Maker Guides

Build a Halloween yard display: a bought creepy doll in a red striped dress sits on an orange pumpkin bucket and holds a hand-painted, weatherproof grey sign. Made for beginners who want the look of the photo using a ready-made doll and a few basic materials.

Mix 1 kg of half-pork, half-beef mince with yogurt and mild spices, roll it paper-thin, bake it into sheets and slice it into doner-style shavings for 8 to 10 wraps with roasted tomato and pepper. For home cooks who want the kebab-shop look without a spit; the taste is doner-style, not true spit-roasted doner.

Build a tall, faceless, black-robed figure from timber beams and a flowing black cloth, with a crooked hood, long drooping arms and a glowing void where a face should be. It's a hands-on outdoor Halloween centrepiece for porches, gardens and yards that looks unsettling by day and truly eerie once lit at night.

Build a small black-cloaked figure with glowing, reflective snake-slit eyes that lurks in a single window pane. Made for Halloween lovers who want a creepy silhouette visible from the street at night.

A large leaf-shaped decorative platter cast in fibre-reinforced, pigmented concrete over a real banana leaf pressed into a sand mound, finished with acrylic lacquer for a glossy plastic-concrete look. Made for anyone who wants a one-off sculptural centrepiece for a table or sideboard, no mould-making experience required.

Build a creepy floating severed head sealed inside a large glass jar, perfect for tucking into the fridge or pantry to shock guests at a Halloween party. Great for a first-time prop builder who wants a big scare with minimal materials.

Transform a covered porch into a glowing Halloween scene with draped stretch cobweb, giant spiders clustered at the gable peak, battery fairy lights woven through the web, and a pumpkin-and-lantern display on the steps. Built for anyone who wants a dramatic no-damage seasonal display that comes down cleanly after Halloween.

Repurpose an industrial wooden cable reel into a rolling outdoor patio table complete with an integrated beverage ice tub.

Build a 2 m × 1.5 m wall-mounted acoustic diffuser made from thousands of small stained wood blocks glued at random depths onto sectioned plywood backers, then hung on French cleats. For anyone who loved the 'pixel wall' look in a listening room or luxury interior and wants to recreate it as a real, sound-scattering feature.

Build a proper wood-fired brick dome pizza oven over a 75cm inflatable ball former, sitting on an existing concrete/stone base. Suited to someone comfortable with basic masonry who wants a real high-heat cooking oven, not a decorative shell.

A set of four gravestones cut from a single sheet of 50 mm insulation board, carved, sealed and painted to read as pitted limestone from the pavement, then staked properly so they stay where you put them. Two things decide whether this works: sealing the foam before any paint touches it, and anchoring boards that weigh almost nothing against a wind that does not.

A classic carved pumpkin done properly: lid cut at an angle so it cannot drop through, the carving wall thinned to an even 25 mm so the light actually comes through, and a face cut in an order that stops the thin bits snapping off. An evening's work for one adult and one child, with the cutting and the scooping split between them.

Restore a tired round metal bistro table by stripping its old surface and laying a fresh field of glazed patterned tiles, finished with edge trim and sealed grout. Ideal for someone with basic DIY confidence who wants a striking mosaic-style café table for a patio or garden.

Build a freestanding, rounded-end dressing-room island with a soft-close drawer bank, cabinet doors, brass plinth lighting and a quartz stone top, matching a designer reference photo. Aimed at an experienced home woodworker working alongside a stone fabricator and an electrician for the parts that need a trade.

Build a set of lightweight 60 x 60 x 4 cm black GFRC (glass-fiber-reinforced-concrete) panels embedded with hundreds of polished optical fiber tips, mounted on a backlit French-cleat frame so the wall glows like a starfield after dark. Suited to a confident DIYer comfortable with concrete casting, grinding and basic low-voltage wiring.

A 9-step repair guide to safely remove, dry, and reinstall the rear LED light bar on a Kia EV6 GT after moisture or condensation has built up inside the housing. Suited for a DIYer with basic tools and some hands-on experience.

Turn a salvaged round wooden cable reel into a drum-shaped garden side table by cladding the curved drum with narrow vertical timber battens and tiling the circular top with small brick-format porcelain tiles. It suits a confident DIYer with a weekend or two to spare and a covered patio to stand it on.

