Closet Redo: Replacing Wire Shelving With Ikea Pax System
June 11, 2025
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Transforming a walk in closet with wire shelving to built in IKEA Pax units.
Step-by-step guide for removing wire closet shelves and replacing them with
the Pax closet system.
This is the second closet in our home I've made over with these Ikea units. My
closet was first -- I went from this mess:
The best part of building a custom Pax system for your specific closet needs
is that it's SO much easier to keep clean. I rarely have things laying around
anymore, because everything has a place.
I made some minor changes to my closet earlier this year that I'll share with
you soon!
This time I want to share the transformation of our teenage son's closet. I
spared you the true before images. Let's just say it was a mess -- this
is an area that had hardly been touched since we moved in nearly eight years
ago!
1. Configure your closet specs
I so wish we would have worked on this space earlier -- no better time to
tackle this than a few months before he moves out for college, right?? 😂 We
were both fed up with the mess, so we finally went after it a couple of months
ago.
He'll be able to enjoy it all summer and on holiday breaks at least! :)
Actually, the very first thing we did was go through ALL of his clothes in both the dresser and this closet.
That was important to determine what kind/how much storage he would need in
the new and improved closet.
Ikea offers a great
online closet Pax planner tool. You can input the size of the room and then configure your units and any
extra options:
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I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links.
See my policies and disclosure page for more information.
This is a narrow closet, so I wanted to utilize the long wall on the left of
the closet and leave the wall straight ahead open for a tall mirror.
Because the light switch for the closet is just to the left of the doorway, I
went with a more shallow unit there for shoes and shelving, and then two full
depth Pax units to the right that we used for built in drawers and hanging
clothes.
Our ceiling height upstairs is eight feet, so I purchased the 79 inch units.
After I started assembling the closet, I realized I could have gone with the
taller versions. But more on that in a minute!
2. Remove the wire shelving
The existing wire shelving is pretty easy to remove, you just need to know how
to do it so you don't create more drywall damage than necessary.
I find a regular hammer is easiest for removing most of the parts:
You'll want to remove the shelf supports underneath the wire shelves first --
do so by grabbing the head of the pin with the claw end of the hammer and
rocking it out of the wall.
Then you can let the wire shelving hang against the wall while removing the
anchors:
Those anchors have two long prongs that are inside the drywall, but there's
really no delicate way to remove them. You're going to have a significant hole
left, so just pop those out with your hammer as well.
When you get going this process is very fast -- just make sure to remove the
metal pin first because you'll make a much bigger hole in the wall if you try
to remove with that inserted.
You'll be left when a bunch of holes in the wall, but here's my secret...I
don't fill them if they'll be covered with the new Pax units. 😳
My future self may regret it, but I don't see us taking down this closet
system anytime soon.
If there are any large holes still visible (I had a bunch in this closet),
then use my
handy hack to fill large drywall holes with ease.
3. Assemble and install the Pax wardrobe frames
Ikea has changed the design of their Pax units since my first experience years
ago. Before, you had an option to assemble the units on the floor (which I
preferred) and then move them into place.
I did learn then that sometimes it's best to assemble them vertically,
especially if you have any odd turns or angles that may make it hard to get
the entire piece into the closet.
Now Ikea has made it so they are entirely assembled vertically, on the wall
where they will be installed. I actually really liked it, but after the fact I
realized I could have gone with the 93 inch version instead of the 79.
Not a huge deal really, as we ended up with plenty of storage space for his
needs. But just keep that in mind -- even if you have eight foot ceilings, you
can most likely take advantage of all of that vertical space now.
The instructions are fairly self-explanatory. There's a metal bracket that
will need to be attached to the wall into studs or with significant anchors.
You can see that bracket at the top of the unit here:
And then you add the bottom and top panels before adjusting your shelving or
hanging rods:
4. Add the finishing touches
This is the fun part! The versatility of this Ikea Pax closet system is what I
love so much about it. I enjoy figuring out the best way to store items with
their built in drawers, pull out shelves and other options you can add to the
unit.
In the middle Pax unit of his closet, we were able to use the drawers I had
first installed in my closet makeover:
I removed those earlier this year to add pull out hanging pants storage to
that spot, and kept them knowing we could use them in my son's closet:
This freed up so much space in his bedroom dresser!
We used mostly regular shelves in the shallow Pax unit, but I did add two pull
out Ikea shelves as well. One was for his accessories like ties and
belts:
He keeps most of his shoes in our
mud room shoe storage, but I added a pull out drawer at the bottom of these shelves for his dress
shoes.
These make it easy to grab things like belts, jewelry, etc. I use the one in
my closet nearly every day:
5. Decorate and accessorize (yes, even in a closet!)
I mean...don't go crazy. But if it's a walk in closet, you're probably in
there a good amount of time! Why not make it a space you enjoy?
I'm a bit of a freak and find wallpapering the walls takes less time than
painting numerous coats of paint. All the prep -- cutting in, taping off and
all that jazz -- takes a lot of time.
Installing peel and stick wallpaper
is much quicker for me, so this is where I splurged a bit. We had already used
this blue grasscloth wallpaper
on the backs of his built ins years ago:
I used the leftovers and picked up a couple more rolls to install on the
closet walls:
It's photographing a little lighter than the actual color here. Check out
the photos below for a more realistic look.
I had bit of space left above the closet units and didn't want to buy
another roll of wallpaper, so I got a small can of this Loyal Blue color
from Sherwin-Williams to paint that area:
You can see that I taped a scrap of the wallpaper next to the color -- I could
have gone with the more aqua accent above as well!
Our son is a huge movie buff and had quite a few posters that didn't fit quite
right anywhere else. We framed those and hung them on the long wall to the
right of the door:
We weren't using that space anyway, so it turned out to a great spot to add a
few things he loves!
The final detail was adding a couple of
these motion sensor lights that I love
to the top of the Pax units:
He has an overhead light, but these make it easy to grab something in the
dark.
Overall the room looks completely different, but also functions SO MUCH
BETTER:
Can you believe our 18-year-old has kept this entire closet pristine for more
than a month now? I guess that shouldn't surprise me, as I've done the same
with mine over the past few years as well.
My husband's closet is next on the list! :)
Overall the whole closet makeover took about five days -- the first was
removing the wire shelves and filling holes. The second and third were
installing the Pax units and adjustable shelves.
The last couple of days were spent hanging the wallpaper, mirror and art, as
well as touching up paint and cleaning up.
What a difference!:
I'm still a little annoyed I didn't go with the taller units, but overall it
wouldn't have added anymore hanger space. The two stacked hanging sections on
the end are a perfect fit.
All we would have gained is room for a few more shelves or drawers:
Here's the before and after, that would be a lot more dramatic if I had
included the before version with clothes all over the floor:
And how the room looks (all the time!) now:
If only we could have done this sooner!
This last semester of high school wore. me. out! Thankfully we are done with
graduation, his grad party and even college orientation.
Now we relax all summer and soak in the time with our boy. 💙
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That looks AMAZING! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteThe result is amazing; sooner or later, but it is just as you want it now. Lovely. I am trying to do something with one of our closets, the modular that I wish for is from Bed Bath & Beyond, I don't have money for this yet; the car needs new tires, insurance, etc. I hope to get a modular as it's been some years now, having things in crates is no good; if only we'd realized this sooner. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I hope you can do it soon! :)
Delete