Hi - can you advise on the best method of removing the back panel from a wardrobe (flat pack from Argos, now assembled) without damaging it so that the wardrobe can be semi-disassembled to move house and then re-assembled?  The wardrobes are pine and the back panels are pinned in place using small nails (that came with the wardrobe).  Thank you.

Hi Neil,

You can do it but it requires a bit of care and patience.

You will need:-

- Largish flat headed screw driver (at least 7-8mm across)
- A pair of bottle nosed pliers

The way I do it is as follows:

- pull the wardrobe away from the wall so you can get access the inside and the back. Remove the doors and any other loose shelves rails, drawers etc. try to leave enough room so you can tilt it forward to lie on its front later (see BOLD type below).
- estimate where the pin/nail is in the back (say measure 20cm from the top on one side, then measure ~18.5cm on the inside to allow for the thickness of the top panel).
- gently (but firmly) push the back panel with your fingers close to where you have measured the pin to be. It will either: not move; shift a little or move freely.
- If it doesn’t move, find and try another one.
- If it comes out freely then great!
- If it moves a little, use your pliers to remove the pin from the back.

- Once you have removed one pin, there should be some give in the panel when you press it from the inside and it should be easier to locate the next pin. This time you can either repeat the above method or slide in the screw driver along the loose groove to the next pin. Once you are as close as you can be, then use the screw driver as a lever to gently loosen the next pin.

This is quite time consuming, some will come out easily others will be difficult but if you take your time you can usually get them out. Even if you only move a pin by 2-3mm, this is usually enough to get your pliers in to finish off the job.

Don’t get carried away once you have removed a couple, thinking this is easy, take your time.

Don’t worry if you damage the back panel a little when doing this as sometimes the pins can pop through the back panel. This is inevitable, but when you come to reassemble, they should be hidden from view, and hammer a new pin in near to the hole.

As I say it takes a bit of time but can be done with most items of furniture.

BE CAREFULL TO ENSURE THE WARDROBE IS PROPERLY SUPPORTED WHEN YOU REMOVE THE LAST FEW PINS ON THE LAST RIGHT ANGLE. If you don’t the wardrobe might collapse under its own weight (flatten like a cardboard box). Get someone else to hold it or lie it on its front. Also note when moving it, without the back on, it can still collapse like a cardboard box if you move it laterally, so get its front onto the floor so you can undo the remaining panels.

I hope this helps,

Edwin Cooke

Hi im a single mum and recently bought rauch sliding glass wardrobe from ebay,the wardrobes didn’t come with instructions so my daughters boyfriend tried to do the best he could, but when it came time to putting on the two glass doors we have found they are not lining up correctly one door has huge gap at top and wont close the gap the other door is playing up as well. we followed the instructions this site gave us but dont know where we went wrong and help or suggestion would be fantastic.

Hi Jane,

The most common reasons for this is that the wardrobe is not level. A quick way to establish this is to just push or pull the wardrobe back and forth at each side and see how this influences the alignment of the doors.

Use a spirit level and check the following:-

- Floor of wardrobe is horizontal and flat (left to right and front to back). Check in several places behind both doors.
- Side panels are vertical (again check in a few positions, top and bottom, front and back both sides.
- Wardrobe is not leaning forward / backwards on one side.

If it is not level, you will need to insert some cardboard, plastic chocks or similar under the wardrobe at various points to level the unit. Only do this where the vertical side panels rest on the floor, otherwise the fixings can break. Depending on the age of your property your floor will be more or less uneven. The wardrobes are about 2 metres wide and a few mm over this distance can make a big difference, in severe cases the difference is a couple of inches and must be rectified otherwise the wardrobe will collapse in time.

Once you are satisfied the wardrobe is level you can look at the finer adjustments but this should not be necessary. Avoid phaphing about with the adjustable settings on the wheel bogeys until you are certain the wardrobe is level.

