Our IKEA Pax Closet System Walk-In Closet

When we were in the final stages of our home renovations, we started looking into the finishing pieces like closets. I couldn’t believe how expensive some custom closet solutions were! Even the wire rack options seemed SO pricey. For our primary closets, we got quotes from various custom closet companies and also looked at IKEA’s Pax closet solution. (I did a very simple closet solution for the kids’ closets that was very affordable!)

We settled on IKEA’s Pax system for the walk in closets. We could customize it for our needs, and the price was reasonable. The best price and most flexibility of all the companies we looked at was at IKEA. (For reference we also looked at California Closets, Closets by Design, Easy Closets, and The Container Store.)

The custom closets in our primary bedroom came out great, and we find them to be so functional. I’m so excited to finally share what it looks like!

Putting together our IKEA walk in closet

I won’t lie, it took a while to put this all together. Our only hesitation about using IKEA was the time it would take to install. And we weren’t wrong. But it’s nice that you can customize everything to fit your space!

Here we were very scientifically measuring how far apart my shelves should be. You can see that we measured it out so I could have my boots on the bottom shelves and then heels above. You’ll also notice the L-brackets we used to secure the closet to the wall.

The pieces we used

Below is a full list of the pieces included in our walk in closet design.

My side:

IKEA Pax closet design, IKEA walk in closet

1 PAX Wardrobe frame white, 29 1/2×22 7/8×79 1/8 ”
1 PAX Add-on corner unit with 4 shelves white, 20 7/8×22 7/8×79 1/8 ” / 53x58x201 cm
2 PAX Wardrobe frame white, 39 3/8×22 7/8×79 1/8 ”
1 Komplement Valet hanger white, 6 3/4×2 ” / 17×5 cm
1 Komplement Insert for jewelry light gray light gray, 9 7/8×20 7/8×2 ”
1 Komplement Insert with compartments light gray, 15 3/4×20 7/8×2 ”
3 Komplement clothes rail white, 39 3/8 ”
1 Komplement glass shelf white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 ”
1 Komplement pull out tray white, 29 1/2×22 7/8
5 Komplement drawer white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 ”
1 Komplement shelf white, 39 3/8×22 7/8 “
2 Komplement shelf white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 “

You can see that it holds… a lot of stuff. I’ve done a closet clean out since taking this photo, which was very much needed looking back!

His side:

2 PAX Wardrobe frame white, 29 1/2×22 7/8×79 1/8 ”
1 Komplement divider for frame white, 29 1/2-39 3/8×22 7/8 “
1 Komplement Drawer white, 19 5/8×22 7/8 ” / 50×58 cm
1 Komplement Pull-out storage bag white, 19 5/8×22 7/8×18 7/8 ” / 50x58x48 cm
1 Komplement Valet hanger white, 6 3/4×2 ” / 17×5 cm
1 Komplement Insert for pull-out tray gray, 19 5/8×22 7/8 ”
1 Komplement Pull-out tray white, 19 5/8×22 7/8 “
2 Komplement clothes rail white, 29 1/2 “
4 Komplement drawer white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 ”
1 Komplement shelf white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 “

One thing you don’t see in the render is the pull out bag, which is a double bag that can be lifted out. It looks like IKEA no longer sells this product, which is a shame because it’s one of my favorite features in the closet!

The planning tools on IKEA’s site are really helpful. You can get a full list of what you need based on what you design. You can bring the list to the store or order directly to your house for installation.

Cost of our IKEA walk in closet

For both sides of the closet together it cost us $1,167 plus $198 in delivery fees. In my opinion, this closet is well worth the $1,365 total we spent on it! (We could have saved $99 on delivery fees if I had ordered all of the IKEA closet pieces together, but something was out of stock so I waited and placed two separate orders. That’s why my delivery fees were $198 instead of just the $99 they normally charge.)

We had everything delivered to the house because neither of our cars is big enough to hold everything! When they delivered everything, they put it in our garage where we asked them to bring everything. (We did that because we weren’t ready to put it together right away.) That allowed us to bring pieces in one at a time and do the installation over a couple of weeks instead of doing everything in one weekend. (We did this because at the time we had a toddler and not enough hours in the day to get it completed!)

Why did we choose IKEA closets?

I priced out custom solutions with a few different companies, and we ultimately decided to use IKEA.

The online tools are so fun to work with! We popped in the dimensions of our closet and then created our system from there.
The cost savings. The closest closet solution was $6500 vs. IKEA’s ~$1200 for something similar. The most expensive closet solution came out to $15k before any upgrades.

Why we considered NOT using IKEA closets

We had to build it ourselves (or hire someone to come and build it, but IKEA doesn’t have people in-house who do installations). In the end it took us a couple weekends to get it built, but I have heard you can hire IKEA-build experts to come and do the installation for you!

Other things you should know about IKEA Pax

Everything comes in flat boxes, and each box can be VERY heavy (especially the ones holding the large units)
The stock at IKEA can change, so you can either order in pieces (like we did- placing two separate orders for our closet pieces) or can wait until everything is back in stock to order at once.