When we decided to tackle our messy hallway, we knew we needed a solution that was both practical and stylish, and that’s where the IKEA Pax Hallway Storage Cupboard came in. With a bit of creativity and a simple IKEA hack, we transformed this versatile wardrobe system into the perfect storage solution for our busy family. From walking shoes and coats to bags and everyday essentials, everything now has a home, and the hallway feels so much more welcoming. In this post, we’ll share exactly how we customized the IKEA Pax wardrobe doors to fit our space, including tips, tricks, and what we learned along the way. If you’re looking to declutter and elevate your hallway, you’ll love this IKEA Pax hack!
Before and After
Video Of How We Made Our IKEA Pax Hallway Storage Cupboard
How We Made Our IKEA Pax Hallway Storage Cupboard
Create A Base For The Units
Get all the space cleared, and any holes that would still be visible are filled and sanded down. Take off any skirting board as you want the units to sit flush against the wall, keep this stored. It’s now time to make the base for the units to sit on. This is important as you need to lift the units up off the floor to allow the doors to open freely. The height of this depends on the space you’re putting it in. We needed the height to be large enough to place the skirting back on and have a little clearance for this. The wood we used for this was planned construction timber, size 34 x 34 x 2400mm from Wickes. We created a boxed frame with H-shaped sections throughout for support. We used our Kreg pocket hole jig to screw this all together.
Plan, Plan and Plan Your Units
Take a lot of time out to plan this space out properly. We had the space from the front door and all the way along. However, there was a beam where the old house started (pre-extension), so we needed to plan this into our space as we still wanted to utilise the space all the way along. We could have stopped here, but we thought that was a wasted space. So, by creating the basket system, we could utilize that space and then have another unit on the end.
Get out your paper and pen (or however you plan!) and measure up your space. The IKEA Pax unit doors come in various sizes and two different heights. We have gone for the smaller height IKEA GRIMO door in white and 50mm width. Our space gave us an option for 4 doors, which worked out a large double unit and two single cupboards. We included an extra space down the end by the front door as we had a little extra space and kept the IKEA door away from the front door space a bit more.
The units will need to be slightly bigger than the doors. Use the IKEA PAX units as a guideline on the sizing of your units, but like us, we wanted to make them more bespoke than the supplied units.
Make Units Up In MDF
We purchased MDF sheets from Wickes. They offer delivery to us, and they’ve always been really good with this. We’ve purchased the large sheets as it always works out cheaper to get as much out of 1 large sheet than to buy smaller ones. Although they are heavy and very awkward to move around.
Making up the units using the Kreg pocket hole jig is really easy and makes the units really secure. These corner clamps are great, as they keep the two pieces of wood clamped together at the right angle whilst you’re screwing them together. When you’re making these up, make sure you can move them into the place you need. We very nearly couldn’t get the big one through the door frames of the house! It was also very wobbly when moving it, so we added a temporary brace of wood in the middle to support the unit from snapping when moved. We got them all in place!
Position Your MDF Units Into Place and Build Separators.
We made one large unit from the front door to the beam and then used two separating MDF sheets between this to create a large double-door unit and a single-door unit. We used the Kreg pocket hole jig to add these separating sheets. This gave the unit support, but you also needed two of them as the doors needed to be doubled up here.
Creating Personalised Storage and Shelving
This is when you can add your own shelving; we added shelves in the unit by the front door for specific items we wanted in there, and we added the vacuum charging point and storage items for this. Added in the shelves in between the two units where the beam was. We made the shelf sizes slightly less deep than the space for the room for lighting cables and also had the shelves positioned slightly back from the front so they were flush. This is a preference of ours, so decide how you would like yours.
When adding shelves, make sure you do it one by one, as the wall and unit sizes might differ as you go along. Using a little wedge on either side that you can clamp in to keep them level, you then use the Kreg pocket hole jig holes to attach each shelf to the unit from underneath. Pre drill out your Kreg pocket hole and jig holes when making the shelf.
We added a plained timber support, buying a 44 x 69 x 2400mm which will attach the hinges and IKEA Grimo door to. We did this to keep the doors equal measurements, this depends on your space. However, it allowed us to tuck the vacuum back and gave us more space. We added a front mdf sheet to this once everything was screwed into place, so add a front.
