A client had purchased two Ikea PAX wardrobes. However to their dismay the selection of doors was unavailable in the size they picked. There are many different options in size and modifications as seen here. The medium Pax at 29.5″ wide and the doors being 19.5″ and 39.25″ are not compatible with the medium wardrobe. And this is where I come in.

The client wanted minimal shaker style. With 2 doors per unit 4 in total. so I drew up some rough designs.

Though they wanted a very minimal design I thought that maybe putting a pie safe tin panel at the top of the doors to add a little character than just the plain flat panels. I showed them pictures of examples and they agreed. But requested they still be black. Now I just had to figure out how I was going to acquire 4 pie safe panels?

Looking at the options on buying a prefab punch tin. I opted to make my own tin panels adding more character and keeping to the rustic theme. I used sheet metal and made a simple template using circles to make 4 panels in a relatively faster manner than using a more elaborate pattern. Using the template I transferred the pattern but punch each panel individually to keep the holes depth consistent, While keeping each panels grouping pattern uniquely different.

All that was left was to match the colour to the original PAX cabinet. With some of the process photos the client thought it would be best to make the door all black to contrast with the rest of the room. In addition I turned the door pulls on the lathe to match the general shaker style.

All that was left was the final installation of my doors to the existing Ikea cabinet. I triple checked the spacing on the existing hardware holes on the cabinet. And made a reversible jig (left and right swinging door) to drill the pocket holes to seat the hinges into the new doors. This made for a rather straight forward install. The cabinet itself needed some suring up to get the doors to close right but all in all I think it turned out great.