DIY : Smartphone holder

A few months back my phone (Blackberry Z10) started being buggy, slow and non-responsive, so I had to buy a new phone. I bought a OnePlus 3.
For some context, I have also started working towards designing a clean and functional workspace since last 2 years. Here’s what my current workspace looks like (long way to go though):
More on the history and love of designing a great workspace in a separate blog post. Moving on, I wanted a phone holder for my new phone because of these reasons:
- I spend most my time on my desk when I work on design/non-design related projects. So picking up my phone every time some notification has come up takes time and is annoying after a couple of times.
- Just peeking what has come and moving along (if it’s not important) with the work that I am doing is preferred
- I like things organized and clean around me
So I decided to make a phone holder instead of buying as I didn’t want to spend Rs. 500 or more in a good and sturdy phone holder. Below you’ll find steps to design your own phone holder and how much it can cost you. Here’s what the final model will look like:
So, here are the steps to design your own phone holder:
- Sketch your design. Here’s mine:
- Stuff you need to design the product:
- Mount board x 2 – Rs. 50
- Long Scissor x 1 – Rs. 150
- Long scale (30 cm preferred) x 1 – Rs. 150
- Fevicol (100 gms) x 1 – Rs. 50
- Feviquick 3 gms x 5 packs – Rs. 50
- Binder Clip (6 pieces) – Rs. 100
- Total will be Rs. 300-400 if you have few items like Ruler and Scissor at your home. Otherwise, the cost will go around Rs. 500 or below
- Cut long sheet to create the base (6 cm wide and 42 cm long):
- Fold from the middle and glue them together to make the stand sturdy:
- Glue the board together with the help of Fevicol and clip them with the help of a Binder clip to make sure that all the sides are glued evenly:
- Fold them around the middle so that one side is 12 cm and other is 9 cm or less. The 12 cm will be the base of holder:
- Add bridges. The bridges should be the width of 1-2 cm length depending upon your speaker/charging port placement at the bottom of the phone. Bridges will be used to rest the phone:
- Cut one more mount board with same width i.e. 6 cm and glue it with the rest. The length will depend upon the angle you want for the holder. I used 6 cm for the bottom and 8 cm for the top:
- Put a bit of Fevicol and Feviquick around the joints to make the bond stronger:
- Here’s how it’ll look like once gluing is done:
- I also made two, one bigger for my OnePlus 3 which is 5.5” and a smaller one for my BlackBerry z10 (if I use it ever):
- Put a little more Fevicol on the sides to smooth the edges out:
- Once you’re satisfied with the edges and overall finish in terms of smoothness, paint them with any wood paint color. I chose white:
- Here’s what it’ll look once painted well. Remember to add 1-2 layers of paint to make it look more glossy. Here’s the bigger model:
- Here’s the small one:
- Here’s the top view of my workspace now 😀
Hope the steps are enough to give you a gist of the process and can be helpful if you decide to make one yourself.
Tip: Use Feviquick smartly and don’t let it touch your skin, or else your hands will look like this:
Let me know if you have any thoughts/comments about this DIY smartphone holder. Happy creating! 🙂