Ladies and gents, I present to you our finished Ikea Pax Pantry:
First, make sure to read through Part 1 of our Ikea Pax Pantry build which explains how we installed the Pax wardrobes:
After completing part 1, the next step was adding crown molding. I had my dad come over to help, which was a good idea because this project came with more challenges than anticipated.
Obstacle #1: Cutting a special shape out of the molding where it met up with the cabinets above the door. My dad knocked this one out of the park—a perfect fit.
Obstacle #2: Getting the crown to squeeze in above and be level with both cabinets. The crown height and gap between the cabinets was the same, so we had to sand down part of the crown where the fitment was a bit too tight. Then, we discovered the left wall stuck just a tad more than the cabinets so we were left with this gap:
Not only that, but the gap was quite a bit worse on the right side (walls, ceilings and floors are rarely ever perfectly square, so this was bound to happen….)
To help close the gap, we nailed up a small piece of wood (just on the right side where it was really bad:
I was able to caulk everything in to completely hide the gaps. What would we do without caulk?!
Obstacle #3: There was still a visible gap above the makeshift door on the right:
To fix this, I cut a scrap piece of wood and glued it on to the back of the crown.
There wouldn’t be any pressure on it (the door magnet was keeping the door from swinging back), so the glue will hold just fine. I caulked & painted and now it looks like part of the crown.
Just in time, our knobs arrived in the mail and we got those on last night (these are the same ones on our cabinet to tie them all in):
And now our pantry is finally complete and ready to enjoy!
I’m loving how built in and coordinated it looks next to the rest of the cabinets:
Ready to see the insides?
We went with affordable Pax shelves and Komplement wire baskets for organization:
The arrangement may change as time goes on, but for now there’s more than enough storage.
Let’s see what’s behind door #1, shall we?
The top shelves house our less frequently used dishware, baking supplies and canned foods.
To free up counter space, we decided to store our toaster here. Before putting the pantry up, Brad drilled a hole through the back and connected an extension cord to the outlet so it’s plugged in and fully functional:
We very rarely use it so this was the perfect place for us to keep it.
These pull out baskets are my favorite. So convenient, and just $15/ea! We use them to keep our vitamins/medications within easy reach, along with dry goods we use on a daily basis.
I arranged our small appliances on the bottom so they are within easy reach.
Let’s see what’s behind door #2…
Here we have more rarely used entertaining items, pasta/oats/starches, then cereal/condiments. We keep larger dry food storage and chips/snacks in the baskets, then our glass jars with miscellaneous goods/spices and paper towel storage on the bottom.
And of course, our mop and broom storage behind the door on the far right:
I just love walking into the kitchen every day now with this view greeting me…
Quite an improvement from a few months ago, right?
Looking for more high end Ikea hacks? Try these DIY projects!
Carrie says
Love,love, love the pantry! So much so I’m ready to do it to my kitchen. One question I have is how is it standing up to use after a year? Anything you would do differently? So excited to have found your blog. Can’t wait to implement some of your ideas into my house.?❤️
Margaret Petrey Smith says
Hi, Jenna Sue. So thrilled to find this post! I am planning to install two pantries on either side of a big window in my dining room. How wide and deep are the PAX frames you used? I'm finding the Ikea options a little confusing: some models come in certain depths and widths, but no doors, or only sliding doors, sliding baskets only work with certain dimensions. Thanks for any help you can offer!
mrsben says
Loved what you did for your Pantry project and appreciated the sources provided. (ie: Pax frames with Bergsbo doors.) Your kitchen also appears to be coming together beautifully! -Brenda-
P.S: Re using the 'shellac' Zinsser primer on the doors; personally I think 'the all purpose type' (blue and white can) would have sufficed as I have used it on every type of surface imaginable and have always had excellent results whereas the 'shellac' type have applied it only to new wood to prevent the bleeding of knots.
Jenna Sue says
No problems for us but we don't have a huge amount of weight on them. A couple of the shelves do have quite a bit of weight but they aren't filled with rows of heavy plates or anything. The Ikea website probably has weight limits for the shelves on their product page—I would check that first! Worst case scenario you could always replace it with more substantial pieces of wood and secure it through the sides (or studs in the wall).
Anonymous says
Hello:
Your Pax Panty is awesome! I have been contemplating a similar undertaking but have been worried about the weight tolerances of the Pax shelves/drawers/baskets. Now that your panty has been in use for a few months, have you had any issues with the load bearing capacities of the Pax interior pieces? I have been trying to think of ways to fortify them. Any suggestions would be extremely appreciated.
Jenna Sue says
I made them myself! You can find blank sheets of round labels that you can design templates for and run through your printer. Here's the post where I added them: https://jennasuedesign.blogspot.com/2012/11/operation-pantry-remodel-phase-1.html
findingaduke says
Just came across you blog and ell instantly in love. I admire all your DIY projects and intend to tackle the headboard project soon. I also have the perfectionist bug but like you mentioned in a post I'm also learning to letting thing ride instead of letting all hell lose because it's not. SO yeah I really commend all your work, and I hope to be able to boast of quite a number of DIYs and a lot more hands-on projects. Anyway my question for ya lol, how and what did you use to label your glass jars/mason jars on the bottom shelf of the pax-pantry? I saw the blue circle thingies and figured they were labeld. I would like to create sth like this so if you can send a link my way that would be great. Thanks so much and more power to ya lol. Can't wait to see what more is in store for your house 3 🙂
Kim @ NewlyWoodwards says
This looks awesome! And the amount of storage is unreal.
Stopping over from Centsational Girl.
Trish @TheOldPostRoad says
EXCELLENT! Love it – great job!
TheKimSix Fix says
I LOVE this. We had the Pax system as our closets in our last house and they were so wonderful.. you idea to use them as a pantry is genius. I love it!
Jenna Sue says
Ahhhh… okay that makes sense—not sure why we never considered that. I feel dumb now 🙂