Hardcore handmade

Problem: Need a new, larger lightbox. Needs to have a white background, and be portable and able to be stored easily in my room. However, commercial light boxes are expensive and really small.

Solution: Head to home depot and make my own.

I had pieces of pine molding cut, and nailed them together to make two 2' by 3' frames. I also bought four hinges, black chain, and a staple gun (the guy helping me gave me the wrong staples, which jammed up the gun, so I had to go back and return them to get the right ones). I then went to JOANN fabrics to get a large sheet of white felt.

I only hit my finger once while nailing the wood, hehe. Screwing in the hinges, by hand, took a long time, but now I'm thankful I've been working out at the gym! My right thumb feels like it's going to have a small blister, but that's ok.

Then I stapled the felt all around, added the chains, and voila!



I'm hoping that the felt is good enough to provide a nice neat background. I've previously been using a light box I made out of an old pizza box and a piece of white poster paper. It works really well but it's unweildly and is pretty small. With this one, I can store it easily and use it for my larger pieces.

Overall it cost me about $70, which is well worth it in my mind to have exactly what I need. If you want to make something like this yourself, if you have your own wood and already have a staple gun, that'll dramatically cut your costs. I encourage anyone who needs a big light box to try out this idea! My aunt and I brainstormed the design together but I made it all myself.