From Dombas to Pax
When we were looking for a new wardrobe we quickly figured out that selling them is the way more lucrative idea. ;-) The size and functionality of Ikea’s Pax model would have been a nice fit for the bedroom. However, on the other end of the price spectrum Ikea offers with the Dombas model a cheap and really basic alternative. Even two are nowhere near the price of a Pax, though, unfortunately the 2.8m width of two Dombas’ was too much for the 2.6m our bedroom had to spare. But true to the motto “better too long than to short” that it wouldn’t be to difficult to cut of the boards of one wardrobe before assembly to make it fit. And to get even more storage space we further planned to build some drawers under the Dombas. Effectively buying the cheapest option from Ikea and getting the functionality of the best (well, kind of).
To build the add-on construction below the wardrobes I decided for some inexpensive tongued and grooved boards (“Rauspund”) as it wouldn’t be visible after all. Unfortunately, some of the boards where quite twisted which made it a bit harder to get them to size accurately. Though, I’m still not sure the bedroom floor isn’t even in a worse shape. :D The backside and the flooring parts of the construction are made out of 3mm hardboard sheets which fit nicely into the tongues of the frame.
For the invisible parts of the drawers I used plywood as it is lightweight and for the fronts the same white chipboard as Ikea uses them help to match the look of the add-on construction to the Dombas “design”. The same boards also make the drop flaps look similar to the doors. We replaced the Ikea plastic handles anyway as they were looking pretty ugly.