Have you got an Ikea Kallax? I could be wrong, but I would guess that the majority of people have owned an Ikea Kallax shelving unit at some point!
They are fantastically practical and simple storage units, but they are basically just a lot of empty compartments. You can, however, turn them into super-useful storage units by fitting them with Ikea Kallax inserts.
There are so many options available to store whatever you wish to store in your Kallax unit. Ikea sell a lot of inserts themselves, with shelving, doors, drawers and boxes.
But the real good stuff is to be found at third-party companies and we want to highlight the best that we have found right here!
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Colourful Wooden Box Ikea Kallax Inserts
Wooden box inserts in themselves are a wonderful way to upgrade your Kalax unit, but add-in some bright and beautiful colours and you have a completely different look!
These colourful wooden Kallax inserts from Wood Lovers are the perfect way to brighten up your units and bring in some super-practical storage.
Cardboard Clothes Drawers
The material we have been blown away by for Kallax inserts is cardboard. It’s such a great way to create unique and effective storage in your Kallax units.
There are so many great products out there, such as these fantastically-made clothes storage drawers from Esta Bordoni (we have some of these and they are great!).
But what’s stopping you from having a go yourself? Go to TemplateMaker and design your own box/drawer/compartment inserts. Then all you need to do is print out a template, lay it over some cardboard and use a sharp craft knife to cut it out.
Felt Boxes With Wooden Handles
We absolutely love these felt storage box inserts with wooden handles. If you’re looking to upgrade both the look and usefulness of your Kallax units then these are the perfect solution.
They would be amazing as toy storage, but would work equally well as extra storage in a living room or bedroom.
Rainbow Toy Storage Kallax Inserts
To take the felt theme to another level, these cute rainbow felt boxes are perfect for toy storage!
Many people have a Kallax unit in a playroom or kids bedroom and what better way to upgrade them than a gorgeously crafted storage box.
Pracownia Kiwi make all sorts of other designs such as animals, plants, trains, dinosaurs to fit your child’s interests.
Small Compartment Craft Storage
So, what could you use this for? Haha, it looks great, but what small things could you use this for? Well, all the crafters out there are shouting out plenty of ideas right now!
This is a great way to store rolled-up vinyl sheets, fabric rolls, dowels, paint brushes, pens and pencils and many other crafting supplies.
Even if you’re not a crafter, you might be thinking ‘Oh my goodness, that is exactly what I needed for….’.
Rustic Wooden Box Storage
Oh, we all love a rustic wooden box. Anywhere, doesn’t matter, just need one!
Well, now you have a really practical use for your rustic wooden box obsession! These stunning wooden box inserts are the perfect way to turn your Kallax unit into a modern farmhouse storage unit.
They look like antique milk crates, but they’re specifically made as Ikea Kallax inserts.
Gold Wire Basket Ikea Kallax Inserts
Yup, we said we were looking at third-party Ikea Kallax but this gold wire basket from Ikea is so good that we had to list it too.
You simply slide it onto one of the shelves and it provides a stylish extra surface to store more on your Kallax unit.
Woven Basket Inserts
These woven baskets from Target are not designed for the Kallax but fit nicely and provide a great way to make your storage accessible and look great!
We love the way they have added little pictures of what is in the baskets to this set up.
File and Document Organiser
This is the daddy of all file organisers! This thing fits perfectly in a Kallax unit and provides all manner of storage, including extra pockets on the front and lid.
It looks great and will hold a huge amount of organised files, maybe one of these is all you need to keep all your home admin organised.
Gift Drawers/Advent Calendar Boxes
Going back to cardboard and these cute gift drawers are a fantastic way to hold jewellery, small toys, craft supplies, etc.
We think this will make the perfect advent calendar too. Simply turn one of your Kallax compartments into an advent calendar and reuse it every year!
All Sorts of Cardboard Ikea Kallax Inserts!
Ok, we’re not stopping with the cardboard theme! This shop has a huge amount of different cardboard creations that all fit in Ikea Kallax units.
I don’t think I need to point out to the crafters out there how useful all of these would be!
The gorgeous cat bed is such a great idea too!
With these bare cardboard Ikea Kallax inserts, you are able to customise them as you like (I’m thinking MARVEL comic decoupage for my son!)
Wooden Card and Gaming Storage Boxes
These cute apothecary-style boxes are the perfect size for card storage, such as Pokemon cards, Gaming cards or Sports cards. So, if you are a collector or gamer, then these might be a wonderful way to store your collections.
They fit perfectly into an Ikea Kallax unit and can be stacked. The label pulls are an added bonus to make sure you know what is in all your drawers!
Felt Cat Bed Ikea Kallax Inserts
We saw a cardboard cat bed earlier, but this felt option is another wonderful way to give your cat a cosy, enclosed space that isn’t taking up extra space elsewhere.
This one even has a nice comfy padded base for your little meowkins (that hurt to say!).
Trofast Conversion Rails
The Kallax is a fantastic storage unit, the Trofast drawers are awesome storage boxes. Now you can combine the two to make a super-charged storage unit with cheap and practical boxes and drawers!
These rails are the perfect solution to allow you to hang Trofast shallow trays in your Kallax unit.
The Trofast boxes come in a range of sizes and colours so you can find exactly what you need.
Custom Insert Box Stickers
Finally, these aren’t actually Ikea Kallax inserts, but they will allow you to add some much needed funky design to your plain box inserts or doors.
These custom stickers come in a range of designs and colours and you can simply ad the text you want to remind yourself (or your kids) what is in the box.
Ikea does a great job of providing storage options with their Kallax inserts, but I don’t think they go far enough.
Luckily some clever and talented people have stepped into the void and provided some extra options for you so that you can make your Kallax inserts unique and even more useful.
There are so many more out there and if you’re looking for something specific, simply head over to Etsy and search for ‘kallax insert + whatever it is you need it for’ and you will likely find something!
Don’t forget to send us a picture if you create some awesome storage yourself!