We toyed with the idea of using Ikea boxes in several areas, kitchen with SemiHandmade fronts, laundry room, and walk in closets. Ended up doing none of those, but did use SemiHandmade fronts for some of the kitchen, we liked their sequenced walnut.
We have an air handler hung below the ceiling in the passage between the master bedroom and bath, and as they were framing that in I asked them to leave me at least 79.5″ clearance from the floor, figuring I could squeeze the smaller Pax wardrobes in there for some extra storage, they are 79.25″. Of course the bottom of the air handler box ended up being just under 79.25 in at least one spot (and also not being very level, oh well).
CT Closet and Shelf did our walk in closets, we are happy with what they did and cost was fair, but I stuck with the idea of using Ikea for some extra storage in the passageway. Since the bottom of the Pax wardrobes is raised off the floor a bit I figured I could cut them down to fit.
The bottom plinths, or whatever you call them, at the bottom of the wardrobes are about 2 5/8 plus a circular saw blade width high. I cut those, and the sides of the wardrobes, down by 1/2″, using a circular saw, no problem there. I see why they tell you not to step on the panels, a lot of cardboard honeycomb in there!
If you cut much more than 1/2″ off you will not be able to use the leveling feet, here they are screwed all the way up.
But I probably should have left them off, since my adjusting bolts for these now stick up out of the cabinet base by about 1/2″. I think it would be no problem to lower the cabinet by 1 to 1 1/2 inches, you probably want the bottom shelf off the floor by a little bit, and if you get it too close to the floor maybe it will look goofy. Also when you cut the plinths you will lose one of the dowel holes. Not a big deal, the one dowel can hold them in place then when you have the weight of the wardrobe on them they’ll stay put.
Here are the wardrobes in our passageway (picture taken from the bedroom). I got sliding doors for the two wider units but difficult/impossible to fit those in under the air handler, so redirecting and will put on hinged doors. The Lillangan laundry cabinet/hamper is kind of fun, we tucked one of those in next to the wardrobes.
