IKEA BRIMNES Wardrobe Assembly in London

BRIMNES is a 190 cm hinged-door wardrobe that arrives as flat particleboard and finishes as a piece of furniture that has to stand plumb, close evenly and be screwed to your wall. The 3-door version is 43 assembly steps in the current GB manual, 41 chipboard screws, 60 back-panel nails and nine hinges. The 2-door is 39 steps, 26 screws and 40 nails. None of it is difficult on its own; the difficulty is that a mistake made in the first ten minutes only shows up two hours later as a tapering gap between doors.

TaskMan of London builds BRIMNES wardrobes as a first-party team — the person you speak to on WhatsApp is the fitter who turns up. We work to the current GB manuals (AA-2207256-4 for the 3-door, AA-2114674-4 for the 2-door), we anchor every wardrobe to the wall, and we bring fixings for the wall types the supplied plug set does not cover. Send photos on WhatsApp and we confirm everything with you before you book.

A DBS-checked and insured team, a 12-month workmanship warranty, and everything agreed on WhatsApp before the booking is made. We cover all of London inside the M25.

Part of our IKEA assembly London service.

Which IKEA BRIMNES Wardrobe (3-door 117 cm with mirror door, and 2-door 78 cm) sizes we build

BRIMNES wardrobe with 3 doors, white, 117 x 50 x 190 cm — article 404.079.22, listed on ikea.com/gb (checked 18 Aug 2026). One of the three doors is a mirror door. Three flat packs: 195 cm / 29.50 kg, 189 cm / 29.50 kg and 161 cm / 24.80 kg package weights.
BRIMNES wardrobe with 2 doors, white, 78 x 50 x 190 cm — article 404.004.78, listed on ikea.com/gb (checked 18 Aug 2026). Two plain doors, no mirror. Two flat packs, both 195 cm long: 32.20 kg and 29.50 kg package weights.
White is the only BRIMNES wardrobe finish listed on ikea.com/gb today. Both sizes are in the current range; neither carries a 'last chance to buy' label.
Interior, 3-door: one clothes rail, one fixed shelf and three adjustable shelves — twelve shelf pins are supplied, fitted four in one section (step 40) and eight in the other (step 42).
Interior, 2-door: one clothes rail beside a half-width shelf unit that has a fixed top surface plus one adjustable shelf on four shelf pins. IKEA's GB listing puts the rail at about 20 shirts on hangers and a shelf at about 20 T-shirts or 10 pairs of folded trousers.
BRIMNES is hinged-door only — nine slide-on euro hinges (part 109336) on the 3-door, six on the 2-door, each screwed down onto its mounting plate. There is no sliding-door BRIMNES. IKEA's sliding-door wardrobes are PAX and SKYTTA, which are a different product and a different job — tell us on WhatsApp which one you actually have.

How long IKEA BRIMNES Wardrobe (3-door 117 cm with mirror door, and 2-door 78 cm) assembly takes

100–140 minutes for the 3-door (117 cm), 70–100 minutes for the 2-door (78 cm), including wall anchoring and final hinge alignment. One experienced fitter does almost all of it, but two points in the manual genuinely need a second pair of hands — step 22, where the part-built carcase is turned over, and step 30, where it is stood upright; the manual illustrates both with two people. Add 15–20 minutes if the base has to be packed and shimmed on uneven floorboards, and 20–30 minutes if the anti-tip fixing goes into dot-and-dab, a metal-stud partition or lath and plaster rather than solid masonry or a timber stud.

Difficulty: moderate. Long builds are exactly what we are set up for — message us and we will confirm everything before you book.