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If one door is lower than the other. It could be one door is upside down. They put a red sticker on the inside to indicate which way up is the top. The holes where the wheel bogeys and the guides are attached are slightly closer to the edge (at the top I think) and so getting this wrong will cause problems.

I hope this helps let me know how you get on.

Edwin.

“I’d like a wardrobe or storage unit in my lounge and am thinking of the Pax Wardrobe 236 cm tall.. I have 300 cm tall room and wanted to mount it to the wall but also see if I could put the stepping stools on the bottom making it taller. Also I have uneven floors. Is this doable?”

Hi Mark,

I am not quite sure exactly what you mean by “Stepping Stools”. However it is probably not a good idea to put anything underneath the wardrobes. Each 1 metre wide unit weights over 30kg and with the extra weight of internal fittings, doors and drawers, the weight could become excessive once you start putting clothes and possessions inside.

I would approach it the other way around. Ikea do an extension unit (I can;t remember the name) which can increase the height of the Billy Bookcase. It is not as deep but might help you achieve your aim.

One point about the Pax wardrobes the top and bottom are connected to the side panels with three minifix fittings and two thin dowels at each connection to a side panel. If you stand on the base near to these fittings it can collapse under your weight. This is only really a risk during assembly especially with the corner Pax robes, but nevertheless, they are not designed to be built on stilts or have extra heavy units placed on top of them. If you go down this route, make sure you reinforce the fittings and consider how the weight of the upper units will be supported.

I am sorry I cannot be more helpful.

Edwin.

“Have assembled a NEXT corner tv unit, all looks fine, drawers fit onto runners, but wont shut fully. Have spent hours taking drawers out and putting in again. “

Hi Sharon,

The most likely cause of this is that you have screwed the runners onto the unit using the wrong holes. On most runners there are a lot more holes than you will need and it can be difficult to tell which ones to use.

If none of the drawers shut, then you have probably made the same mistake on all of them.

Also it might be that they shut easily on one side and not the other. Try pushing the front of the drawer on both sides, if you get less resistance on one side this runner is probably in the correct place and will give you an idea of what to do.

On some units there is a sucker punch and this is that you need to use different holes on different runners. So you can’t always use the same ones.

I would have a closer look at the instructions as well.

I hope the above can be of assistance.

Edwin.

I have been assembling these doors for several years now and the first time I did it I thought it would be quite intimidating to do. I hate working with glass and the the overall process is quite tricky. Furthermore the instructions are not that easy to follow and the first time I did it part of me thought have I done this right? So I scoured the instructions over and over again to ensure I had, looking at every part of the Ikea instructions. The nice think about Ikea instructions is that usually every piece of information you need is there, just presented in an international non-language specific diagrammatical way!

So far I have written the following sets of instructions on Ikea Pax wardrobes:-

• How to build an Ikea wardrobe standing up.
• How to rectify a collapsed Ikea wardrobe
• How to build the Ikea Pax Sliding Doors

All instructions are available at:-

Ikea Help

Whether it is a bunk bed or loft bed, it is important to heed the warnings on the instructions. If you do not attach the slats properly to the upper bunk your child can suffer serious injury. The following two things have been identified:-

1. The slats must all be fastened down on the top or raised bunk. On a normal bed the slats are often strung together and fastened down at six anchor point. If the slats fall through the bed you only have 12 inches to fall so no issue. If you are on the top bunk, such a fall could cause a serious injury, especially considering the way the slats might move and trap an unlucky child.
2. Slat must be placed right up to the head and foot boards on the upper bunk. Again an unlucky child could slip and get trapped in a seriously uncomfortable or fatal position.

This is an incredibly contemporary and stylish bed from Dwell. I built one this morning and it looks fabulous.

