IKEA Quietly Changed the PAX Wardrobe, And Now It’s Easier To Assemble In Tight Spaces
IKEA offers a few iconic furniture lines, like the BILLY (of the famed BILLY bookshelf) and the HEMNES. One other line that you’ve probably seen a lot of love for is the IKEA PAX, the tried-and-true wardrobe line. Many DIYers turn these basic wardrobes into built-in storage for clothes and more since they’re so hackable.
“It’s so versatile and can be DIYed to your heart’s content,” DIYer and content creator Imani Keal (@imaniathome) says of the PAX. And although Keal loves the PAX, she has also, like many others, had difficulty assembling it. (In 2024, three Taskrabbit taskers told Apartment Therapy that the PAX was the most difficult IKEA piece to assemble, and a 2023 survey with 100 participants confirmed the same.)
What makes the PAX so tricky? Well, for one, it’s a big piece of furniture, so it often has to be assembled in the room it’s going in. Keal, for instance, has learned the hard way to build in place. (See her struggle in her TikTok video, where her PAX didn’t fit through the doorway after she was done building it.) “There’s nothing worse than finishing a build and it won’t fit through the door,” Keal says.
That wasn’t the only issue with the old PAX, though. The pieces were long and big, making it tough to fit them all in the room and lay them flat on the floor for assembly if you were tight on square footage (or if the room you were building in had a lot of furniture to begin with). You also had to tip it upright after building it, which was hard for petite DIYers and often required a second set of hands.
DIYer Hope of @intentionallyhope says her IKEA PAX wardrobe hack, which required six PAX wardrobe boxes, was definitely not a solo endeavor. “Put your cabinet boxes together in your space,” she says on Instagram. “This is a two-person job. Do not, I repeat, do not try to do it alone.”
DIYer Sophia Nickolaides (@1884home) did a lot of research before her own PAX hack and was nervous about assembling it on her own — but she says it was doable. “It’s [a] very tall wardrobe, and I’m quite short but did manage to build it upright on my own. (Note: You do have to carefully plan and lay out all the pieces flat in advance.)
But the good news is, that’s not necessary anymore. No matter your gripe with the PAX — whether you’re short or short on space — IKEA listened to customers’ pain points and made changes late in 2024. IKEA’s CEO, Jon Abrahamsson Ring, even pointed to it as one of the company’s highlights for the year.
The new-and-improved PAX on shelves in 2025 has a one-piece foldable frame. “Previously, to assemble the large PAX frame, the customer would need to have space on the floor for the frame to lay flat to attach the backboard,” an IKEA spokesperson tells Apartment Therapy. Not to mention, “the foldable, single-piece panel that creates the back and sides of the cabinet frame decreases the number of parts that the customer needs to assemble,” and vertical assembly allows you to set the PAX up exactly where you want it to go — no heavy lifting required.
DIYer Rebecca Rajs (@rebs_home), who has completed her own PAX hack with the old model (shown above), has seen her sister’s new PAX model and says the newer version attaches to the wall more easily and safely than the one she used. “It allows you flexibility in attaching the unit to any studs, whereas with the old model, you only had two points where you could attach it to studs, and you needed to use anchors if you didn’t have a stud there,” she says.
“Now, PAX comes with a wall-mounting rail, which is an essential component for assembly,” making this model safer and sturdier, an IKEA spokesperson says. In short, it’s good news for your PAX hacks, folks!
This article originally published on Apartment Therapy. See it there: IKEA Quietly Changed the PAX Wardrobe (It’s So Much Easier to Use in Tight Spaces!)
Further Reading
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