Make Your Own iPad Stand: 10 Cheap and Clever Ideas

Let’s face it: Browsing the internet on your iPad takes two hands. One hand holds the device; the other hand swipes. Fine, but the approach no longer works if, for example, you want to watch a step-by-step video as you work on fixing the lawn mower. That’s when you realize the importance—nay, the necessity—of a tablet stand. You could buy one, sure, but it’s easy to build your own. It might only take a few minutes, and you can use parts you likely have already.

Grab your youngster’s LEGO collection and hopefully among its many colorful blocks, you’ll find pieces from a Technic building set—the sort used to build little cars with rack-and-pinion steering. These kits include bars and pins that firmly hold LEGO pieces together, enabling you to construct a sturdy and definitely fun-looking DIY tablet stand. As a practical and whimsical finishing touch, incorporate rubber wheels to protect your tablet from scuffing.

Want to be sure your DIY tablet stand will stay in place? Anchor it down with a pair of claw hammers. Yeah, the tablet could probably stand without assistance from the Philips head, but it’s a nice touch—so is the polished hardware. 

The simplest and most portable of the bunch, this DIY tablet stand consists of two wood arms that slip over the sides of the tablet. Glue a magnet to each arm so that when traveling, you can easily keep the stand paired with your tablet.

Cooking in the kitchen with a tablet is a potential disaster. Cinnamon dust can cover every speaker hole on the device; splattered sauce can muck up the screen. Elevate the tablet out of harm’s way—while keeping the display at eye level—by simply bending an inexpensive wire coat hanger with linesman pliers—$0 and ingenious!

If you have a couple of wine corks on hand, this is a fun DIY tablet stand to make. Here’s how to do it: Drive a drywall screw through each cork, then tie cotton rope to the tip and head of each screw. The rope should be just long enough to hold the tablet steady as the corks meet the table top.

Ever seen the basic bookends sold at office supply stores? To work as DIY tablet stand, one of those thin metal organizers hardly needs any adjustment. All you need to do is tilt back the bookend’s side to achieve the best viewing angle, then clamp on a pair of binder clips to prevent the tablet from slipping.

The round footprint of a packing tape roll is wide enough to keep your tablet upright, but for stability, the key here is to put the groove (for the tablet’s base) off to one side of the centerline.

Build a handsome DIY tablet stand with scraps of cabinet-grade plywood. Start with a 6″-wide, 11″-long chunk (with a thickness, ideally, of 5/8″). Then cut a 3/8″-wide slot at 25 degrees, about an inch or so in from a 6″-wide edge. Using a sander, carve out a divot for the home button, then chamfer the edges for a finished look.

You can also create a stand with cardboard. Repurpose a FedEx box or, alternatively, use the one your tablet came in (avoid flimsier material like cereal boxes). The beauty of this design is the way it folds in half.

Perfect for scenarios in which a flat surface is unavailable, this lightweight stand (which you can break down and transport) is made of PVC pipes and fittings—easy and inexpensive materials to work with. 

If you are interested in more about DIY, consider:

5 Things to Do with… Mason Jars

Wing It: 11 Approaches to a DIY Birdbath

5 “Make in a Weekend” Bookshelf Projects (No Fancy Woodworking Required)