Homemade Journal is a curated study exploring carpentry, architecture, and sustainable living. It is a journal of ideas, spaces, and work that resonate and inspire me. 

This project is an attempt at self-taught learning in public. A place to express and embrace wonder, creativity, and thoughtful observation as I deepen my understanding of how homes and spaces are designed, built, and lived in.

After building Off-Grid Camper Cafe, I realised how much I cared about why and how spaces are made. Now studying residential drafting whilst working as an apprentice carpenter, I am continuing to build on and refine years of self-taught experience. Homemade Journal is part of that process. It is a place to document what I’m learning and to share the work that inspires me along the way.

My interests include, but are not limited to, sustainability, minimalism, affordability, and self-sufficiency. I value practical design, beauty, style, and function equally. I’m especially drawn to humanistic architecture, spaces that people feel grounded in and thrive within.

I respect and enjoy modest, improvised structures by DIYers just as much as refined architecture and bespoke carpentry by a master builder. For me, it is not about perfection, but about the essence of a structure that gives it’s allure, it is the feeling it creates and the way that it supports life that is important to me.

Content here will take the form of case studies, interviews, research notes, and on-site observations. It will feature sustainable building practices, ideologies, architects, builders, DIYers, homeowners, and other makers whose work balances clarity, care, and craft. The focus includes but it is not limited to homes, cabins, farms, and small-scale builds. As well as third places like cafés, museums, churches, and libraries. Anywhere people gather, rest, work, or feel a sense of belonging.

Homemade Journal is a personal project, open to the public. Created for education and inspirational purposes. Welcome to Homemade Journal.

– Jacob