9 Foot Closet System

[Kathrine Selvage]

In order to achieve the high-end custom look I envisioned, we added baseboards, crown moulding, shoe moulding, recessed puck lights for in-cabinet lighting, refaced the fronts and sides of the wardrobe units with wood strips, added wood drawer fronts, added plugs to cover the unused shelving holes, wallpapered the back of the units, primed and painted everything, then swapped out the metal hanging rods for stained wooden rods, and finally added drawer hardware.

We ordered these puck lights off Amazon and hardwired them into an electrical box, so we could switch them on and off when entering the room. In order to reach all six of our closet units, we had to order extra extension cords. We fed these cords in a chain, where for each unit, one light branched off and fed into the unit from the very top in the back. Because we knew we were going to have rattan boxes on a top shelf, we knew the cords would be invisible.

In order to make the lights look very custom, we recessed them into the front of the top shelf in every unit. To recess the lights, we used a router to trace a template we made in a scrap piece of wood. If we had more time, we would have used a Kreg Concealed Jig with a Forstner Drill Bit for a more perfect round circle, but they look pretty great. We set a routing depth equal to the thickness of the puck light, so it would be completely flush with the lower surface of the shelf.

Once we routed the holes for the lights, we drilled a hole straight through to accommodate the cord for the puck light itself. Then we installed the shelf and ran the puck light through it on each unit. We used a small bead of construction adhesive on the back of the puck light to secure it into the recessed hole in the shelf. Once all the lights were installed, we moved on to the next step.

Next up, was installing the baseboards to the front of the units. We ran the baseboards all the way around the room, for a fully-built in look. We used these baseboards from Metrie, which are part of their Fashion Forward collection and play very nicely with applied wood trim. Because the top of the baseboard profile is flat horizontally, it allows the wood that we applied later on to the fronts of the cabinetry to flow seamlessly.

Using some spare Pax/Komplement shelves, we installed them on top of the interior base of the units to bring it up to flush with the baseboards, since we had to apply them to the front of the Pax units themselves. For this, we used some scrap strips of 1/8th inch tempered hardboard to bring the shelf up to level and secured it with screws. This step was only relevant for the wardrobe units without drawers at the bottom.

Once all the wood was installed, we used Bondo to fill all the holes and seams where the wood strips met. We also used glue to add shoe moulding to cap off the space between the baseboard and the floors.

We again used the same Fashion Forward crown moulding from Metrie and installed it along the top edge of all the wardrobe units. This really capped off the built-in look and totally hid the gap from the top of the wardrobes to the ceiling. We then caulked all the seams.

Using the vanity in our adjacent bathroom as the guide for how we wanted the drawer fronts to look, we opted for a flat front, which is a nice streamlined look and also lower effort than a shaker style. The drawer fronts were actually simpler than expected, where we used the same 1/2 inch Poplar board and just cut it down to size. We left an 1/8 inch gap around the drawers. We sanded the drawer fronts down and then brought them into the room.

A little known secret is that IKEA sells packs of plugs designed to hide the many, many holes in the Pax system that are used for shelving, etc. They sell packs of 100 plugs for $1, and while they are more difficult to install than expected they are totally worth the effort. I think we went through at least 12 packs of these plugs. You can see in the above shot that we had installed the plugs.

To install the drawer fronts, we taped the washers to hold them in place, as it is next to impossible to slip them in between the drawers and the wood front. Then we screwed the drawer fronts on from the back, going right through the tape.

We worked with Emtek on this project and opted for gorgeous, super heavy unlacquered brass cup pulls and attached them through the drawer front and the drawer itself. We used our favourite laser level to ensure all the drawer pulls were aligned horizontally on both sides of the closet.

We painted the original IKEA hanging rod hardware to match the closet paint and then cut down basic wood hanging rods to fit each wardrobe. We gave them a light sand and stained the wood rods using leftover Rubio Monocoat Oil from when we refinished the floors.