Build a waist-height rectangular planter with square softwood corner posts, bright galvanised corrugated sheet infill panels and a wide flat 2x12 rim you can sit a mug or a seed tray on. It suits a confident beginner with a mitre saw and a drill who wants a good-looking herb and salad planter for a patio, balcony or garage-door frontage.

Build a 90 cm round coffee table with a thick laminated oak rim that doubles as the casting mould, filled with a real sand-and-pebble shoreline and layered teal epoxy ocean polished to a glass finish. It is for a patient maker with basic woodworking tools who wants a showpiece piece of furniture and is willing to work slowly through multi-day epoxy cures.

A Halloween prop featuring a skeleton slumped over a barrel, appearing to vomit glowing green liquid powered by a small submersible water pump. Note: although the active work is only a few hours, expanding foam and spray paint need to cure between stages, so allow at least two days overall. The build involves mains-powered equipment near an open water reservoir and must be run only from an RCD/GFCI-protected outdoor socket.

A full-size outdoor picnic table measuring 2.40 m long and 0.75 m tall, with two integrated bench seats on either side. Perfect for garden owners, families or anyone wanting a durable outdoor dining spot they can build themselves.

Smoke a whole 5.5 kg packer brisket over post oak for 10–12 hours, wrap it in butcher paper, rest it properly and slice it into juicy, bark-edged slabs. Written for a first-time brisket cook who owns a charcoal or offset smoker and is willing to babysit a fire all day.

Build a freestanding timber shelter that hides three 240-litre wheelie bins behind dark-stained cladding, topped with a planted sedum trough that drains through a gutter into a water butt. It suits a competent DIYer with basic timber skills and an existing area of level paving to stand it on.

Build a U-shaped outdoor seating lounge from hollow concrete blocks, finished in brilliant white render with thermo-treated timber seat slats, a slatted backrest and hidden warm-white LED strip lighting. It suits a confident DIYer comfortable with basic bricklaying who wants a permanent, all-weather garden lounge around a central drop-in fire pit.

Build a 310 cm three-module outdoor kitchen (120 + 80 + 110 cm abutting) — a low grill bench, an oak-topped prep module and a taller sink unit with oak doors — all clad in hand-trowelled white microcement over screwed timber carcasses. Aimed at someone with some DIY experience who can cut sheet material accurately and wants a high-end look without welding, casting or masonry.

Build a 4.5 × 3.0 m in-ground plunge pool that steps from 60 cm to 1.5 m deep, with a bought heat pump, filtration, air bubbles and colour LEDs, all hidden by a hardwood deck lid that slides on rails into a bay under the terrace at the push of a button. It is aimed at a confident DIYer who is happy hiring a mini digger and blockwork tools, and who will bring in a qualified electrician for the final connections.

Split and propagate a bird of paradise plant

Build a 160 × 120 cm floating raft from two wooden pallets and twelve empty 19 L water cooler bottles lashed into a timber cradle underneath. It suits a confident DIY beginner who wants a calm-water paddling platform for a sheltered lake or slow river, carrying one adult up to 90 kg.

This is the straight-dough Neapolitan pizza I make: 1 kg of flour, cold water, a small pinch of dry yeast, salt, and olive oil worked in right at the end, rested at room temperature and then balled. It suits anyone who has mixed bread dough by hand before and wants a soft, airy, hand-stretched pizza without a starter or an overnight fridge stage.

Cast a 70 × 70 cm, 15 cm thick concrete sink with a smooth, bowl-shaped single basin formed by an inflated gym ball pushed up through a melamine mould. It suits someone with basic DIY skills who wants a heavy, weatherproof garden or outdoor-kitchen sink for a fraction of the price of a stone one.

Build a square garden planter from horizontal planks that interlock at the corners log-cabin style, pinned together with hardwood dowels and finished in a warm oak stain. Ideal for someone with basic DIY skills who wants a set of matching pots for a patio or doorway.

We took a plain 70 × 70 cm mirror and framed it with a 4–5 cm band of broken green, yellow, blue and red tile leftovers bedded in gypsum paste. It is a one-afternoon project for two people with a pile of offcut tiles and no specialist tools.