Where IKEA BRIMNES Wardrobe (3-door 117 cm with mirror door, and 2-door 78 cm) builds go wrong

The parts of this build that cost people an afternoon:

The horizontal panels are not interchangeable, and you cannot tell by eye. On the 3-door, steps 6 and 16 fit different numbers of cam bolts to different panels, and the manual marks both steps with the pointing-hand 'check this' icon. Lay every panel out and identify it before the first cam bolt goes in. Once the cams are locked and 60 nails are through the back, putting a swapped panel right is a full strip-down.
There is a wrong-screw trap at step 15 of the 3-door manual. Two similar pan-head screws are supplied — 109049 and the longer 109567 — and the manual prints a crossed-out diagram specifically to stop you using 109567 there. The long screw will punch through the panel face. Sort the screws into pots before you start rather than picking from the bag.
The back panel is the squaring step, not a cosmetic cover. It arrives as separate hardboard sheets that meet at a joint held by one supplied plastic clip (105494), and it takes 60 nails on the 3-door and 40 on the 2-door. Measure both diagonals of the carcase and push it square BEFORE the first nail. A back nailed 5 mm out of square locks a permanent twist into the frame and the door gaps taper for the life of the wardrobe.
Cam bolt depth. Wind each 118331 bolt in until its shoulder sits flush with the panel face — no further, no less. A bolt left half a turn proud leaves a 1–2 mm gap at that joint, and four of those across a 117 cm carcase read as a visibly wedge-shaped gap between the doors.
Cam locks (119250 / 119252) turn about three-quarters of a turn, in the arrow direction only. Keep turning past the stop and the cam spins in its hole, the joint can never be pulled tight, and the only cure is a replacement cam or a glued dowel.
The long hex bolts (100214, driven with the supplied key 100001 — four on the 3-door, two on the 2-door) go in at two separate stages, steps 5 and 19. Nip them up, square the frame, then tighten fully. Torqued down early they pull the frame out of line and the tops of the doors finish stepped.
Six of the nine hinge mounting plates (109220) go on flat at step 7, before the carcase is even built — the remaining three go on the divider at step 36. Every plate is stamped A and B with an arrow, and all nine must sit on the same setting. Get one wrong at step 7 and you will not see the consequence until step 38, when that door stands about 2 mm proud of its neighbours and looks warped.
The 105248 screws drive straight into bare particleboard and fibreboard with no pilot hole. An impact driver strips them in under a second. Hand-drive them or use a drill-driver on its lowest clutch setting — a stripped hinge-plate hole on a 190 cm door means that door starts to sag within weeks, and the mirror door is always the first to go.
The mirror position is decided later than most people think. All nine mounting plates are identical and go on regardless of layout; the binding moment is step 37, when the hinges are screwed to a chosen edge of each door, with the three layout options shown on the facing page just before the doors are hung at step 38. Tell the fitter which position you want before that step, not after.
Do not touch a hinge adjustment until the wardrobe is standing in its final position, levelled and screwed to the wall. The GB manual's own order is deliberate: the wardrobe is fixed to the wall at steps 31–35, the plates go on at 36, the doors at 38, and the height/depth/side adjustment page comes after the last step. A 190 cm carcase on typical London floorboards racks by several millimetres as it is walked into place, so every adjustment made beforehand is wasted work.
There are no adjustable feet. BRIMNES stands on its base and plinth, so on a sloping floor it must be packed and shimmed before it is anchored — otherwise the doors drift open or swing shut on their own and the customer blames the hinges.
Fit the two anti-tip brackets (106989, with washer 100823 and screw 109049) at step 30, while the carcase is still flat on its back. Left until the wardrobe is upright, it becomes a blind, one-handed job at 190 cm off a stepladder — which is exactly how they end up half-fitted or skipped.
Each handle fixes with two screws (109567) driven from inside the door — six screws for three doors, four for two. They bottom out into the handle quickly and strip easily; snug is enough. Check which long edge each door's hinge cups are on before you screw anything to it, or the handle finishes up on the hinge side.
Never lever the assembled carcase upright on your own. The manual shows two people both at step 22, turning it over, and at step 30, standing it up — 117 cm by 190 cm of unbraced particleboard racks under its own weight and pops cam joints open.

Safety and wall fixing

This item must be secured to the wall. We fit the restraint as part of the job and will not leave it standing loose.

