Consider Yourself A DIY Nut?
Personally, I’ve always been envious of those with mad DIY skills, because well personally — I’m terrible at it.
As a salute to all those fantastic DIY home studio builders out there, I’ve compiled a list of our top 7 DIY recording studio projects. Whether it’s just one piece of furniture or an entire studio, each of these photos showcases something truly special built with love.
Hopefully, you’ll find something in here that inspires you to get into the workshop/garage yourself. And if you do, definitely let us know in the comments so we can feature you in the next rendition of this series! We’re always super eager to showcase your homemade wares.
7 DIY Home Recording Studio Ideas
DIY Audio Rack Unit
I’m willing to bet that you’ll never see this producer at a music furniture store. With carpentry skills as clean as this, why would you ever shop for music studio furniture again?
Materials: Ikea’s Rast, Benno, Vika Amon — and a few metal brackets.
DIY Boom Mic Stand
Simple, but effective. Using just Ikea’s Black Forså work lamp, this producer was able to engineer a robust boom mic stand that looks like it’ll last for years and years to come. Love it!
Materials: Ikea Black Forså work lamp
DIY Monitor Stands
The monitor stand, an understated classic in the music production world. This DIY’er right here has made a really tasty (and STURDY) set of speaker stands out of the humble Ikea chopping board! The rubber feet are a welcome addition and I feel like the hole in the board really seals the deal for this project – hello cable management! (check out our 5 Effective Cable Management Tools For Producers article here)
Materials: 2 Ikea SKOGSTA Chopping Boards, 2 packs of Ikea CAPITA Legs
DIY Synthesizer Rack
You got a shoe rack, you got a synth rack. One of the stalwarts of the music studio DIY recording studio world, this producer went for the cost effective route and opted for the Ikea STOLMEN shoe rack to house their cherished keyboards and drum machines. These fix to the floor and the ceiling, so is a sturdy alternative to the mostly expensive pro audio racks available on the market.
Materials: Ikea Stolmen
DIY Headphone Holder
Who would’ve thought you would ever be installing a toilet roll holder in your studio? I guess those long sessions editing could warrant something like this, but that’s something we’ll leave for another article (or not…). The Ikea GRUNDTAL is as simple as they come in the DIY world. Screw it to the underside of your table, hang your headphones on it – this isn’t rocket surgery, people.
This is actually one of my favorite DIY home recording studio hacks because it keeps my cumbersome Beyerdynamic DT 880’s out of my way until I need them. Simple and effective.
Materials: Ikea Grundtal
DIY Music Stand Organizer
This producer has turned the Ikea BROGRUND shower shelf into a useful organizer for their sheet music stand. Like the Grundtal headphone holder – Installation seems pretty simple. Just wrap it around your music stand and it’s ready to go (be sure to check the diameter on your bar first). We know how messy studios can get with bits of gear lying around so it’s great to know solutions to equipment and cable management storage can be done cheaply.
While useful for storing guitar picks and capos, I can see these being used on speaker & lighting stands for a plethora of different solutions. The world is your proverbial oyster.
Materials: Ikea Brogrund
DIY Pedalboard
From all accounts, this DIY pedalboard is incredibly easy to make. Simply buy a few Ikea HEJNE shelf pieces, remove the nails from the spare shelf’s side rail and screw it onto the back end to angle the board towards you. If you want a more compact board you can cut the shelf to size and use the remaining spare length of the side rail as your angle.
For bonus points you could affix your patch & power cables to the underside of the board for a nice space saving solution. For extra points you can also add some velcro strips to your board and your pedals to keep them suckers in place when you are routinely abusing them with your foot!
Materials: Ikea Hejne
Looking for more DIY studio design hacks to build and customize the home music studio setup of your dreams, or have some genius DIY hacks of your own? Drop a comment below and tell me all about it, I’d love to hear from you. If you’re feeling like some more inspiration, you can head to our Home Studio Design category.
Into DIY production? Check out our interview with Milo Dinosaur!