Have you ever wondered how to build a DIY pop-up recording booth but were not sure where to start? Follow these instructions and handy shopping list. I managed to build mine for less than $250, but if you shop around you could probably do it for cheaper!
With the current Covid-19 situation, I’m at home this week and decided to finally upgrade my recording space to be able to make the best voice over recordings possible. I had originally planned to convert one of my closets but that would mean losing a a lot of storage space! We live in a small townhouse and I wanted something I could set up and take down easily if needed.
My first go at this was much too big and it didn’t fit in the space allotted (a small section of my home office). Thankfully it was really easy to adjust the size!
Where to purchase materials: A home improvement store like Lowe’s or Home Depot
What you will need:
Six 10′ long PVC pipes
Eight PVC elbow joints
Eight PVC T-shape joints
Five moving blankets (72″ by 80″)
One package zip ties (minimum 16)
The first step is to cut the PVC pipes to size. The first time we did this, we cut them too big. (But err on the side of too big, because you can always shorten them later). In the end, here are the measurements we settled on:
5′ long by 4′ wide by 6′ tall
Obviously, if you are taller than me or have less or more space you might need to adjust these measurements, but this is what I have set up right now.
Step 1: Cut four of the pipes to be 6′ long. Put the leftover 4′ long pipes to the side
Step 2: Cut two of the 10′ pipes in half.
You should have four 6′ pipes, four 5′ pipes and four 4′ pipes
Step 3: Take the 5′ and 4′ pipes and cut them in half. You need to do this for attaching the t-joints.
You should have:
four 2.5′ pipes
four 2′ pipes
four 6′ pipes
Grab the moving blankets, elbow joints, t-joints and zip ties and head on home!
Now it’s time to attach them all together! Keep in mind I made my booth 5’x5’x7′ the first time around so it looks bigger in the pictures than the finished product. You’ll need to attach the shorter pieces together using the T-joints. You could glue them if you wanted but I didn’t. Next, use the elbow joints to make two evenly sized squares. One square will go on the bottom, the other will go on top, supported by the 6′ tall pipes. It helps to have a tall person at this point. (Thanks to my husband for being my handy tall person <3).
Here is the first square in place around my desk.
Here is the structure before we attached the moving blankets. We ended up making it shorter and smaller so it fit better in my office.
Next you’ll need to get out the moving blankets. Take the first blanket and one hole on each side. Attach it over the top of the structure to the 6′ tall pipes using the zip ties.
Take two blankets and lay them horizontally. Cut three holes along one of the long edges of each and using zip ties, attach the blankets to the long sides of the structure.
Take two blankets and lay them vertically. Cut three holes along one of the short sides of each blanket. Use zip ties to attach them to the structure vertically on the shorter sides.
So far my booth has been up for a week and seems pretty solid. I’m super happy with the results I’ve gotten.
This won’t give you the same quality results as a professional studio but its certainly a good “starter booth.” If you’d like to see more photos, have questions or you’d like to hear a sample recording from within the booth, send me an email at suzanne at genuinevo dot com or use the contact button at the top of the page!
The best part is that our cat thinks its the best thing ever and wants to stay in it at all times. I can’t say I mind 🙂