5 Clever 3D Printed Add-Ons For Your Ikea Products

If you're shopping on a budget for furniture, accessories, and everything in between, Ikea is the place to be. You can shop entire closet organization systems, kitchens, and bedroom sets from Ikea, or go in for a cheap lamp, a new set of silverware, a decorative mirror, and other small bits and bobs that make a home.

It's true that Ikea furniture is notorious for having confusing instructions, and there are a few avoidable yet common mistakes most people make when shopping at Ikea. However, if you can navigate the massive maze that is Ikea and properly interpret assembly instructions, the big-box store offers a ton of affordable, high-quality products that can easily last you many years if treated well.

Many popular Ikea furniture pieces function just fine on their own, but thanks to the budding world of 3D printing at home, there are endless ways to improve upon Ikea's furniture. We've rounded up five unique 3D printed designs that add even more practical value to the Ikea products people already know and love.

Ikea's Alex drawer units are some of the company's most popular storage solutions. The small, five-drawer Alex piece has gathered over 3,000 online reviews, the wider, six-drawer Alex unit has nearly 1,000 reviews; and the nine-drawer Alex made popular by beauty YouTubers has almost 700 reviews — and each listing has earned roughly a 4.5-star average.

The drawers are great by default for storing some items, like journals or other paper products, less frequently used tech, or even children's clothing. However, because the drawers don't have any built-in dividers, it can be difficult to store cables, office supplies, and other small items in an orderly fashion. Essentially, every drawer becomes a messy junk drawer. To solve this issue, @printingbuddy on Printiverse shared a 3D printed design for Alex drawer inserts.

Originally, the 3D print design files only included some spacers and a handful of inserts of different sizes, represented as Box 1x1, 1x2, 2x2, and so on, with the first number indicating width and the second indicating depth. The 3D design's author says "one" is equal to 48.4 millimeters. Multiple extra sizes have been created at the request of other Printable users, so if you don't see the exact drawer insert you need, it's definitely worth leaving a comment.

The Kallax shelf units are Ikea's take on the classic cubby shelf, divided into even squares. The Kallax two by four squares is Ikea's most popular configuration, with over 7,700 customer reviews and a near-perfect rating, at the time of writing. To go along with the shelf unit, Ikea sells over 50 Kallax inserts and accessories, including an insert with four thinner shelves for paperwork, a grid shelf insert for wine bottles, and a variety of basket accessories in different materials and fabrics.

One of the cleanest looks for any Kallax unit utilizes inserts with doors, but Ikea currently has this accessory priced at $20. To fill the popular 2x4 Kallax with these inserts, it'd cost you $160. Or, you can 3D print cabinet doors for the Kallax on your own with free downloadable designs, thanks to @JoshMakeshift on Printables, and the low cost of 3D print filament, which averages around $15 to $20 per roll. 

Even better, you have more options than just a plain old cabinet door. This design comes with the files to create pegboard cabinet doors, honeycomb doors, slat doors, and more. A user on Printables created 12 of the pegboard cabinet doors in this design and reported using 5.5kg of filament, which works out to about $82.50 to $110 worth of filament used. The author provides helpful written instructions, photos for every step, and a YouTube video for those who want to see the whole process.

The Ikea Lack Coffee Table and the Lack Side Table are both simple options for the living room or bedroom, and they're incredibly affordable, priced at $29.99 and $16.99, respectively. The coffee table has a lower shelf you can store items on, in addition to the tabletop, while the side table does not. There's nowhere to stash unsightly yet necessary items like cables and remotes away from view.

That's why @Adivor on MakerWorld created an organizer for Ikea Lack furniture (or any shelf or piece of furniture with a maximum thickness of two inches). Once it's printed, this organizer can be attached to the underside of an Ikea Lack's top shelf with two pieces of double-sided tape. This installation process doesn't require dowels, screws, or any other permanent change to the furniture. You could even use Command strips if you were worried about the paint peeling later when you remove these organizers. When it's installed, this simple 3D printed project solves the everyday problem of finding a home for batteries, chapstick, extra cables, and other small bits and bobs.

The Bumerang hangers work out to be roughly $1 per hanger, and that low price for a high-quality, solid wood hanger is likely why it's such a popular product at Ikea, with over 10,000 customer reviews. The hanger has built-in grooves on both sides to prevent strappy clothes from falling off, but if you've ever owned a hang-dry-only cardigan or sweater, you know these grooves can cause fabric to look wonky when dry, leaving bumps where the groove was.

These 3D-printed shoulder pads for Bumerang hangers, shared by 3D-Print_Tech-Design on Thingiverse, can solve the hanger bump issue. This simple design creates two large shoulder pads with a hanger-sized gap in the middle, allowing them to simply slide onto the hanger. The designer included holes on the inner portion of each shoulder pad, which allows you to thread through fishing line or some type of flexible wire to hold the shoulder pads in place. Once the shoulder pads are secured, you're free to hang cardigans with temperamental fabric or heavy coats and jackets as you please.

Rather than traditional drawer pulls, Ikea's popular Alex furniture has a built-in recessed dip at the top of each drawer. While this design creates a clean, minimalist aesthetic, not everyone is a fan of this unconventional method for opening drawers. Some people may even find it difficult or impossible to open drawers on Alex furniture because of limited fine motor skills, like disabled or elderly people and young children.

Thanks to the magic of modern 3D printing at home, it's super easy to give these Alex drawers a handle makeover. Via Thingiverse, user @Whity shared a remixed Alex handle design based on another user's design. The older design is no longer available at the time of writing. The handles have nicely rounded corners and a large space for adding labels. They can be made with any 3D print filament color you want to complement your Alex unit, and each handle only requires two screws to be securely installed.

To find these clever 3D printed add-ons for different Ikea products, we looked through free designs available through Printables, Thingiverse, MakerWorld, and Ikea Hackers. In total, we sifted through about 200 unique 3D printed designs between all these websites. We ultimately chose to highlight the five designs in this post because they offered extra benefit to already popular Ikea furniture and products, they're practical upgrades that'll improve quality of life, and they had multiple positive online reviews.