Ikea Pax Frame Reworked with Blum Runners for a 2.36-Metre Sloped Alcove

The Pax 236 frame leaves the flat-pack at 2.36 metres tall, with standard widths of 100, 75, or 50 centimetres and a standard depth of 58 centimetres. In a room with a ceiling dropping along a rafter line, that height creates the conflict. The frame line may have about 1.9 metres of usable height on the low side and full height on the tall side, so the cabinet has to be cut on a diagonal or stepped down. Once the box loses its square upper corner, the factory drawer hardware has lost the geometry it was designed around.

Before a saw touches the panels, take three depth readings inside the alcove. Pitched-roof plasterboard often bows near the eaves, and the slope itself may be slightly out across the width. Measure the depth at the top of the intended frame, again at mid-height, and again 15 centimetres off the floor. Build around the shallowest reading so the carcass clears the wall all the way in.

Drawer runners belong in the square lower zone

Ikea Komplement soft-close drawers use integrated runners sized to the internal width of the Pax frame and to a square rebate at the front and back. After the side panel is ripped at an angle or notched to follow the pitch, the runner positions near the top of the carcass no longer land where the Komplement system expects them.

Fitters usually remove the Komplement drawer gear below the cut line and keep the drawer stack in the full-height lower part of the cabinet. That lower section is still a true box, so the front, back, floor, and side panels keep their original relationships.

Blum Legrabox works well in that zone. The drawer boxes come in nominal heights N, M, C, and F, with side heights running from roughly 66 millimetres to 257 millimetres. The runner is mounted to the cabinet as its own component, which makes the drawer layout less dependent on the altered top of the Pax carcass.

The Legrabox runner screws to the inside face of the Pax panel. Use the fixing positions from Blum’s drilling jig, then set the runner from the cabinet floor and front line. With those references established, the angled cut above the drawer bank does not affect the drawer action.

The soft-close mechanism is Blumotion, built into the runner body. Depending on the runner class, the weight rating is 40 kilograms or 70 kilograms, which is enough for folded clothing. Tip-On mechanical push-to-open hardware can be used where a handleless front helps, especially in a tight alcove where a pull might hit the slope.

A practical drawer stack therefore stays low. The sloped portion above it can still be useful storage, but it stops being a good place for standard drawer hardware.

Cutting the Pax panels to the roof line

A Pax frame is made from 18-millimetre particleboard with a foil wrap and a hollow-ish top rail. Cut with the foil face up, masking tape over the line, and a fine-tooth blade to keep tear-out under control. Transfer the angle with a sliding bevel taken from the actual rafter line; finished plaster can wander away from the structural pitch.

Mark the cut on both side panels and on the top panel. Dry-assemble the frame and offer it into the alcove before the final cut, because a few millimetres at the high corner can decide whether the carcass slides into place or binds on the ceiling.

The new angled top edge needs a cap. A strip of 18-millimetre board, glued and pinned along the cut, closes the raw particleboard. Iron-on edging tape matched to the foil colour is another route. Either finish keeps the exposed chipboard from taking in moisture in an attic room.

Where the frame steps down under the slope, fit a short return panel. It keeps the top boxed and gives the altered carcass a finished end instead of a ragged diagonal void.

The wedge above the drawers

The space above the Legrabox drawer zone narrows as it climbs into the pitch. Fixed Komplement shelves use set positions and waste part of that wedge. Twin-slot shelving brackets handle the taper better because each shelf can sit where the depth still exists.

Screw two vertical uprights to the inside faces of the frame. Bracket-borne shelves can then be set at 25-millimetre pitch, and each shelf can be cut to the diminishing depth as the slope closes in. Use the frame’s back-panel edge as the reference line for the uprights, and drive the fixings into the 18-millimetre panel. Fixings left to work only on the foil surface can peel when the shelf is loaded.

In a 100-centimetre-wide frame, a pair of uprights set at roughly 90-centimetre centres carries hanging-free shelving well. Add a third centre upright if the shelves will hold books or other dense items. The taper is the reason twin-slot works here, since the shelf positions can move with the usable depth.

Cut each shelf 3 to 4 millimetres shy of the wall face. That small clearance lets the shelf drop past the bracket lip without binding on a wall that is out of plumb.

Recapping the cut edge

The ripped edge is both a strength detail and a visible line. Treat it as part of the carcass, with edging or a pinned strip, because the angled top will be seen every time the door or upper storage is opened.

When a larder frame makes sense

If the alcove sits near a kitchen or a utility run, a Kesseböhmer larder frame can change the use of a narrow Pax section. These pull-out wire frames, supplied in chrome or anthracite finishes, mount to the cabinet sides and glide fully out on their own runners. Both faces of the stored goods come forward at once, turning a deep, awkward cavity into a two-sided pantry.

Kesseböhmer soft-close larder units are rated for specific cabinet widths, commonly 300, 400, and 500 millimetres internal. They need a square, full-height opening so the frame travels true. That rules out the angled upper zone, but suits the tall side of a stepped installation where the Pax frame keeps its full 2.36 metres.

The pull-out mechanism carries the load through its own extension hardware, leaving the Pax side panel to hold the fixing screws in shear. Corner pull-out systems from the same catalogue extend the idea where two frames meet at an internal angle. Those units swing or slide the dead corner into the room. In a sloped alcove that runs into a return wall, that corner is often the first volume people abandon, and a swing-out unit brings it back into reach.

Hinges and door swing under the slope

A door under a pitch opens into less air than a door in a square opening. Standard concealed hinges give around 95 to 110 degrees of swing, which can leave the door edge clipping the slope before the opening is clear. Blum Clip top hinges in the wide-angle 155-degree version, or the 170-degree version, buy back clearance by letting the door fold closer to the frame face.

Use door height as the hinge-count reference. A door approaching two metres tall wants four or five hinges to keep the foil-wrapped panel from bowing during a warm summer in an unventilated roof space. Set the hinge crank to the overlay used by the Pax frame, drill the 35-millimetre cup with a Forstner bit and a depth stop, and test the swing against the ripped top edge before final adjustment.

The three-way adjustment on Clip top hinges then brings the reveal parallel to the slope. Any taper shows strongly beside a diagonal line, so this adjustment affects the finished look more than it would on a square run of doors.

The unresolved choice sits above the door line: should the door stop below the cut and leave a fixed panel above, or should the door itself be cut to follow the roof line? A cut door needs its own edging and a hinge line that still holds the panel flat, so the front geometry remains the part this build has to decide by sight.