Tag Archives: DIY Designs

DIY Designs that use minimum materials that prove you can now build almost anything yourself!

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DIY designs have been taking the design world by storm! Especially with COVID-19 restricting us to our homes, building things purely with our hands, putting our sweat and grit into it, and watching a design roar to life in front of our eyes, has become the new pass time for many of us. But these DIY designs are more than just your run-of-the-mill products made using discarded water bottles, and paper! These are innovative, complex, and highly functional product designs that cater to a variety of our needs, but are also really simple to put together. It’s the best of both worlds. From a sustainable helmet made from mushroom to DIY NASA-inspired airless bike tires – each of these nifty designs will get your creative juices flowing, your hands moving, as well as definitely add some value to your life. Which of these unique DIY designs would you try building at home?!

This mushroom helmet will grow on you as it grows. Yes, read this slowly and carefully: this mushroom helmet will grow on you as it grows. “What do you mean?!” you say and I assure you that statement is not wrong, there is an explanation for it. The Grow It Yourself Helmet is a sustainable product made from mycelium which is the vegetative part of a fungus. Mycelium is the thready hyphae that are tightly woven into mass branch-like networks making it a strong sustainable material. The network of filaments are natural binders and they also are self-adhesive to the surface they grow on. The entire process is based on biological elements that help in upcycling waste. The process of making this helmet also gets the kids involved in a meaningful activity that teaches them about sustainability and safety.

No one wants a flat tire while mowing the lawn or playing golf and the chance for a flat tire is far higher in places like construction zones and building demolition sites. It makes sense that some vehicles prioritize airless tires and some don’t, but what about bicycles? The Q, popular science and DIY YouTube channel, asked the same question and looked no further than an old PVC pipe and some nuts and bolts to answer it. Before constructing his airless tires, The Q was sure to pick a PVC pipe that had enough density to support a rider and ride well on different terrain. Settling on a ½” thick PVC pipe, The Q then sliced the PVC pipe into two-inch wide rings. From there, the DIY YouTuber connected all of the rings into a single link after drilling three holes into each and joining them together with nuts and bolts.

The R3 DIY Bluetooth Radio from Celia & Perah audio engineering company allows users to build their own speakers and learn about the magic behind its superb sound quality. For Celia & Perah, weaving in the DIY aspect of R3 provided the speaker with a bit more meaning. When someone buys an R3 Bluetooth Speaker, they’re also buying the experience of building their own music-making device and learning more about “the acoustic magic behind the [speaker’s] superb sound quality,” as Celia & Perah put it. R3 is a DIY Bluetooth speaker that can be built within an hour and customized to fit your taste. Users can even spraypaint it a certain color to match the tone of any given room.

Now available for shipping in the US, VanLab’s flatpack van conversion kits require only two electric screwdrivers and can be assembled inside your van between three and six hours, then all that’s left to do is configure the wiring. Like IKEA furniture, VanLab’s conversion kits can be built by anyone; no carpentry experience is necessary. Speaking to the ease of assembly, VanLab founders note, “Absolutely anyone can build this kit. All the holes are pre-drilled and the panels are pre-cut. All you need to do is follow the simple instructions in the manual provided and screw the panels together.” Constructed from Baltic Birch plywood, the wooden panels come pre-finished and are designed to fit together like puzzle pieces so anyone can give rise to their van outfittings with ease.

The Holo Clock’s design is characterized by its beautiful hollow design. While traditional clocks use a set of rotating hands pivoted at the center of the clock’s face, the Holo Clock uses a set of rotating rings with hands on them. The rings are controlled by a stepper motor at the bottom of the clock, and the entire clock comes with a flat base, allowing you to keep it on a tabletop surface and admire it ever so often. The designer of the Holo Clock goes by the name of saulemmetquinn, and he’s been gracious enough to document his entire process and make all the CAD parts available on his Instructables page. That, unfortunately, means that the Holo Clock isn’t for sale, although you’re more than welcome to build one of your own. Maybe you could experiment with colors and 3D-printed materials too, to create something even more captivating.

Reza Baluchi has run from Los Angeles to New York City twice and around the perimeter of the United States, accumulating 11,720 miles along the way. With all of this already under his belt, walking from St. Augustine, Florida to New York City over the Atlantic Ocean, not in a boat, but in a DIY floating bubble seemed easy. The floating bubble, dubbed “hydropod,” would have floated Baluchi all the way to the Hudson River’s shoreline if his trek wasn’t cut short some 30 miles south of his launch point. Mr. Baluchi, a former professional cyclist, said that he was hoping to use the attention from his trip to raise money to help homeless people and for other charitable causes. Over the years, he said, he has received puzzled reactions — including from the Coast Guard — after performing similar stunts on the water.

