Tanya, Chris, Jackson, and Zeke spend much of their day outside.

Sultan of Sit Even if your carpentry skills peaked in eighth-grade woodshop, reclaimed lumber and a bit of sweat can stand you in good stead when it comes to outdoor furniture. Whitlock created a ruggedly beautiful bench (below) from scratch. He bought a chunk of trestle lumber at a local salvage yard and lag-bolted four Ikea Sultan stainless steel bed legs to its base. “It took me two hours, including lumberyard drive time,” he says. “I spent $70 total.” ikea.com

A Bright Idea After build-out, the family realized they needed a light for their dining room. Tanya and Jackson took to their storage container, where they found fake flower branches they had bought at Ace Hardware, and paired them with a crumpled string of old Christmas lights. “We plugged it in and that was that,” says Tanya.

The back patio is bordered by boulders picked up on the Gambys' land. Tanya says that particular design element will be repeated in the next home they build: "We've actually unearthed one the size of a minivan that we're going to use in the bigger house."

DIY Synth Kit by Technology Will Save Us, $40 at techwillsaveus.com Technology Will Save Us makes even the most technical doodads simple to assemble. Their DIY Synth Kit is no different, teaching the joys of electronic music by empowering users to build their own instrument from scratch.

Grace Hawthorne of Paper Punk led a weekend-long interactive exhibit in which attendees used pieces from her Urban Fold Kit to build a giant, paper metropolis.

Seven smart ways to update your floors without replacing them, via the Huffington Post.

The building process was a collaborative one, with the Gambys and their architects engineering the house to meet building codes as the pieces were being installed. In the middle, a glass hallway containing the dining room connects to the kitchen.

The Cardboard Cantilever Chair performs a bit of structural sleight-of-hand, creating a daring form out of a weak material.

Weijnen used adobe plaster in nearly all the rooms of the house. It's an ideal material for passive houses as it can absorb and release moisture and heat exceptionally well.

Jackson and Zeke escape their bedroom through a slide repurposed from an old play structure. The 20-acre property backs up to nearby mountains.

Piper nv by Piper, $279 at store.getpiper.com Unlike other wireless home security systems, the Piper nv requires no fees for service. That means you can use its connected camera to monitor your home remotely, or program push notifications to alert you about alarming activity, all for the price on the package.

From concrete lamp bases to leather poufs, Fehrentz's book Made by Yourself is a compendium of the designer's ideas. It's available in the United States as of early October.

Since the couple knew they'd soon rip up the kitchen during a major pipe replacement and renovation, Susanna devised a cheap and easy way to prettify the nondescript cabinets in the meantime: she cut triangles out of black contact paper and affixed them to the cabinet fronts.

“The northern light, combined with dark colors, creates an artistic, almost dramatic atmosphere, reminiscent of the Flemish Old Masters.” —Peter Fehrentz

Any combination of dining tables, desks, coffee tables, credenzas, standing desks, and more, are possible. And of course, the wood can be easily painted for a more colorful design.

SWENYO and Uyeda are raising $20,000 on Kickstarter to pay for the production tools that would make the UX4 system possible. A pledge of just $45 will get you one UX4 Bracket Kit—future retail value: $75—that includes four brackets and all the necessary hardware and instructions. Bigger packages include more goodies, like other furniture from SWENYO and brackets in more colors!

Most furniture is expensive and inflexible, but the UX4 is a simple, economical, DIY system that aims to fix that.

The UX4's only custom element—powder-coated steel brackets, seen here in white—easily connect standard 2x4's to any flat wood surface. Simple screws hold everything in place.

This is Moritz and Elmar, two DIY chair makers from the Bodensee area of Germany. They had no jobs when they built their 24 Euro chairs, and the experience strengthened their friendship. “They sent this picture in to the Hartz IV Moebel website for my book. This is one of the ways that the Karma Economy has worked for me,” says Van Bo. “The KE concept, developed by Danny Iny, about how to help helpful people so that we create a vibrant community without having to use money—has been great for me. These guys are enjoying their new chairs, and I have a book that elucidates my ideas. Everyone is happy!”

A diagram of the chair's structure.

The couple really liked Prologue can lights by Kreon but couldn't afford them. So they bought aluminum sheets, sanded them, and folded them around standard track fixtures for a similar look. The total cost, including the transformer: about $40 per fixture.

DIY Furniture 2, a follow-up to DIY Furniture, showcases how to make unique designer furniture using readily available materials commonly found at the local hardware store. Picture courtesy of Laurence King Publishing.

The projects in Stuart's DIY Furniture 2 range from novice to experienced and each design features diagrams with short, easy-to-follow instructions on how to build the piece. Picture courtesy of Laurence King Publishing.

Use these drawings to create the dotted lines on the side of the chair.

British artist Maisie Broadhead elevates the nuisance of an unsightly lamp cord to over-the-mantel art with this clever bit of DIY design.—Aaron Britt

Here they are after a little D.I.Y. action.

The kitchen cabinets have also been cleverly designed by 4 S Architecture to combine a luxury appearance with cost-effective construction. The carcasses were sourced from DIY Kitchens and delivered preassembled, which cut down on labor costs. While the white cabinet doors are also from DIY Kitchens, the cherry veneered doors are bespoke. “We worked with as many off-the-shelf products as we could to minimise cost and added a few bespoke items to elevate the scheme,” explains architect Julia Hamson.

Ben Kicic and Emilio Halperin have a loft in common—and the Bed Stuy studio showcases their work and curios with DIY shelving and light that’s just right.

Low-lying furniture and art makes the high-ceilinged living room appear even bigger. Most of the furnishings were sourced secondhand, though the hanging lamp is a DIY Nick made by fusing two paper shades together.

Pros: Concrete countertops are durable, resistant to heat, and can be less expensive than natural stone, especially when completed as a DIY project. Cons: Concrete must be sealed before being used; otherwise, its porous nature means that it will stain very easily.

The DIY open shelves cost just $30.

Consider realistic DIY limitations. If you’ve never delved into plumbing or electrical work before, a major renovation is usually not the right time to get started, as this type of work is best left to professionals. Even something as seemingly simple as demolition work can quickly become more complex if you are replacing plumbing or electrical fixtures.

The Cabinet Face's DIY paint-grade flat panel doors and custom panels are installed in the island.