ᐅ Forcing an Ikea Pax wardrobe into a space that is too small?

My wall is 223 cm (88 inches) wide, and according to IKEA’s website, a 75 cm (30 inch) cabinet is actually 74.8 cm (29.5 inches) wide. So with three 75 cm (30 inch) cabinets, I would have 224.4 cm (88.4 inches), which means I would be about 15 mm (0.6 inches) too short. A few questions about this:

1.) Can I have sliding doors on the left and right sides, with an open cabinet in the middle?

2.) Can I build the cabinet in the middle without its own side panels, using the side panels of the right and left cabinets to make up for the missing 15 mm (0.6 inches) — effectively saving two side panels of 20 mm (0.8 inches) each?

By the way, has Hausbau-Forum.de taken over the IKEA Fans Forum? How about setting up a mailing list for it? That could definitely bring back the old users.

Regards

mgutt schrieb:
My wall is 223 cm (87.8 inches)

Where did you measure? Did you include the baseboard?

mgutt schrieb:
2.) Can I build the wardrobe in the middle without its own carcass walls, meaning can I use the walls of the right and left wardrobes to gain the mentioned 15mm (0.6 inches) clearance (or in that case, I would save two 20mm (0.8 inches) carcass walls)?

How do you plan to attach the top panel, back panel, interior fittings, and doors then?
If you leave out those walls, you are basically leaving out the entire wardrobe frame. In the end, you would just have the base standing on the floor and nothing else. What would that achieve?
Just place a 50cm (20 inches) unit in the middle.

For the few millimeters involved, I would plan a cabinet without drawers and cut all horizontal parts with a circular saw, drilling the boards again if necessary.

Alex85 schrieb:
Where exactly is the measurement? Have you accounted for the baseboard?

Those are excluded, and I would shorten them anyway to the height of the plinth, since the cabinet is meant to be fully enclosed (for example, with drywall).

How do you plan to attach the top panel, Pax back panel, interior fittings, and doors then? In the end, you'd have the plinth standing directly on the floor.

To be precise, I wouldn’t even have a plinth, because according to the instructions, that is also attached to the carcass.

Unlike Metod, the Pax back panel doesn’t fit into a groove. So I would just have to mill out the connecting strip on one side and then nail it from behind:

Drilling holes for the interior fittings wouldn’t be a problem. However, I just noticed the real issue. The screws and wooden dowels are all exactly at the same height and obviously cannot fit into a board on both sides. Furthermore, it would be quite difficult to fully assemble three cabinets with screws and then push them against the wall.

Just use a 50mm (2 inch) piece in the middle.

No, I’d rather use two 100mm (4 inch) pieces.

77.willo schrieb:
For the few millimeters difference, I would plan a cabinet without drawers and trim all horizontal parts with a circular saw and, if necessary, drill the boards again.

Agreed. That would be a good option.

How does that work visually? Can I actually run sliding doors over a centrally open cabinet, basically separating them? The sliding doors only come in widths of 150cm (59 inches) or 200cm (79 inches).

EDIT: According to the instructions, I would only get guide rails up to 200cm (79 inches) long. A “stopper” is pre-installed on both the left and right sides:

So I need a pair of 150cm (59 inches) sliding doors, and from the spare parts, I’d have to order the top and bottom rails separately and cut each down to 112.5cm (44 inches), so that there is a stopper on the left and right and the rails run across the entire cabinet width. The rest should remain original, if I haven’t overlooked anything.

Therefore, the first step is to clarify whether the spare parts service will send me these rails, or if I can find what I need in a clearance sale or on classified ads like eBay.

Cut off 112.5 cm (44 inches)

Unfortunately, I can no longer edit. Of course, 111.5 cm (44 inches) or less, depending on how wide the cabinet will be then.

toxicmolotow schrieb:
Nonsense.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way:

Four 80 x 220 cm (31 x 87 inches) Metod cabinets (this size is not available at Ikea) as a built-in office wall unit:

“Doppatrink” double drawer for beverage crates due to the increased load capacity:

And the “Äckenkrumm” because I absolutely wanted symmetry in the kitchen:

So I’m not giving up that easily