A few wardrobes and chests might not sound like a big job, but the extra-tall version of IKEA’s Pax wardrobes do present some unique problems. In this case, the ceiling wasn’t high enough to build them face-down, as usual, and then lift them into position. Instead, they had to be built standing up. How do you do that, bearing in mind that an eight-foot (244cm) board isn’t going to just stand there while you screw the bits together?
Carefully, is the answer. And successfully. It took a little longer than my preferred face-down method, but everything went together and stayed together. After that, the shelves, rails and drawers were fairly straightforward, although it’s worth pointing out that the more interior fittings you have, the longer you need to allow (especially when you’re paying for my time…). The doors on these tall Pax wardrobes are a doddle, with the two halves of the four hinges simply clicking together – as long as you can lift and control the weight of each door, that is. Once the middle hinges are attached you need to do the bottom one, then you can relax a bit while you do the top hinge. Only one hinge needed any adjustment for all six doors to be perfectly aligned. That’s a wonderful improvement on the old system where you could spend an age getting everything straight.
Bear in mind that the hinges have to go where they have to go, so shelves, drawers, connecting bolts, etc, can’t use the same holes. Experience has taught me to hang one door as a guide before I added all the interior fittings.
The three chests were all from the Malm range but all different – a three drawer one I did last of all, a two-by-three drawer low level chest and a tall narrow one with a mirrored lid. They all went together very nicely although assembling all those drawers did get a mite tedious! There were glass tops for the non-mirrored chests, too, which add a glossy and hard-wearing finish that compliments the high-gloss doors of the wardrobes.
Just the wardrobe door handles to add, and we’re done.
EDIT: Handles were duly added the following evening, once we’d agreed where to fit them (there are no pre-drilled or even pre-marked holes in the doors. In any case, the handles were from B&Q, so the screws would probably be at different centres from IKEA ones.). I measured very carefully, and several times, before drilling a single hole – it’s very easy to make an unsightly and costly mistake.
All done, the final result was very smart and the room as a whole looks bright and stylish.
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