Clamp your units into place, and screw them into the wooden base and each other. You could also add a few supporting brackets onto the wall behind.
Add Hinges
Add hinges so you know where they will be placed. This helps when planning out where you’re going to add internals like shelving and rails
Fill All The Holes
I don’t like that the Kreg pocket hole jig makes so many big deep holes, and I still haven’t figured out how to really fill them appropriately and then sand the excess filler down properly. This is one battle between me and my husband! He loves to build with the Kreg, but I hate the finish of it! I can’t say the Kreg is bad at its job, as it’s brilliant. The units are so secure, but when it comes to me prepping and finishing everything off, it makes it look messy. If anyone uses this and has any tips, let me know!
So, we use wood filler to fill all the holes. We need to do them in a couple of sessions, and then you have to sand down so much excess.
Sand Everything and Anything!
It may not seem like it will make such a difference at the time, but by doing these following stages, the MDF goes from looking rough to smooth and absorbed paint nicely. Sand everything you can see, the edges are the rough areas that you want smooth, but give them a sand down, I choose to round off the squared edges to create a slightly less square edge, not much just not as sharp edged. Then, wipe it all down with a damp cloth to pick up all the dust.
Apply a watered down PVA along all the edges, this will lift the fibres, allowing you to then sand them down to create a smoother look. Not everyone does this, but I find it works really well. Once dry, sand and wipe down again.
Add Skirting
Add the skirting back onto this, as you can then see where it needs to sit and fill in the nail holes and edging.
Install Lighting System
It’s a bit annoying installing the lighting system before painting, but I wanted to get all the cabling in and then caulk in all the gaps to create a smooth look. You will need to run a lot of cables through the sections for this style of IKEA Pax hack, as we have lots of sections.
We used the TRÅDFRI Driver for wireless control, which is placed on the top of the units, using the FÖRNIMMA Power supply cord. We can use our Philips Hue smart lighting, which is compatible with this. We also added the ÖVERSIDAN wardrobe light strips to each cupboard, as they light up inside the units when the doors open. These just do this automatically once linked up to the system.
Then, in the open shelves, we installed the MITTLED LED lights as these can be controlled without Philips Hue smart lights, and we can have them come on at times we want as extra lighting in the hallway, as well as giving off a lovely glow.
You can see all the sections lit up here using all the IKEA smart lighting for IKEA Pax units.
Caulking Every Gap
This must not be skipped if you want the units to look built-in and blended with every section. You caulk all the way around each wall, shelf, gap, between skirting and units. Then, don’t miss the outside walls and units, as this will blend them into the walls when painted.
I also used this caulking tool, which was really good as I usually use my finger to smooth off, and it gets really sore!
In this image, I’ve caulked in every gap, including each shelf inside and out!
Prime Units Twice
Now comes the fun part, painting! Although no colour first, you want to make sure, after all your pre, you use a primer on the MDF. It has to be a good-quality primer that is used specifically for priming MDF.
A second coat is needed; just give light sand everywhere between each coat and wipe with a damp cloth to collect the dust.
Paint With The Chosen Colour
I wanted to colour match the paint to my walls, so I went into Valspar, and on my paint account with them, they had my paint colour stored from when we painted our walls. So I got them to make up my colour using their Multi-Surface & Furniture Paint. I’ve never used it before, but it’s been really good and was a perfect match for the walls. Again, do a light sand and wipe it down between coats.
We used a small foam roller to paint all the paint on, as it gives a lovely finish to the wood and is very easy to use as well.
Add Door Handles
Add you’re door handles to your IKEA Grimo, IKEA do their own handles but I like to add something different, these ones also match the IKEA Kallax hack shoe bench we made. I have purchased them from Homesense, and sometimes, they have a shelf with a selection of random handles!
Add Internals
Now it’s time to add the internals, we haven’t included much in ours that has been added in, but we did use the IKEA KOMPLEMENT clothes rail as this would fit in perfectly, and due to the depth of the units we are having the clothes facing towards us to keep the depth down. We didn’t use the supplied screws, just the screw holes straight into the units.
