Nicky Says: DIY BDSM

After a brief hiatus we’re back!

As I once told Brandon, guys have been into BDSM far longer than the Stockroom has been selling gear. And although I love the toys and bondage gear they carry, sometimes I want something more personal, more tailored to my tastes, something I don’t have to pay twice as much to ship as it did to purchase.

Good news is you don’t have to be a genetically engineered cross between Bob Villa, Martha Stewart and the Marquis de Sade to create some pretty intense gear.

Now, the first, and easiest,  Do it Yourself  is ROPE. Although I have some specialty ropes, my go-to standard for play is what you can buy at the hardware store.  Nothing too fancy, it comes in loads of colors and you can get about 50′ for $25.00.  This is one of those things that you should go into the store and buy. You want to feel it, make sure it’s flexible and soft — you don’t want that stiff rope you’d use to tie down a tarp. Something with a good weave and a good core.

STRAPS, BELTS and RESTRAINTS.  First and foremost, bandannas. The quickest, easiest little gag you already probably have on hand.  You do have to remember that cloth will dry out a subs mouth faster than say a rubber ball gag, but for DIY, hey it works in a pinch.  They also can be useful for tying a subs hands to a thin bed-rail. Scarves and neckties work a little better for that because you have more length.

The little fun “slave belt” at the left was found by a friend of mine at a dollar store.  It’s leather with four steel O rings and and adjustable snap closure. Is it perfect? No, but it serves it purpose for the price. If you keep your eyes and mind open, you’ll find stuff like this around in the oddest places. And a regular leather belt makes a hell of a strop for laying across someone’s butt.

As far as restraints go, every time I have a piece of carry-on luggage or a laptop bag that bites the big one…I save the strap.  Just cut the shoulder protector pad off. You’re left with a nice, adjustable (out to close to three feet) nylon web strap with quick release clips on each end.

For IMPACT TOYS, it’s amazing what you already have in your kitchen. A good quality wooden spoon stings pretty darn good across skin. I have a wooden stirrer I like that because it’s flat with a hole in the middle — adds another layer of sensation.

If you’re half ass handy with a jig/scroll-saw and a piece of sandpaper, you can make some pretty nice collection of paddles. A submissive friend of mine makes these babies out of scrap hardwood — oak, walnut and the like (he finds suitable pieces in the “cut-ends” bin at the local lumber yard and they sell it cheap). He recommends sanding it very well as splinters are a bitch and adding a coat of polyurethane to seal the wood. And like I’ve already mentioned a wide leather belt works as good as most floggers.

Almost anything can be BONDAGE FURNITURE. Even a Hollywood bed frame has a few attachment points. Standard wrought iron and tubular aluminum bed frames are great and have the added bonus of not being obvious. You can screw eyebolts an inch or so below mattress level on wooden headboards.  I’ve seen restraint cables that slide between a mattress and box-spring in an X pattern.  You could buy that — or with extra luggage straps create one yourself.

You can buy a reasonably nice leather coffee table from most discount stores for around $130-160 and use it as a bondage bench. Some have a bonus of storage space for your toys.  Buy that at a specialty store it’ll bite close to $500 out of your wallet. With the coffee table variety, it’ll pretty much fade into the background of a living room or bedroom (put it at the end of the bed and watch it go unnoticed).  Just make sure when you get it that you test out the construction.  Nothing’s worse than having a table collapse when a sub’s tied up to it. Highbacked wooden kitchen chairs are great for tying guys up to.   A Prie Dieu or Kneeler might run a few hundred dollars, while a leather and chrome kneeling “posture” chair will cost around $75 and slip right under the desk for storage and camouflage. A few Mistresses I know of use those little boudoir chairs (from the 50′s & 60′s) for the same purpose.

Or, if you’re a little handy with an electric drill/screwdriver you can make your own specialty items: like this circular rolling BDSM table I found up for sale/trade on Craigslist. You don’t even have to be able to cut wood, some of the big hardware chains sell circular cut plywood for table tops.  Eye-bolts have been set around the edge, giving you a good section of tie-down points. The builder screwed on a handful of locking casters for support. That way it can be rolled into position or to be locked in place. The weight of the sub on the platform should keep it grounded (since it weighs close to 50lbs on it’s own). There’s also a good solid handle on the bottom so you can lift it up and move it. This one is just painted matte black, but if you knew something about upholstery (and hey, I’ve had to recover the seats on my hearse…it’s not terribly hard) you could have it covered with leather or coat it with rubberized paint.

A little ingenuity and a few trips to the hardware store  you can create your own dungeon in no time.

If you have any questions you’d like answered, email me at Nicky@James-Buchanan.com

Remember folks this is my opinion.  Others may have differing views on the subject.  I recommend doing a lot of research and talking to a lot of people before you start to play.   I also recommend you read Safer Kinky Sex. http://actoronto.org/home.nsf/pages/bdsm/$file/BDSM%20Safer%20Kinky%20Sex.pdf