DIY Reading for Hipsters: ReadyMade Magazine

ReadyMade Magazine isn’t really for your hard-core home renovator or contractor. If you were to show the mag to your dad, he’d probably grunt and roll his eyes – especially if you had the page flipped to the instructions for making bowls out of melted vinyl records or the article on Pac-Man inspired lighting fixtures. But if you like a bit of whimsy and quirk in your home reno and décor projects, ReadyMade Magazine doesn’t disappoint.

A little bit of everything gets touched on by ReadyMade – like interior design, furniture making, lighting, woodworking, metal, gardening, crafting, tool reviews and recipes. What sets ReadyMade apart from a lot of magazines is its ingenuity in reusing materials and finding new uses for stuff that might otherwise hog up space in the clutter graveyard or dump. Sure, some of the projects – like the one where The Flaming Lips dropped in to help build a space station out of junk – probably won’t make your to-do list, but you never know what brilliance they could inspire.

Many of the features appeal to the indie-low-fi-Urban-Outfitter-shopping contingent, but we try not to hold that against the magazine too much. After all, the language, projects and earnest non-preachy zest for ecologically sound and imagination tingling DIY are all pretty refreshing.

ReadyMade Magazine is published bi-monthly for $4.99 a copy, although Amazon offers a deal that can get you a full-year’s subscription for just $11.97.