I was inspired to redo my bedroom closet three years ago at the beginning of the pandemic. I wanted to have my clothes, perfume, jewelry, sunglasses, belts, and shoes all in one place. I knew of people who paid approximately $6,000 for a closet design and install. Often, people are willing to pay premium for convenience and I totally understand. I opted to take the IKEA, Do it Yourself (DIY) route which was gratifying and allowed for me to save a ton of money.
IKEA has the wonderful Pax closet planner https://www.ikea.com/us/en/planners/pax-planner/ which is an online tool I used to plan the layout of my closet. With this planner, I was able to design my closet to my own specification. I first measured my closet; the width of my closet is 73 inches, the depth is 25 inches, and height is 94 inches. With the measurements of my closet, I knew I could fit three frames inside: two 19 5/8×22 7/8×92 7/8 ” frames that I would eventually place on the right and left side and one center frame 29 1/2×22 7/8×92 7/8 ” . Once I designed my closet, I was unable to go into the IKEA store because for a while it was closed; even the online inventory was sparse and/or nonexistent.
Fast forward to September of 2022, I finally bought the two 19 inch frames and was able to get the 29 inch one in February 2023. My local IKEA store is located in Elizabeth, NJ and so I was able to get the majority of my closet from that location, including the PAX frames and KOMPLEMENT accessories- just not in one go due to lack of inventory. The center frame that I needed for my design was never in stock at the Elizabeth location and so I had to drive two hours to Philadelphia to get it.
In terms of styling, I wanted my design to be chic and sophisticated. I drew inspiration from IKEA’s website, Pinterest, and also two influencers I follow. The display of my clothes is both in a minimalistic and atheistically pleasing fashion haha! The shirts and dresses are at the top and the pants are displayed at the bottom. The first influencer who influenced my closet design was Amanda of @londongirlinnyc who I follow on Instagram. I am an avid watcher of Amanda’s Instagram stories and three years ago, she posted a picture of her closet and I was blown away. I particularly loved the way she hung her denim pants. I recently discovered Maria Draganova on Youtube, who gave me inspiration when I was adding final touches to my jewelry tray. I came across one of her videos where she showed viewers her fine jewelry collection and I loved how she displayed all of her jewelry. She put some of her rings on two Hermes square plates from their mosaique collection. My late father left me his gold jewelry and I have his rings on both plates; I placed the white gold rings on the gold plate and the yellow gold rings on the silver plate. I have my Hermes bracelet on my Hermes sushi plate. In the center of the jewelry display, I have the pearls my dad gave my mom like 40 years ago. I also have a Tom Ford book on glass tray and Hermes boxes on the top shelf.
IKEA’s cloths rails come in two colors: white and gray but I wanted rose gold colored rails and so I bought spray paint from Home Depot. Also, I wanted to have pulls on my draws and found champagne colored pulls at Home Depot. With me spray painting the clothes rail and adding the pulls, my closet looks very upscale in my opinion.
Here’s a list of everything that I bought for my IKEA Pax closet.
PAX
Wardrobe frame, white, 19 5/8×22 7/8×92 7/8 ” (2) $260
PAX
Wardrobe frame, white, 29 1/2×22 7/8×92 7/8 ” (1) $140
KOMPLEMENT
Glass shelf, white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 (1) 35
KOMPLEMENT
Clothes rail, white, 19 5/8 ” (4) $24
KOMPLEMENT
Drawer, white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 ” (2) $80
KOMPLEMENT
Pull-out tray, white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 ” (3) $105
KOMPLEMENT
Shelf, white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 ” (2) $40
KOMPLEMENT
Storage with 4 compartments, light gray, 9 7/8×20 7/8×2 ” (2) $60
KOMPLEMENT
Insert with compartments, light gray, 15 3/4×20 7/8×2 ” (2) $70
KOMPLEMENT
Drawer with framed glass front, white, 29 1/2×22 7/8 ” (1) $60
KOMPLEMENT
Shoe insert for pull-out tray, light gray, 29 1/2×13 3/4 ” (4) $60
Rose gold spray paint (1 can) $6.98
Champagne Bronze Cabinet Drawer Bar Pull (2) $20.76
I paid a total of $961.74 without installation for my DIY closet project and I am so happy with the final results. I put one frame together and while it was not difficult, I felt like it would be quicker to just hire a task rabbit to put together and install the rest. With the installation of the frames and accessories, I paid a grand total of $1300.