The instructions for assembly leave a lot to be desired though. The main idea is that you build the bed base and build the head board and then slot the two pieces together. Nothing wrong with that you may think but there is. Due to its weight you need two people to lift the head board and probably a third person to line up the bolts and dowels, which need to come together at a handy 45 degree angle. Now bearing in mind there are three bolts and three dowels on each side, even if you were to attempt this it would be fraught,  since I doubt both sides would line up nicely and you would need a decent amount of lateral force as well as downward force to bring the two pieces together.

In my opinion the correct way to build this is using my standard “let gravity do the work for you” approach and build it in a logical manner piece by piece. This was the first one I had seen and it took my 90 minutes but I think second time around I could build it in about an hour on my own, yes on my own.

I’ll be writing some instructions on how to do this with photos and so on which will be available soon at Dwell Furniture Help.

The bed however is beautiful, the finish is glossy, expensive and ultra-glamorous.

One activity which is well worth while is visiting Flatpack Assemblers to get some Voucher Codes. All you need to is

1. Select an assembler’s area by postcode at the top of the page.
2. On the next page enter your email in the box at the top.

You will be emailed a link to a list of retailers including:-

High Street Names: B&Q, Barker & Stonehouse, British Home Stores, Debenhams, Dreams, Focus DIY, Habitat, John Lewis, Laura Ashley, Marks & Spencers

Popular Internet Retailers: Bedstar, Furniture 123, Furniture Village, Garden Bargains, Nabru, Oak Furniture Land, Oak Furniture Solutions, Pinesolutions, Space2, Super Tramp, Sleeping Solutions

Offers cannot usually be used on sale items and are time limited, but can save you 5-10% off your next  furniture purchase!

In many cases people want a wardrobe to fit into a small space. In such cases most people will pick sliding door wardrobes, since hinged doors can obscure the space. One thing often overlooked when purchasing a wardrobe is how it can be built?

This wardrobe from Furniture 123 is an ideal example:-

Blithe 3 door wardrobe in dark walnut

Most hinged flatpack wardrobes are designed to be built lying down whilst most sliding door flatpack wardrobes are designed to be built standing up. Sliding door wardrobes will also tend to have the back panel fit into a groove rather than be nailed on, again to help assembly in a tight space. This is the general rule however there are two notable exceptions:

IKEA Wardrobes - All Ikea wardrobes should be built lying down and then standing. They can be built standing up but you will need either two people, a self made jig or a lot of skill and experience. With the Holborn range Ikea often provide a small square of hardboard which can be used, but this is not provided with the standard PAX range. Another point with Ikea’s wardrobes is that you have to nail on the back panels. This means if you do built them standing up, you need space and then need to push them back against the wall. This is not too difficult if you are experienced, but considering their weight and space, it could be too taxing for some in a small space.

Dwell - most of these wardrobes have a rather complex construction and are generally best constructed on their sides. This means they are often unsuitable for assembling standing up in a tight space.

I was tootling around on the Internet today and I came across the correct term for these. Apparently they are Ottoman beds, or the Ottoman style. You know the sort of thing that pivots at one end near the head board and allows you to lift the bed at the foot and tore stuff underneath. This is a good example from Bed Star :-

These beds are fairly straightforward to put together. The main difficult comes when attaching the bed frame to the mattress slats as the gas struts are generally very stiff and you are always anxious not to damage them. Ideally two people are needed, one to hold up the slats whilst the other attaches the gas strut.

There are always more than one way to crack and egg so here is what I do when building them on my own and have sufficient space. Once I have built the bed and attached or positioned the frame, I lift the bed up at one side and rest it on its side. This will then allow me to position the slatted part so that I can easily attach the gas struts. You can then return the bed to its natural position. In order to apply sufficient pressure to condense the gas struts I always try to put the mattress on first. Mattresses are heavy and this is why the struts are so strong.

In order to complete my technique correctly you need to be:-

• Strong enough to easily lift the bed
• Careful enough not to damage walls and other furniture.
• Double checked that you have build the bed so far properly
• Have had a good think about what good happen if it starts to slip!

They are good beds though!