Build a 1600 mm wide box-frame outdoor couch from solid pine, with a slatted seat base, slatted back and chunky charcoal-grey weatherproof cushions. It suits anyone with a garden terrace, basic power tools and one free weekend — every joint is screwed, so no woodworking joinery is required.

A complete guide to building a modern walk-in shower room clad in 120×120 cm large-format porcelain, featuring a linear channel drain, an LED-lit corner niche, concealed push-to-open fittings, and a floating 2026-style vanity with hidden wall hangers. Ideal for a confident DIYer with basic tiling and plumbing experience who wants a high-end, screwless finish.

Restore the color and condition of a vintage leather jacket using specialized leather cream, bringing back its original appearance and softness.

Assemble a bioclimatic-style louvered pergola on an existing terrace: adjustable louvered roof, a louvered privacy screen on one side, and warm LED strip lighting all around. A premium outdoor room in one to two weekends — no specialist skills, just careful measuring and a friend to help lift. Before ordering, confirm the kit's wind and load rating matches your site and check local permit rules — this guide walks you through both.

A small lashed-log sailing raft under 5 m, built entirely from salvaged driftwood, rope and twisted wool cordage, with a single square wool sail to catch the wind home. Built for a confident shipwright working alone on an island with no metal fasteners — every joint is a lashing. Suitable for calm, sheltered water only; maximum recommended crew weight two adults. Note that wool cordage absorbs water under sustained load — inspect all stays and lashings before and after every voyage and re-tension as needed.

Makeit is your workshop in your pocket — plan a build, follow it step by step, then share or sell what you made. This quick walkthrough shows you the whole loop in a few minutes: get inspired, find a guide, make it your own project, create with M-studio, and share or earn.

Build a fixed floor-to-ceiling shower partition made of amber, honey and green textured glass panels set into a slim brass-toned aluminium grid, exactly like the warm mosaic screen in the reference photo. Ideal for someone with some DIY experience who wants a designer wet-room divider without a door.

A step-by-step positive photolithography process using AZ 1518 photoresist to pattern a silicon substrate for wet etching, yielding a 1.8 µm resist layer. Written for cleanroom users reproducing the Kavli Nanolab Delft LSW recipe on an HBG_uMLA maskless aligner.

A high-hydration Neapolitan-style pizza built on a 48-hour cold-fermented biga preferment for deep flavour and an airy, blistered crust. Perfect for home bakers with a hot pizza oven who want pizzeria-quality dough from scratch.

Cast a matching set of small decorative pieces — a slim vase, a faceted ashtray, and a geometric wall tile — from smooth architectural concrete. Perfect for someone with some DIY experience wanting polished, modern homeware under 20 cm.

A step-by-step analytical guide to removing old window frames and fitting new anthracite/black uPVC triple-glazed windows with matching uPVC sills across five or more openings. Written for a homeowner with some DIY experience who will work alongside a professional installer.

A chunky, low-profile outdoor sofa built from solid pine boards, featuring two thick slab side panels (each 8 cm thick, laminated from edge-joined boards), a slatted seat base, and a tall slatted rear back panel — all finished in black exterior satin stain. Designed for a large tufted cushion set, it comfortably seats 2–3 adults and suits any patio or garden. Use C24 structural-grade or pressure-treated pine throughout for outdoor durability — the two-coat exterior stain finish provides additional weather protection. Finished dimensions: 236 cm overall outside-to-outside length (220 cm internal clear span between side panels + two 8 cm side slabs) × 90 cm deep × 70 cm tall.

A clean, low-profile coffee table built from solid timber with a simple four-leg frame — no fuss, no ornate details. Perfect for DIYers with some basic experience who want a stylish living room piece without complex joinery.

Build a sturdy 110 cm wide bar table and four matching stools from square steel tube and wooden planks, finished with outdoor oil for balcony use. Designed for someone with basic DIY experience using only drill, bolts and basic hand tools.

Sand back, stain, and seal a 35 m² worn or scratched wooden floor to a rich mahogany tone. Uses an electric random orbital sander and detail sander plus hand tools. Ideal for DIYers with some experience who cannot access a drum sander.

This guide will help you assemble an IKEA Pax Wardrobe from start to finish, ensuring a sturdy and functional storage solution for your clothes and accessories.

Make Neapolitan pizza using 100% poolish technique This amount is for 7 pizzas approx. So it great for 6 people.