Royole has shown an incredible ability to find the right niche and pivot at the right time with its technological offerings. The company arguably built the first-ever flexible smartphone – the FlexPai – outpacing even Samsung, and their RoKit now aims at helping democratize the fully flexible display (FFD), so creatives and designers can tinker with it, building their own products too. This means you could practically build your own folding smartphone (like how Scotty Allen’s been trying to make his own folding iPhone). Royole’s even showcased an example of what they would make and it looks rather impressive. A baton-shaped device with a rolled-up on the inside and a massive camera facing outwards. Sort of like unscrolling a parchment, the display rolls outwards.


While more extensive hydroponic systems are being offered for homes, industrial designer Lautaro Lucero has germinated the idea of something simpler. He has conceptualized the Palto Hydroponic Pot that reuses old glass goblets to grow avocado. Lautaro accidentally broke the bottom half of his glass goblet, and his basic instinct was to make something out of it. The big volume and the beautiful color of the goblet intrigued him to awaken the designer inside him, and hence the Palto Hydroponic Pot was born. The beauty of this concept is its practicability – anyone at home can take the design cues from Lautaro’s blueprint and recycle their broken or old goblet into a hydroponic planter. The creation not only germinates avocado right in your living room but looks so aesthetically pleasing. The mesmerizing caustic effect of the light refracting, as you see the plant germinate.

This is the first time I’m seeing a LEGO bottle made from actual transparent pieces. The bottle assembles around the ship, making it much easier to build the ship first and then construct the bottle (as opposed to authentic ship-in-bottles that are painstakingly assembled within pre-existing glass bottles). The bottle sports its own stopper, with a wax seal, all made from LEGO bricks, and rests on a nifty decorative stand, with a faux compass underneath. All in all, the entire artifact measures 3 inches in height, and 13 inches in width, making it a perfect thing to place on a mantelpiece or bookshelf.

KneeBlades are shaped like kneecap-sized turtle shells with attached wheeled dollies, transforming the knee pads into ones that help move your reach along with each home project. KneeBlades streamline home renovation projects like replacing floor tiles by maintaining your contact with the floor while allowing you to slide along as the project progresses. The dollies on KneeBlades can also be removed to use as regular knee pads. Then, for a more fixed design, knee creepers are shaped more like traditional rectangular dollies with knee-specific dips that are lined with silicone for a soft landing. Knee creepers also come with small sinks where tools and hardware accessories can be stored while getting the job done, setting them apart from KneeBlades.

DIY the NASA-inspired airless bike tires using PVC pipes, bolts and nuts. Watch the video!

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Popular DIY and science YouTube channel, The Q took his viewers through the process of replacing his bicycle’s traditional rubber tires with a set of airless ones put together with an old PVC pipe and some nuts and bolts.

We’ve seen airless tires on construction vehicles, like backhoes and skid steers, and smaller vehicles like golf carts and lawnmowers. No one wants a flat tire while mowing the lawn or playing golf and the chance for a flat tire is far higher in places like construction zones and building demolition sites. It makes sense that some vehicles prioritize airless tires and some don’t, but what about bicycles?

The Q, popular science and DIY YouTube channel, asked the same question and looked no further than an old PVC pipe and some nuts and bolts to answer it. Before constructing his airless tires, The Q was sure to pick a PVC pipe that had enough density to support a rider and ride well on different terrain. Settling on a ½” thick PVC pipe, The Q then sliced the PVC pipe into two-inch wide rings. From there, the DIY YouTuber connected all of the rings into a single link after drilling three holes into each and joining them together with nuts and bolts.

The Q then drilled corresponding holes into the rim of the bike, linking those holes with the ones previously drilled into the PVC rings. Reinforcing that layering with nuts and bolts, The Q repeated the process for two more rows, resulting in a triple overlay of PVC rings. With the main job complete, The Q finalized the project by carving the top layer of rubber from the bike’s original tire before laying it over the rows of PVC rings and gorilla gluing all of the pieces together. From there, the airless tires were ready to hit the road.

While The Q admits that the overall construction could benefit from slight modifications, the bike’s airless tires are fully functional and can ride smoothly over varying terrains, from sand to grass, and from pavement to gravel.

Designer: The Q

This wooden cabin comes in a flat-pack DIY kit so you can assemble your own tiny holiday home!

