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:

1. 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.
2. Just peeking what has come and moving along (if it’s not important) with the work that I am doing is preferred
3. 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:

1. Sketch your design. Here’s mine:
   
2. 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
3. Cut long sheet to create the base (6 cm wide and 42 cm long):
   
4. Fold from the middle and glue them together to make the stand sturdy:
   
5. 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:
   
6. 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:
   
7. 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:
   
8. 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:
   
9. Put a bit of Fevicol and Feviquick around the joints to make the bond stronger:
   
10. Here’s how it’ll look like once gluing is done:
    
11. 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):
    
12. Put a little more Fevicol on the sides to smooth the edges out:
    
13. Once you’re satisfied with the edges and overall finish in terms of smoothness, paint them with any wood paint color. I chose white:
14. 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:
    
15. Here’s the small one:
    
16. 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! 🙂