Ikea PAX Wardrobe – Review

Five Dads

PAX Wardrobe Outside
PAX Wardrobe (plus Winnie the Pooh!)

I’ve bought this PAX wardrobe. In fact I’ve bought it three times it’s that good hence giving it five Dads out of five. We have a PAX wardrobe in all three bedrooms in our house, so that probably tells you most of what you need to know! As you can see in this image I’ve added some Winnie the Pooh stickers on to the outside in the nursery. We went for plain sliding doors for ease. We have mirrored doors on other wardrobes as you can see later on.

PAX Wardrobe – The Basics

They are essentially a very customisable wardrobe which are ‘semi’ built in. You buy the shell of the wardrobe, buy the doors (sliding or standard opening) and any interior design you want. There’s a good range of items such as shelves, drawers, watch/belt trays, hangers and trouser racks, amongst many other things to install. You then build them yourself at home. They are semi built in as you attach them to the wall with screws for extra security.

PAX Wardrobe – Usability 5/5

PAX Wardrobe Inside
Inside our PAX wardrobe

There’s really not a lot you can say that’s wrong or difficult about the usability of the wardrobes. If you think about your basic needs from a wardrobe:

  1. To be able to store clothes
  2. For those clothes to be tidy and easy to put away
  3. For there to be enough room
  4. To be able to easily access those clothes

There will be other things you want of course, but I think these are the needs, and this wardrobe delivers very well. It’s very easy to use.

PAX Wardrobe – Convenience 5/5

I’ll capture two elements in this, firstly the purchasing experience and secondly the ease of putting it together.

I bought my wardrobe online. Phew! Crowds (and stress) avoided. You do pay £35 for delivery, but there is pretty much no way you would fit everything in your car for the wardrobe.

The online tool to design your wardrobe was great. Go on to their website and you can design your wardrobe with exactly what doors you want and pick the items you want inside. Put it together and you can see on your screen what it will look like. You can even design your room to see how it fits. Pretty neat. It’s fairly easy to use too which is good.

Mirrored Wardrobe
Mirrored Wardrobe

In terms of putting it together I would say that something of this size is always going to be more complicated than a small bookshelf. Also, without wanting to blow my own trumpet, I’m fairly handy at this sort of stuff. As such, for me the putting together was relatively straightforward, but it does take a while, especially if adding on sliding doors. Given the size and customisation it would seem harsh to mark it down for being big and taking a while as it is not that complex in reality. It’s also recommended to be a two man job, but I just did it myself (what a rule breaker!). The instructions are pretty good too. No words, only pictures, but they’re clear and easy to understand. Just be patient and take your time, you’ll get it done. There’s also a number to call if you get stuck.

Also, as a final point, these wardrobes have been going for years in Ikea. I can’t say how long they will continue of course but should they carry on you can change the inside of your wardrobe to suit your changing needs (e.g. going from a baby to a child to a teenager) by buying new pieces.

PAX Wardrobe – Quality 5/5

I really can’t fault the build quality. We’ve had one of these wardrobes for a few years and have had no issues whatsoever. The drawers still run smoothly, the hanging rail is as good as ever and the trouser rack works and moves as good as it did on day one. I really can’t fault the quality, which is why we’ve got one in every bedroom!

PAX Wardrobe – Value 5/5

This was a difficult one. You can go to many high street or internet shops and get less expensive wardrobes (and I don’t want to give a specific price for the PAX wardrobe as it varies depending on your build) that are pre-defined. Or you can go get a fully customised built in wardrobe made for you at a much higher price. I would say this is not cheap but you pay for what you get – a customised wardrobe that is well built, is high quality and can be designed specifically to meet your needs now and in the future. For the price you pay that’s a pretty good package.

PAX Wardrobe – Summary

I’m really struggling to fault these wardrobes to be honest. I love the fact that they look built in, are plenty big enough, can be customised to a high degree and are of a very good level of quality. Sure you can get a wardrobe for £200 somewhere, but I certainly won’t be doing that again while these are still available. If I had another room we would get them in there too, so I can’t say better than that.

As I say, I’ve bought a lot of these wardrobes. Have you bought the Pax wardrobe? If so, what do you think to it?

See my other reviews here.

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