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Cabin-design company Den has launched a flat-packed, kit-of-parts for a steeply pitched cabin, known as an A-frame, that can be assembled in just a few days.

The 115-square-foot (10.68-square-metre) Den Cabin Kit has slanted wooden walls with a large triangular window. It is designed to be an ideal guest house, yoga studio or study.

Prefabricated in New York, the kit has pre-drilled holes and includes everything from the wooden structural parts that lock together, to bolts and even door hardware – details Den said make the project stand out from other flat-packed structures.

“Under the hood – or roof, ha – we have components that are cut with CNC precision, a design that slots together intuitively, and a kit so complete even the door hardware is included so you won’t need to make any trips to the hardware store,” the New York-based team told Dezeen.

“The cabin bolts and screws together and all the holes are pre-drilled making for fast assembly.”

Den Cabin Kit is designed to be built with minimal equipment including a ratchet set, a power drill, a ladder, step ladder and a staple gun. Flat-packed materials arrive stacked according to the order in which they are needed during the build, as part of an ambition to make construction as easy as possible.

“If you don’t have any construction experience you can certainly make up for it with tenacity, and a few friends to help you with the job,” Den explained.”Building something even as easy as this still requires some hutzpah mind you,” the company added. “You need to be comfortable on a ladder a story off the ground to set the ridge cap and screw in the roofing panels, and you and your friends (or team) need to be careful with the large windows while setting them in place.”

Den suggests novice builders employ a contractor to bolster the structure if it is being built on a sloped site, or in an area with harsher weather, and also to help set foundations – which it likens to the same basic requirements as a shed. The cabin is intended to touch the ground lightly so it can be disassembled and rebuilt elsewhere, and constructed without nails for the same reason.

Despite its light touch, the team said the cabin is still robust and well-insulated in harsh weather conditions. “Even though it’s ‘semi-permanent’ in this regard it’s no less a building and can withstand the harshest elements, with four-season compatibility,” it explained.

Owners can choose from three types of exterior cladding: either black Forest and silver Alpine metal or cedar shingles. They can also add a propane heater provided by Den.

Designer: Den

Sony PS5 gets a DIY vintage hardwood case in this video by our favorite Youtuber. Watch the video!

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Matt, of DIY Perks is back again with another custom hack that you can build in the comfort of your own home. This time, the handyman YouTuber designs and constructs a wooden case for his new PS5. DIY Perks starts his process off by disassembling the casing of PS5 to keep only the core of the unit. Left with a compact and thin inner structure, the bulkiest aspect of the PS5’s internal workings is the cool and heat sink. Since the core of PS5 cannot remain leveled on a flat surface, DIY Perks evens out the structure with a few hexagonal PCB pillar supports. Then, using long screws, the PS5’s power supply latches and securely fastens on top of the leveled-out inner structure. DIY Perks then takes a sheet of carbon fiber, a tough layer of woven crisscrossing carbon fibers, to form the case’s base plate.

Carved into the base plate, DIY Perks creates holes where the rest of the PS5’s components fit. Next, DIY Perks mounts the system’s fan onto the carbon fiber baseplate, overlaying the fan with a grill to prevent anything from getting caught in the fan’s blades. Divided into two halves, the fan pulls air in through both sides, allowing airflow drawn from the heat sink to exit through the carved hole in the carbon fiber base plate. To direct the airflow from the heatsink to the fan, DIY Perks uses strips of foam, a cue taken from Sony.

With the inner system securely fastened to its new carbon fiber baseplate, DIY Perks begins work on the system’s American walnut wood case. Using a Japanese saw blade, DIY Perks carves angled edges on the walnut wood to create a cubic frame. Before situating and locking the PS5 into place within the wood frame, DIY Perks etches holes for the USB cables to reach their port located inside the wooden frame, on the PS5 system itself. Leaning on the holes he previously carved into the carbon fiber base plate to mount it onto the wooden frame, both pieces easily merge with one another.

With the rear side of the case still exposed, DIY Perks uses a CNC router to carve port slits that work as vents for the system to remain cool. Finally, DIY Perks looks to carbon fiber once more for the case’s lid, where he relies on CNC milling to carve a vent for the fan out of miniature hexagon shapes, marrying them to the walnut frame with matching hexagonal wooden inserts. The refined walnut look of the case is certainly a step away from the original metallic and custom brass casing for the PS5. Understated and sophisticated, the new case from DIY Perks doesn’t demand your attention like the original shiny metallic case, but the rustic elegance of the walnut wood blended with the durability of carbon fiber definitely keeps it.

