The DIY Principle in Home Improvement: Background, Motivation and Benefits

Abstract Producing objects for one’s own consumption is a major strand in the historical development of material culture. Making things with one’s own hands can be considered a natural means to satisfy human needs. In the present time, this form of production is covered by the term “do-it-yourself” (DIY). DIY has become a global social phenomenon, especially thanks to the opportunities enabled by the Internet. Websites provide a lively forum for discussion, sharing ideas, how-to guides, and galleries of the results of DIY projects. The present work addresses home improvement DIY projects carried out by individuals in Slovakia. The aim is to outline the background, motivation and inspiration of so called do-it-yourselfers, the DIY process and participants’ evaluation of their work. DIY is generally considered to be an activity for amateurs, which is to say people who engage in the activity in their free time, as opposed to professionals, who perform such activity as their job or to earn a living. Moreover, the paper also partly focuses on the relationship between amateurs and professionals which has shown to be the basic principle of current DIY home improvements. One of significant findings of the research showed that the individual experience of craftsmanship or craftwork and the individual need for self-expression appear to be important parts of the DIY experience. Research findings contribute to a better understanding of DIY production in the context of design as an academic discipline. The main research method used was a questionnaire titled “DIY home improvement”, which was drawn up on the model of prior research abroad.