Anchoring is not optional. The manual's warning page states that serious or fatal crushing injuries can occur from furniture tip-over, and instructs: "ALWAYS secure this furniture to the wall using tip-over restraints." Two metal brackets (106989) are supplied and fix to the top rear edge of the wardrobe.
The GB box does include wall fixings. Both the 3-door and 2-door packs contain a sealed wall-fixing pouch with 2 brackets (106989), 2 bracket screws (109049), 4 washers (100823), 2 wood screws (109048) and 2 Ø8 mm plugs (121714). The manual states that the supplied screws and plugs suit most solid (A) and hollow (B) walls, and that for solid timber the screw is used without a plug.
IKEA's ikea.com/gb listing adds the caveat that different wall materials require different fixing devices and that fixing devices suitable for the walls in your home are sold separately. That is the professional point: the supplied Ø8 mm plug set covers ordinary solid masonry and plain hollow walls, but it does not cover dot-and-dab plasterboard, metal-stud partitions or lath and plaster — and those are common in London. We bring fixings for all of them.
Wall type decides the fixing, and the manual's own wall page sets the drilling: Ø8 mm for solid (A) and hollow (B) walls, Ø3 mm into solid timber (C). Solid brick or block takes the 8 mm plug and screw. Plasterboard on timber studs should be fixed into the stud itself. Dot-and-dab plasterboard over brick needs a fixing that bridges the void and bites the masonry behind — an ordinary plasterboard plug pulled through a 25 mm cavity will not restrain a 190 cm wardrobe.
Two people, twice. The manual shows two people turning the carcase over at step 22 and standing it upright at step 30. This is not a solo lift, and it is the moment cam joints get popped.
Keep the mirror door in its carton until the carcase is standing and the plain doors are hung. Never lay a mirror door face-down on a floor with grit or loose screws on it. The mirror door is noticeably heavier than the plain doors, so hang it last and expect it to settle first — that is our own site practice, not an IKEA instruction.
The manual also warns against setting TVs or other heavy objects on top of the wardrobe, and against letting children climb or hang on the doors or shelves.
Anchor it even when it feels stable empty. Loading the rail and shelves raises the centre of gravity, and an open mirror door on an unanchored 190 cm carcase is the classic tipping scenario — again, the installer's reasoning rather than IKEA wording.

IKEA BRIMNES Wardrobe (3-door 117 cm with mirror door, and 2-door 78 cm) assembly in London homes

The flat packs are the first London problem. The 3-door is three cartons at 195 cm, 189 cm and 161 cm long, with package weights of 29.5, 29.5 and 24.8 kg — about 84 kg of cartons to get up the stairs. The 2-door is two 195 cm packs at 32.2 kg and 29.5 kg. A 195 cm carton will not fit most small London flat lifts, so it is usually a stair carry, and it will not turn the half-landing of a typical Victorian conversion without being stood on end. If you are above the second floor with no lift, say so when you send photos and we will bring two people. Once inside, the wardrobe is built in the room it lives in — assembled it cannot be turned through a hallway or a stair, and end-on it clears a standard door head by roughly 8 cm, so there is no room to tilt it through anything. London walls then decide the anti-tip fixing: solid brick in period terraces, lath and plaster on older upper floors, dot-and-dab plasterboard over brick in most 1990s-onward conversions, and metal-stud partitions in new-builds. The box supplies the brackets plus screws and Ø8 mm plugs that suit most solid and hollow walls, but the last three of those wall types need fixings the supplied plugs do not cover, so we carry them as standard. Deep Victorian skirting holds the carcase off the wall and tips it forward, and original floorboards are rarely level, so the base is packed and shimmed before it is anchored — BRIMNES has no adjustable feet. TaskMan of London covers everywhere inside the M25 and confirms everything on WhatsApp before you book; one photo of the wall and one of the cartons where they are standing is usually enough to confirm the whole job.

