Minimal IKEA Hack with KOAK design | Pax cabinets upgrade
Having stored most of my possessions to make room for plastering and painting, I was in no hurry to put things back. Like many of you I decluttered even more than I already did these last months and with things put away for so long it was a great moment to reflect and think again what to keep and what to give or throw away. I started with all the different furniture pieces, a small table, a locker, stools, some drawers. Over the years I collected different furniture pieces and the first thing I did was selling all these and keeping only the pieces that I really love.
Next I decided to build 2 ceiling high cabinets of a meter wide each and use my studio space, which I am not really using at the moment, for storage. One cupboard serves as a linen cupboard and wardrobe and the other provides space for my papers, camera tools, photo books, printer and other ‘office’ stuff and some accessories to exchange. My goal is to make everything I don’t use every day fit into these two closets, while continuing emptying the last bit of my storage room.
A Pax cabinet upgrade with KOAK Design
Being a true believer of only surrounding yourself with things that make you happy and you really love, I decided to give the two cabinets a beautiful upgrade. While working at Beurs Eigen Huis earlier this year I got in touch with KOAK Design, a Dutch company born in 2009 out of the urge for smart and affordable interior solutions with real materials. After finishing their own home the couple behind KOAK Design realized their idea was applicable to many more houses.
Being a true believer of only surrounding yourself with things that make you happy and you really love, I decided to give the two cabinets a beautiful upgrade. While working at Beurs Eigen Huis earlier this year I got in touch with KOAK Design, a Dutch company born in 2009 out of the urge for smart and affordable interior solutions with real materials. After finishing their own home the couple behind KOAK Design realized their idea was applicable to many more houses.
I luckily made a picture of the material and finish that caught my eye at the fair and by chance I ordered 4 solid oak doors with a black finish, as I had seen on the 20×20 test panel. KOAK Design works a lot with solid oak wood. Each front has a unique drawing, the oak wood can be very light in color when finished with whitewash or very dark brown to black if treat with a stain. I chose for the last option the doors are even more beautiful than I could imagine.
As you can see in the pictures, the base is made with simple PAX cabinets with shelves and drawers. I also bought the hinges, the doors made by KOAK Design are ready for installation, which is just as easy as with the regular IKEA Pax doors. Not only does KOAK Design apply this concept to the IKEA Pax (wardrobe) cabinet and IKEA Godmorgon bathroom furniture. They are well known for their different kitchen fronts.
A peek in the wardrobe I use for textiles and some of my clothes that aren’t on my clothes rack.Below a look into the other cupboard, which now function for all things work and office.
On the other side of the room I have kept the picture rail for now and I also painted the whole room in ‘Tusk’ by Little Greene, glad and I left the concrete wall exposure, have a look here how it looked before. The industrial cart now functions as the place where I keep my books again, and the good thing is I can always exchange it again with the kitchen cabinet I styled in this Reels video definitely one of the advances to invest in less but multifunctional furniture. As for the cabinet doors, I might add some handles or leave it like this, I actually love the minimal look for now.
Sustainable materials
All doors are made in their workshop in Abbenbroek, Netherlands and I was happy to read that KOAK Design mainly works with European oak and bamboo. Both natural materials that are already very beautiful untreated. Earlier this year I made a moodboard for the Domotex fairground and wrote an article for the blog about sustainability in which I mentioned Bamboo being a good alternative for hardwood. Bamboo grows very quickly, and selective felling means there is by definition no deforestation. Bamboo has a high hardness, stability and durability, read more about it in my article here.
Written in collaboration with Koak Design
Pictures ©vosgesparis
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