Thanks for this post, Erin! SUPER helpful as I am in the process of planning my own Ikea hack wardrobe. Just so I fully understand, for the drawer fronts you just added them on top of the existing Komplement drawer fronts, or did you remove the fronts and add your own? Thank you!

Hey Erin! This looks stunning!! You shared that you wallpapered after the drawers and shelves (on the hanging side) were in place and then primed. Can you clarify the steps: Did you actually remove them and wallpaper the entire MDF, or did you take the time to wallpaper each section to shape/size? And did you prime the wallpaper with the rest of the system prior to painting, or did you cover and tape it off?

Hi. We are doing a similar closet design now, inspired by your amazing blog!! Can you say how the paint has held up after several years? We just double prime with your recommended primer and will be painting soon. Just curious how it has held up. Thanks!

Omg you literally took my image from my brain, different color. Thank you so much for the how-to. Question: do you mind sharing a link to your paint sprayer? We have one, but it was pretty inexpensive and goes everywhere, so works fine when you want to paint a whole room, but not so much when you are trying to paint cabinets.

This is gorgeous. I am curious why you did not choose to paint all the pieces first before you assembled them in the closet?
I find when i do an upgrade on big box furniture i add thin plywood to the entire back behind the foldedpanel and nail it to the bookcase , dresser etc. Its made all of my items much more sturdy and durable.

We had the same situation with a window in the center off the wall of closet. We actually built a custom box under the window where after we tried that along with the pax system, appears to flow fluidly in between the shelvings. We made it into a little bench seat that looked like a custom upgrade.

beautiful closet! Quick question, the link for the poplar board takes reader to Home Depot with purebond. Is this what you used for your project? If so how did you get the drawer front edging smooth, did you put a wood veneer tape on them edges:? Just curious they look very smooth from the drawer open pic.

Hi Ashley! We left the drawers in place but removed any shelves (except the top ones since we fixed those in place) to wallpaper, then we primed everything (including the wallpaper) and then painted everything. In retrospect, we could have wallpapered the entire MDF back panel before we added any trim at all and it would have been easier than cutting to size (but we might have used more wallpaper that way). Hope that helps!

Also, re: building up the drawer fronts: Do the IKEA PAX drawers not come with front frames? Why did you you have to build new ones? Did you just add the fronts to increase the depth of the drawers, or did you remove the original PAX drawer fronts and install your own? I was really flummoxed about this step. Please clarify in as layman terms as you can.

I also understand why you chose to install the drawer fronts and how much of a difference it makes in seamlessly tying into the custom closet look after looking at some PAX installations without the drawer fronts.

However, I am not quite understanding the whole mechanism of attaching the drawer fronts to existing drawers (even though it seems from all the comments, that you have really explained it as simplistically as possible). Carpentry always confused me. It is complex for me to understand, simply because I cannot visualize it. Do you, by any chance, have a video tutorial with a step by step explanation, that I could watch, so that I can understand visually, exactly what each and every step in this process is?

Btw, is there any way that a pair of Besta unit doors can be used to cover the top part of the frame of a single PAX wardrobe frame, but the bottom part housing the drawers could be left as is, or covered with a separate set of hinged doors from the Besta series??

What is the width of the walkable area between the two cabinets (first photo in section 14)? Do you find it is tight? Working on an addition with closet and want to ensure I leave enough space between wall and cabinetry.

Your closet is awesome, Erin! We are in the midst of doing ours much like you have and I have a question. Have you had any problems with the wallpaper you used to cover the back wall seams? I have read comments on bubbling, lifting, being difficult to cover with paint, etc. Would greatly appreciate any input!

We are in the midst of doin our closet now and just like yours we have a few units on two sides of a walkin closet. My question is concerning the lights when you purchased the puck lights from amazon how were you able to connect the lights from each side of the room without the wire being exposed. did you bring wire. The pack i purchsased allows for you to connect 6 lights but how is that possible for the lights on the opposite side. I hope im making sense!

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