Before we arrive

Get every carton into the room the wardrobe will actually live in. The assembled wardrobe is built in situ — it cannot be turned through a hallway, a half-landing or a stair, and end-on it clears a standard 1981 mm door head by only about 8 cm, so it cannot be tilted at all once it is together.
Clear more floor than you think. The 3-door carcase alone needs roughly 2.0 m x 1.3 m flat, and at step 37 all three doors are laid out side by side to take their hinges — another 1.9 m x 1.2 m or so. If the room will not take both at once, tell us and we will hinge and hang the doors one at a time instead.
Check the cartons are all on site and undamaged before we arrive. The 3-door is three packs — 195 cm / 29.5 kg, 189 cm / 29.5 kg and 161 cm / 24.8 kg package weights. The 2-door is two packs, both 195 cm, at 32.2 kg and 29.5 kg. A crushed corner usually means a bruised panel edge.
Decide where the mirror door goes — left, middle or right. It is committed at step 37, when the hinges are screwed to the doors, so changing your mind after that means unscrewing finished work.
Tell us the wall type at the wardrobe position: solid brick, plasterboard on timber studs, metal-stud partition, dot-and-dab, or lath and plaster. It decides which anti-tip fixings we bring beyond the ones in the box.
Measure the skirting board depth at that wall. BRIMNES has no scribe or cut-out, so deep Victorian skirting holds the carcase off the wall and it will lean forward until it is packed out.
Check the ceiling height where the wardrobe will be tilted up. It needs roughly 1.97 m of diagonal clearance to swing upright, which matters under sloping loft ceilings and in low basement flats.
Empty and clear the old wardrobe beforehand, and say if you want it taken away.
Sort parking or a visitor permit for the van if you are in a controlled zone, and let us know about lift access, stair width and any concierge booking.

IKEA BRIMNES Wardrobe (3-door 117 cm with mirror door, and 2-door 78 cm) assembly FAQs

Can the mirror door go on the left, middle or right?

Yes — the 3-door manual shows all three layouts on the page facing the door-hanging step. The decision is committed when the hinges are screwed to the door edges (step 37), one step before the doors go on, so tell us before we get there rather than after.

My BRIMNES doors will never line up. Is the wardrobe faulty?

Almost never. Three things cause it: a horizontal panel was fitted in the wrong place at the start, the back panel was nailed on before the carcase was pushed square, or the doors were adjusted before the wardrobe was levelled and anchored. That last one is the most common, and the manual's own order tells you why — the wardrobe is fixed to the wall at steps 31–35, and the hinge adjustment page comes after the final step. Each hinge adjusts three ways (height, depth and side), so there is plenty of range once the carcase itself is right.

Can you build it downstairs and carry it up?

No. Once assembled it is a rigid 190 cm box that cannot be turned through a hallway corner, a stair or a half-landing, and end-on it has only about 8 cm of clearance under a standard door head — so there is no room to tilt it. Twisting an unbraced carcase through a stair turn also pops the cam joints. It gets built in the room where it stays.

Do you really have to nail the back on? Can it be left off?

It has to go on. The back is 60 nails on the 3-door and 40 on the 2-door, into hardboard sheets that slide into grooves and meet at a joint held by a supplied plastic clip. It is what holds the carcase square — without it a 190 cm wardrobe racks and the door gaps taper. Nailing it while the diagonals are being checked is the moment the wardrobe is made square for good.

Can it be anchored in a rented flat with plasterboard walls?

Yes. The box supplies two brackets plus screws and Ø8 mm plugs that suit most solid and hollow walls, but London walls are often neither — dot-and-dab over brick, metal-stud partitions and lath and plaster all need something else, and we carry those. It comes down to two small screw holes at high level behind the wardrobe, easily filled at the end of a tenancy. We will not skip the restraint.

Is it deep enough for coats and jackets?

It is 50 cm deep externally, which is shallower than a fitted wardrobe. Standard hangers fit — IKEA's GB listing puts the 2-door rail at about 20 shirts — but bulky winter coats will press against the inside of the doors. Worth knowing before you buy rather than after.

Can a BRIMNES be taken apart and moved to a new flat?

Once, carefully, if you must. The doors come off by unscrewing each hinge from its mounting plate and the cams can be released, but the nailed back and the cam holes in particleboard lose grip on reassembly, and a second dismantle usually means loose joints. If you know you are moving soon, tell us and we will note which joints to leave accessible.

Book IKEA BRIMNES Wardrobe (3-door 117 cm with mirror door, and 2-door 78 cm) assembly in London

Send us a photo of the boxes or the product name, your postcode and when suits you. We will come back with everything confirmed before you book — no obligation, no call-out surprises.

WhatsApp us to get started or call 07700 170 070, 7 days a week.

Every job is done by TaskMan of London's own DBS-checked, insured team and carries our 12-month workmanship warranty.

IKEA BRIMNES Wardrobe Assembly in London