The vacuum hanger and charger are powered by a standard plug, so we have a socket in this cupboard, and it’s fixed onto the wall. The way the unit is designed allowed us to tuck it back into the unit.
You are never going to guess what these are?! Pet feeding mats! IKEA UTSÅDD pet feeding mat used as a shelf liner! Priced at £1.50 we slightly cut them to size and use them to keep the shelves clean. This cupboard is only being used for shoes and boots, so being able to clean them easily is important.
We adjusted the shelf heights so we could have welly boots, boot bags, and walking shoes in the IKEA Pax hack unit.
We have our shoe bench to store our daily shoes in, but we wanted a place for all the walking boots.
We found the perfect sized baskets to fit on the shelves, the IKEA TJILLEVIPS baskets. These are used for storing shopping bags, hats, scarves, and gloves, and we have them all easily accessible. One thing I’ve found being a Mum of 3, you need things to have a place and be easy, it saves a lot of stress leaving the house!
Finishing Touches
I finished it off with a TRADESCANTIA hanging plant placed into the LJUNGAN basket, which I’ve placed on top of the unit and cascaded down. Adding the IKEA DYPSIS LUTESCENS Areca palm to take your eyes away from the large plain wall and interest to the room.
We knew that these units were going to make the hallway smaller, drawing in the wall space. However, I think that as it’s such a smooth, built-in IKEA Pax Hack, it works very well. With less clutter and things put away, it looks so much better.
I’ve placed the IKEA LINDBYN mirror on the other side. This bounces light around the hallway and is a great functional mirror to look in before you leave the house.
We needed a light that was going to be functional and in keeping with the style, but it also couldn’t dangle down as the cupboard doors would hit it. The IKEA SOLKLINT gold light is brilliant, offers plenty of lighting and looks pretty.
I placed two of them in this hallway space, and they give off so much light, much more than I first thought they would. We have our Philips Hue bulbs in them, so we can control them with our lights in the shelving.
I’m just so pleased with this IKEA hack, it’s made such a perfect hallway space for us, and used the space so well. With a family of 5 and two dogs, we need it to be functional, but I also want my house to look lovely, so by adding this IKEA Pax hack, I think we’ve what we need and want.
Shop The Products For Our IKEA Pax Hallway Makeover
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- Wood For Base – Wickes
- Wood In Larger Size – Wickes
- MDF Sheet 18 x 606 x 1220mm – Wickes
- MDF Sheet 18 x 1220 x 2440mm – Wickes
- Kreg Jig –Kreg Screw Set –Kreg Clamp
- Wood Filler – Amazon
- Sanding Block – Amazon
- IKEA Tradfri Driver For Lighting – IKEA
- Oeversidan Wardrobe Light – IKEA
- Foernimma Power Supply – IKEA
- Koppla Extension – IKEA
- Mittled Spotlights – IKEA
- Shelf Mats Utsadd – IKEA
- Hinges – IKEA
- Lindbyn Mirror – IKEA
- Primer Paint – Amazon
- Caulk – Amazon
- Caulking Tool – Amazon
- Valspar Furniture Paint – B&Q Valspar
- Door Handles – HomeSense
- IKEA Grumo Doors – IKEA Used Size 50 x 195 cm White
- IKEA Tjillevips Basket – IKEA baskets
- Tradescantia Hanging Plant – IKEA
- Ljngan Hanging Plant Basket – IKEA
- Solklint Gold Light – IKEA
- Komplement Clothes Rail – IKEA
- Hangers Bumerang – IKEA
- Dypsis Lutescens Palm – IKEA
IKEA Kallax Shoe Bench Hack
I hope you liked our IKEA Pax Hallway makeover, but if you’re also interested in seeing how we made this shoe storage bench in our hallway too, take a look at our post on how we made our IKEA Kallax shoe bench. It’s a perfect place to store our everyday shoes and a place to sit to put them on.
2 Comments
Hello – this looks beautiful. What is the depth of your unit? I have a narrow space. I’m wondering if it’s deep enough to be useful. Curious what depth your unit is
Hi, thank you very much. It’s 35cm deep, hopefully that works for you