DIY Boutique Photography Table

I got a lot of questions this week about the table I use to photograph all my LuLaRoe inventory for album sales. It’s a DIY project that my husband Seth helped me create and not only does it save time and my back while taking hundreds of photos each week, I also think it helps the photos look crisp and clean which is always our goal.

To make this DIY Boutique Photography Table, I used a large 48 inch by 48 inch square canvas from Michaels. The wood frame gives you a strong base for your items to lay on, a foundation to attach legs and to hook the top hanging pieces and the texture helps the clothes lay flat and not slide. As an added bonus the coating on the canvas is easy to wipe clean to keep it looking great week after week. The large canvas is around $95 but watch for coupons and you should be able to get it for around half. I did 2 stations, and found a special at Michaels for buy 1 get 1 FREE to make the process as efficient as possible for two people, but one set up is plenty.

 For the wall we used 2 large white peg board pieces from Lowes, they were about $20 a sheet and we screwed those into the wall first. You can go directly into studs in the wall, but we wanted the versatility of the peg board to use for other photos if we wanted in the future. The side pieces are inexpensive closet supports also from Lowes, they are what you would use to hold shelves in a closet system we just used them for this project to be able to easily change the heights and angle of the canvas for different styles and photos whenever we want.

For the legs, we cut 2 waist height pieces for each canvas out of 1 inch white wood trim, drilled a hole through the canvas and the leg piece and secured with a bolt, washer and wing nut so the legs can swing and move and accommodate whatever angle we need. If you want the legs to fold flat to store flush to the wall when not in use, put the leg on the outside of the canvas. I put mine on the inside so I wouldn’t catch the edge when walking around it, but that’s totally up to you.

The top attaches to the closet track with a hanging hook that we screwed into the wood frame. To make inserting into the track quick and easy, use pliers to straighten the hook just a bit to slide in and out smoothly. The goal is for one person to be able to lift and adjust the height with ease.

I love that I can quickly display and photograph my inventory and not have to bend over a million times, or step up and down from a stool to get the perfect angle. The waist height saves my back and my time.

The lights are LED Neewer lights from Amazon you can adjust the brightness and white/yellow tones and I highly recommend them. The iPad holder and tripod are also from Amazon and work great.

Even with the best set up, if you are using an iPad colors and brightness can get distorted because while they are efficient, iPad just don’t have the white balance capability of a professional camera so this little tip works great. When you have your item on your DIY table under the lights, tap an area on your iPad and this little yellow box appears, from here tap and slide that yellow sun up and you can quickly adjust the light before snapping the picture and save yourself time editing those photos later.

In the end we made each table setup for less than $75 and I love how it looks and how it works for our busy boutique. I hope this was helpful, feel free to leave questions in the comments I’m happy to help any way I can.