DIY PVC Photo Booth Tutorial on a Budget
Oh, I wanted one.
I wanted one like Aladdin wants Jasmine, like a marathoner wants a gallon of Gatorade, and like Hugh Grant wants to make another romantic comedy.
Pre-wedding, I knew, in my heart of hearts, that I wanted a photo booth. But my heart of hearts was also telling me we couldn’t spend a grand on a photo-strip-spitting, old fashioned booth. And my heart of hearts wasn’t crazy enough to spend $464 from an online store ($97 for the backdrop, $367 for the support system [yikes!]) to build my own.
So, my (cheap, rational) heart of hearts led me to Home Depot to create a stand for our DIY faux-to booth backdrop. I had searched online for tutorials, but could only find extremely complicated versions involving power tools (and I preferred to keep all of my phalanges attached). Thus, we developed our own method, which 1) ended up working out quite well, 2) was budget friendly, and 3) was easy to build.
For those wishing to build their own cheap, easy, fun photo DIY PVC photo booth, here is what we used and how we put it together.
Supplies:
Note: Make sure you purchase the correct sizes for your various PVC pipes, based on how large you want your DIY PVC photo booth frame to be.
(A) 2 of these (PVC pipe “elbows”)
(from Home Depot)
(B) 4 of these (PVC pipe caps)
(from Home Depot)
(C) 4 of these (PVC pipe “T pieces”)
(from Home Depot)
(D) 4 of these (really long PVC pipes)
(from Home Depot)
(E) Some fabric (We bought two yards of fabric from IKEA [IKEA’s fabric is great because it’s extra wide; 59 inches instead of a typical bolt of fabric which is 44 inches].)
(from IKEA)
Once we had all of components together, we put it together in less than an hour in our backyard. We used a PVC pipe cutter that my dad already owned, like the one below (but you could probably just use gardening shears or a butter knife [though the latter might take a bit longer…]).
(from Amazon)
To help explain how we put it together, Mr. Pin Cushion whipped some files up in Illustrator.
In the top image, you can see the backdrop stand all put together.
And on the bottom is the “exploded” version, to see all of the individual components (the PVC elbows, the caps on the bottom, etc.).
You can cut the PVC pipe however long you want, to make the stand as wide and as tall as you need (do remember when cutting it that the T pieces and elbow pieces will each add a few inches, so take that into account).
Then just snap the pieces into place, attach your fabric (we used clear packing tape), and stand back and admire your handiwork.
Up next, I’ll show you a some fab shots we got with our DIY PVC photo booth. Here’s one gem for you:
Chip chip cheerio! What dignified guests we have at our wedding!
Are you planning to have a photo booth at your shindig? Are you renting, buying or building your own DIY PVC photo booth?
