Second Floor Renovation: Built-In IKEA Wardrobes

In case you missed it, we recently wrapped a Second Floor Renovation and I shared all of the plans here, the framing and drywall progress here and details on the finishes here. The full primary bath reveal can be found here.

Layout / Floor Plan

Ok, now that you’re caught up – the last thing I am sharing (before our laundry storage is complete, phase II) is our full solution for our no-closet setup when we moved in – one of the big reasons for taking on this project. To bring it back, one of the big drawbacks that kept others away from this home was that there was not a primary closet. There were two wardrobes floating on the walls that were really small and just not practical on all fronts. The bedroom was large, but with a lot of wasted space which you can see in our Home Tour when we moved in here.

We got to see two plans from our lovely Designers at Bayberry Design Co. – one that featured a traditional closet and one that had built-in wardrobes. While of course a walk-in closet is ideal, the benefits of everything else we got with this floor plan completely outweighed that. It all flows beautifully and feels meant to be with the character of our home. To save within our budget, we went with the IKEA pax system – more on that below, but let’s look at the layout first:

From the main hallway:

From the bedroom/bath entry:

The ease of passing through feels like it was always here and gives the feeling of an entire primary wing! We found inspiration that included trim which instantly elevated the IKEA pax doors. Our contractors built the systems into a platform and then trimmed it out with matching pieces from the rest of the home for a complete look. As for scale, these are a little over 6ft wide and tall, and 2ft deep – very sizable!

Shop the finishes:

IKEA Pax System Configurations / Organization

IKEA is an amazing affordable retailer for all things, as we all know. However – we were super impressed with the quality which is why you see so many people opting for PAX systems for their custom-feel closets or wardrobes. An added bonus, they come with a 10 year warranty!

Even though there is an amazing online configuration planner tool, complete with measurements, we decided it would be worth the trip to IKEA to check out the systems IRL first. This was extremely helpful to understand functionality of certain drawer types, scale and overall quality. From there, we used the planner tool (link found on any product page, linked below) to measure out and drop in all of the different inserts. When it came to the layouts, we each had different priorities when it came to hanging vs. drawers, shoe storage etc. After hours of playing with it since I am OCD and wanted some symmetry across all 4 doors, we were really happy with the balance and longevity it gave us for all seasons. Here are the layouts:

My Side:

Greg’s Side

For each, we used:

Two (2)19 5/8×22 7/8×79 1/8″ PAX Wardrobes and One (1) 39 3/8×22 7/8×92 7/8 ” PAX Wardrobe. By using two smaller frames, it gave us flexibility with organization in that we could use some drawers and pull out trays for shoes and accessories. 

Like everything else, it is new to us and expect it to change a bit over time as we use and get into other seasons. The good news is that we each have some extra room to pay with to maximize storage and honestly, could purge our closets a bit more. Check some photos below to see how we are using each wardrobe:

My Side:

Short dresses, long sleeve tops and sweaters on the top with pants and short sleeve tops on the bottom.

Maxi dresses/long sweaters, swimwear.

Cover-ups (we have river beaches in our neighborhood and go to our beach house a lot) and scarves + baseball hats.

Sun hats, bags, accessories and all shoes.

Greg’s Side

All his hanging shirts for casual dress

He’s a big golfer so he has a drawer dedicated to his polos, with pants below it. Just showing this photo to give an idea of the depth!

Other wardrobes house suit/formal wear, pants, socks, shorts, hats and other shoes.

Questions?

Any questions? Feel free to comment below or message me on Instagram.

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