Cook Craft Parent

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Crafting is crafting, and if you ask my husband, I will take any opportunity to get a tool out. And that means literally ANY.TOOL.OUT.

Sooooo….Back Story….

My husband drives me nuts. Wives out there? That’s more than enough info; am I right? But seriously, this man loves his toys. And the more toys he can buy the better. He recently started a…stream??? I support the man, but I don’t always know the right terms. He streams about Open Source and other “technical hoo hah” and if it were up to him he would have a boom mic and a full lighting set up and probably hundreds more in studio supplies that I just don’t know about. The other day he (for maybe the 5th time) brought up a backdrop and green screen and how someone mentioned how you can use a sheet or something just a solid color.

Let me tell ya folks, there is this very common theme in our relationship where I say something like “The sky is blue” and he says something like “Yeah sure maybe but really its green” and then someone in his field looks outside and says “I’ve run the numbers, and I have concluded the sky is blue.” Then this crazy thing happens. This man I love comes running downstairs to tell me that he learned the craziest thing today: “Did you know the sky was blue?” Well, same thing with the solid color sheet. But I digress. Anyway he starts talking about how the stand for a green screen could run $100+ but no worries because he will just screw some massive holes in the ceiling and hang some sheets from the ceiling (just imagine me slamming my head against the wall…….now) As the one who patches and repairs the walls in our various rentals, and the one who claims to be 5’1” but is closer to 5′ that was a hard no from me. And also, my sweet husband, for the maybe 100th time, I can build it. And so I did.

Here is what you’ll need to get started.

2 PVC Elbows ($0.96)
2 PVC Ts ($1.70)
4 PVC end caps ($2.28)
2 PVC 3 way connectors ($1.98 I believe but we already had these)
2-3 10 foot PVC pipes depending on the height of your backdrop stand (we needed 3 so $5.10)
Solid defining color fabric to use green screen (we got ours at Walmart for $2.84 a yard $5.68) Your yardage will again depend on how big your backdrop stand is.
Something to hold up your fabric (We used clips from the Dollar Tree for $1)
A hack Saw or Pipe Cutter (these vary we had them but I will link some at the end)
Measuring tool of some sort

Lets start with the base. I had some leftover PVC from a sensory table I built (tutorial to come!) in 12” lengths so we decided to those. You will need four 12 inch cuts for the base, if you are going much higher than we did you may want to consider a larger base or even a triangle base for more support. Place 2 12″ pipes into the 3 way elbow. Then put your end caps onto the ends of your poles. EASY!

Our next cut was 30” This is the height of my husbands desk plus 1 inch (to allow for the sinking into the 3 way elbow and the T connector) You need 2 30” pipes to sink into either side.

You’ll now put the 2 T connectors on top of each 30” pipe. Still with me? At this point I had to wait for my husband to turn his computer on and finagle his webcam to determine where he was going to have it during his Live Streams. This is important because, well honestly, the height and width he originally wanted it was absurd. In theory you will know this before you dive in. We have a shared workspace, and while I don’t anticipate needing to work while he has his green screen up, I also didn’t want to compete with it if I did. Quite frankly I wouldn’t even be able to enter the room if I did mid stream.

Had to resist the urge to put on Jeopardy while I waited as he got wrapped up “fixing” something. Once everything was in place we decided that 37.5 inches wide was perfect so we then cup two pieces at 37.5”, and 2 pieces at 40” This brought our overall height to just about 70 inches. Again you don’t have to do it this tall. My husband has a sit/stand desk, and feels more comfortable streaming if he feels like he is presenting, so standing in front of people. We have enough leftover PVC that I did suggest we do a smaller upper section that is only another 30” on each side, so that if he decides, he can have a smaller set up for a seated streaming day. BUT AGAIN I DIGRESS!!!! Attach your center pole to the center of your T (37.5”)

The you attach each of your 40” to the tops of your T’s.

Last, and I apologize as I don’t have a great photo of this (I need to get my husband to take photos that aren’t so ridiculous lol, he took about 50 and the ones you see are the best I could find) you will put your elbows on the top of your 40” cuts, and add your final 37.5” pole in the middle.