Uppgradera: Creative Collection of Open Source 3D Printed IKEA Hacks

I always enjoy a good 3D printed hack, and 3D printed IKEA hacks are some of the best. Budapest-based freelance industrial designer and hardware startup owner Adam Miklosi spends a lot of time on product developments and researching new design thinking methods, and has worked with some pretty big names, including Canon and IBM. A 2019 winner of the Red Dot: Best of the Best design award, Miklosi recently created an open source IKEA hack mini brand, called Uppgradera, which means “upgrade, improve, enhance, customize, update, and reform” in Swedish.

“Uppgradera is not affiliated to IKEA,” the brand’s website states. “It is a purely fun/fan initiative to open new perspectives in product development.”

This is his first open source hack collection, and was inspired by the IKEA homeware products he commonly uses, and his ingenious ways of modifying them.

“My ideas aspire to supplement the original designs and correct the slips I had experience, with the help of 3D printing,” Miklosi writes on the Uppgradera website.

“My aim was to design products which solve real problems and with a little bit of “uppgradera”, make the user experience more pleasant and efficient.”

The collection, which went live earlier this week, consists of six clever 3D printable accessories that should make their affiliated IKEA products easier to use.

The first of these accessories is the NÄ01, which was made to enhance the NÄVLINGE reading lamp…as an avid reader, this one definitely piques my interest. The IKEA lamp comes with a high-powered LED light, but with no shade, that light shines a little too brightly into your eyes. The 3D printed NÄ01 hack is a simple shade that clips on to the lamp, making it a much more attractive light for work or reading a good book.

IKEA’s KLIPSK bed tray is nice for when you want to enjoy brunch or a snack in bed. Unfortunately, it’s made out of a very slippery material, so any glass that’s set on said tray can easily slide off and cause a mess. That’s why this next Uppgradera hack, the KL01, is really helpful.

“The KL01 is a glass holder that can be fitted onto the bed tray and positioned alongside the groove at the back, as you wish,” the site states. “You can use several ones all at once, if you feel like it.”

If that’s suggesting multiple drinks on the same tray, I’m definitely in…who doesn’t want a nice glass of orange juice and a warm cup of coffee on the same breakfast tray?

The STAJLIG clothes hanger from IKEA is great because it doesn’t take much money to fabricate a whole passel of them, but when you hang your shirts on the thin drawn steel, they eventually get creased and worn out around the shoulder area, and no one wants that.

The Uppgradera ST01 is simply a pair of shoulder pads that can be easily attached to the STAJLIG hander. Its design prevents creases and worn patches of fabric for longer, and also takes the weight off of the shirt itself.

The next item in the Uppgradera collection is the EK01, a drying grid for the EKOLN toothbrush holder.

“At the bottom of the EKOLN toothbrush holder water trickling down from toothbrushes accumulates,” the website explains. “Leftover toothpaste is the hotbed of bacteria and it also contributes to the sediment at the bottom of toothbrushes.”

Enter the 3D printed EK01, which can be put inside the EKOLN toothbrush holder to keep the toothbrushes above the bottom. This allows for the collected water to evaporate, and provides constant ventilation, so sediment and bacteria don’t build up as quickly.

Another popular IKEA product is the ENUDDEN soap dish. It’s on the lower end of the scale, as it’s basically just a molded plastic tray, and has no aperture at the bottom, so any soap that sits inside constantly soaks in water. The Uppgradera EN01 is another 3D printed bathroom accessory grid that helps with ventilation issues.

According to the website, “The EN01 is a grid that can be placed on the soap dish so that it stores the soap at a sufficient height, while providing ventilation. By doing so, it does not only increase the “lifetime” of soaps, but preserves their quality by storing them dry as well.”

The final 3D printed item in the Uppgradera hack collection is the CH01, meant to be paired with IKEA’s popular CHOSIGT cheese grater. This product features a smart storage solution, which collects the cheese that’s been grated. Unfortunately, it doesn’t catch all of the cheese, and wasted cheese is a terrible problem, at least in my opinion. The CH01 is a basic ring that slips right onto the grater to prevent cheese from falling off.

At the moment, all of the items in the Uppgradera collection are being beta tested, so the website’s shop section is not open just yet. The website states that the six accessories will include 3D printing files so you can make your own IKEA hacks, but I don’t see them on the site, so I’m assuming that’s what will eventually populate the shop.

(Source/Images: Uppgradera)