Designer: DIY Perks

The combination of walnut hardwood framing and carbon fiber covering gives the custom PS5 case a retro feel.

Without a flat surface, when the PS5 is laid horizontally, it doesn’t fit in entertainment consoles.

DIY Perks began by disassembling his PS5.

The cool and heat sink is the bulkiest part of the gaming system.

In order to level out the inner structure, DIY Perks inserted brass washers with varying heights on both ends of the system.

Matt took to a carbon fiber base layer to form the system’s bottom covering.

Matt inserted a grill for the fan’s opening to permit and promote airflow.

Additionally, he inserted a foam strip to direct the airflow.

Using a saw blade to cut the walnut framing’s sides, Matt created a wooden border for the PS5 case.

Hexagonal port holes help to keep the inner workings of the PS5 cooled down.

DIY designs that use minimum materials to create innovative and functional products!

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DIY designs have been taking the design world by storm! Especially with COVID-19 restricting us to our homes, building things purely with our hands, putting our sweat and grit into it, and watching a design roar to life in front of our eyes, has become the new pass time for many of us. But these DIY designs are more than just your run-of-the-mill products made using discarded water bottles, and paper! These are innovative, complex, and highly functional designs that cater to a variety of our needs, but are also really simple to put together. It’s the best of both worlds. From a sustainable helmet made from mushroom to a futuristic PC design, each of these nifty designs will get your creative juices flowing, your hands moving, as well as definitely add some value to your life. Which of these unique DIY designs would you try building at home?!

This mushroom helmet will grow on you as it grows. Yes, read this slowly and carefully: this mushroom helmet will grow on you as it grows. “What do you mean?!” you say and I assure you that statement is not wrong, there is an explanation for it. The Grow It Yourself Helmet is a sustainable product made from mycelium which is the vegetative part of a fungus. Mycelium is the thready hyphae that are tightly woven into mass branch-like networks making it a strong sustainable material. The network of filaments are natural binders and they also are self-adhesive to the surface they grow on. The entire process is based on biological elements that help in upcycling waste. The process of making this helmet also gets the kids involved in a meaningful activity that teaches them about sustainability and safety.”We have developed a helmet that can be made out of hay and Mycelium. It is 100% compostable, breathable, and impact resistant. The helmet reduces the use of plastics in a product that will be disposed of in a short time due to the child’s growth rate,” says the team at NOS Design.

Now, some tech companies, like Apple, will buy back your older models in exchange for store credit. However, why replace a product when you can upcycle it? The Modular Workstation Computer offers an alternative device that would make this process easier. The computer’s internal hardware – its processor, memory, etc. – is attached to a tray of large, cube-like pieces that can be pulled off and reattached. This design choice is a huge departure from standard laptops, which tuck their hardware inside the body of the computer, requiring you to unscrew the bottom plate to access it. This inconvenience may discourage consumers from learning more about how their computer works – and how they might use that knowledge to extend the life of their device. The Modular Workstation Computer presents a better solution: one that reduces long-term costs and environmental impact.

Dubbed as EconOdome, each structure’s frame and triangle panel kits come pre-cut and partially assembled with detailed instructions – so better than IKEA and you get a whole home instead of just a couch! EconOdome homes are built similarly to conventional homes involving a foundation and the main floor. Once that is in place, the vertical walls and roof is added in. There are 130 triangular roofing elements that connect to form the dome which has 10 equal sides. To minimize waste, parts in the DIY kit are cut to fit precisely with no additional work required on that end. The wood also comes with pre-drilled holes for stainless steel screws and caps to make assembling it super easy. The company’s 26-foot fully insulated model is sold for about $18,000 and their smaller 13-foot option is an option for those working within a more reasonable budget. The two-story larger model spans just over 800 square feet and comes with a fully equipped kitchen on the first floor and a bedroom on the top floor.

Designed by British performance art troupe Mutoid Waste Company way back in the 1980s, this piece of DIY is well worth its weight in gold. Music lovers who settle for nothing less than 45 rpm records playing on their vinyl record player or a turntable are surely going to drool all over this creation. Christened the Mercedes-Benz 220 Jukebox, I bet you would not have seen anything like this before. Owning it is a far cry now as it’s already been auctioned for a fat sum of $2,500. But the jukebox fitted inside the front end of a vintage Mercedes-Benz 220 SE is not something you get to see every day. It doubles as a jaw-dropping installation in the living room and when it’s time to listen to some music, one opens the hood and plays the favorite record player for pure bliss.

