iPad DIY book style case

I’ve been lucky to own an iPad for a months now and it’s proved very useful for various musical and web related things. When I first got it I had a look around the net for a notebook/moleskin or book style case, and eventually settled on one made by Treegloo. It worked well at protecting the iPad and is extremely well constructed but I always felt it was a bit bulky and after looking on the net came to the conclusion that this was a common feature of a lot of these cases i.e. those with a wooden frame surrounded by a book jacket cover such as those from Portenzo and DodoCase.

So, after browsing around the net a bit further, I read a post by someone suggesting fixing a silicone case inside the cover of a book… and that is what I did 🙂

The silicone case is a Belkin TPU Grip Vue for iPad – Clear suitable for the current original version of the iPad (iPad 2 hasn’t been announced at the time of writing this). The book is a copy of Biodynamic Gardening for Health and Taste by Hilary Wright, available for around a fiver from my local charity shop and the case is fixed onto the inside cover of the book using strips of velcro about 1cm wide, a strip on each side, quite close to the edge of the iPad where it curves up so so that it doesn’t add too much to the thickness. To keep it closed when moving it about I just use a largish rubber band.

The case is starting to look a bit scuffed up now after a couple of months use, but I don’t mind this too much, so long as it holds together which it should do with the strips of Gaffa tape fixed on the inside of the spine. Overall I love it as it disguises the iPad, is light and doesn’t mask the curved contours of the iPad making it much nicer to hold. You can even position it in a standing / propped up position for watching your favourite TED talks on.

The book that the cover came from is still usable too; glueing it’s dust jacket back onto it means it’s now become a paperback!

More photos available on my Flickr page.