a finished look, add DIY paneling for a built-in feel.
Other built-in wardrobe hacks you may like
- A stunning walk-in wardrobe using the budget-friendly PAX storage system.