Taesung Yoon designed Pulpet, a DIY paper cat house. Pulpet initially consists of eco-friendly paper cutouts, which are ultimately handcrafted and put together to assemble a cat house in the shape of a geometric, sitting cat. Users can easily assemble Pulpet without any additional building components. Prepared with all the necessary contents for assembly, Pulpet is easily constructed by adhering the geometric faces together to form the shape of a cat. If like me, the shape of a cat doesn’t readily come to your creative eye, an assembly manual comes included with the paper house cutouts. To make Pulpet eco-friendly, Taesung Yoon sourced FSC-certified paper material harvested from forests that are responsibly managed and environmentally conscious.

Celia & Perah has built a detailed laser-cut assembly that is easy to follow for even the new DIY enthusiast – Meet the Classic Bluetooth Radio. Taking roughly an hour to assemble, the kit consists of one 3″ full-range speaker, a 4″passive radiator, laser cut wood boards, a PCB, battery antenna, and other small items required to assemble this design. Do not be deceived by its rustic looks, the speaker is amped with modern functionalities such as Bluetooth connectivity, USB and AUX inputs as well as an FM radio function! The end result is a vintage-inspired radio with modern sound capabilities that can last up to 5.5 hours of plug-free playing. There are 2 variants of the speaker black or white with the existing wooden body, so you can choose the one that matches your space.

A Hungarian company called Hello Wood has designed a tiny minimalist cabin that you can assemble yourself for creative space solutions or just an escape from your living room. The prefabricated cabins start at $10,200 and have been crafted in a way that anyone can put it together, it is truly the ultimate DIY project. With the tiny home market ‘growing’ rapidly, the Kabinka cabin is positioned to be like IKEA furniture – easy to assemble with an aesthetic that is loved by most. The Kabinka cabin comes in four sizes that range between 129 and 215 square feet. It is a tiny cabin but it has high ceilings – over 12 feet high actually – that bring a sense of spaciousness and luxury to the otherwise simple structure. The ceiling space is well optimized to give the cabin a loft-like setup that can be used as storage space or a cozy reading nook. Another cool thing about Kabinka is that it is a flatpack design! You can also customize it to suit your needs – it can be a private backyard workstation or a mini weekend holiday home without the heavy price tag (since you assemble it, it brings down the costs!).

I love the Ahadrone kit’s DIY touch! Designed to be the “drone for everyone”, it democratizes one of the hottest (and sometimes expensive) categories in consumer electronics. With all the makings of a very capable drone, the Ahadrone is just like any other remote-controlled quadcopter, but it comes with a complete corrugated board body, allowing it to stay light, but stiff, the perfect property for a drone exterior! Cardboard isn’t new to consumer electronics. The Google Cardboard VR headset, and the cardboard Nintendo Switch Labo kits, have both showcased paper board to be a very capable low-cost solution to plastic parts. The board serves as a great packaging material too, knocking two birds with one stone.. and while it isn’t as permanent as plastic (the Ahadrone wouldn’t last 5 minutes in the rain), with the right template, people can rebuild their own cardboard parts, either out of the board, plastic sheets, or even 3D printing them!

The TinyTV comes as a DIY kit that assembles easily in less than 5 minutes with no soldering or special tools required. It runs off a MicroSD card, allowing you to play back up to 5 hours of content (in MP4 format) on the TV’s ridiculously small screen. The TinyTV also comes along with its own TinyRemote with 6 adorable little buttons to power the TV on, change channels, adjust the volume, and even mute the television (I wonder how loud the speakers on the TV are). The TV’s 3D-printed enclosure is designed to resemble old-timey cathode-ray tube tellies from the 70s… and even though it’s printed in white filament, you can easily give it a quick paint-job with some acrylic paints. Don’t use a spray-paint can though, you might just blow the damn thing away!

Matt, of YouTube’s DIY Perks, has his own ideas to pass the time with quarantine. That’s to say, he built an invisible PC. Well, he constructed a desk with an interior that stows away a fully-operative hardware system for desktop computers. The outer shell of his invisible PC consists of two main materials: hardwood and aluminum sheeting. Matt used two sheets of aluminum to give his desk structure since they are less than half the thickness of wooden materials and can produce a bend-free design. In order to achieve this, Matt placed wooden beams along the perimeter of one of the two sheets of aluminum, drilled pilot holes, into which he inserted machine screws for a secure attachment. With the insertion of wooden beams along the perimeter, the desk has an interior space with a height of 44 millimeters, which is just enough to contain the components needed for PC operation, AKA the nitty-gritty hardware business.