So what is the deal with this Re:Make thing I keep mentioning?

Re:Make is Brit + Co’s two-day maker event held a couple times a year. Day 1 is an invitation-only conference with awesome speakers and demos by startups. Day 2 is a festival open to the public with tons of handmade products and DIY project stations.

I was able to attend September’s Re:Make in San Francisco, largely due to a Brit + Co contributor travel stipend from Lowe’s (also a conference sponsor).

Even though the festival day happened after the conference day, I’m going to start on Day 2 at the festival.

The Living Room of the Future

With all the fabulous festival happenings, you know what I did first? Hunt for an outlet to charge my almost-dead phone. I figured my best bet would be the The Living Room of the Future. (Feel free to read that in a deep, echoing voice like “The Living Room-oom-oom! of the Future-uture-uture!”)

The Living Room of the Future was a whole room constructed just for the weekend to demonstrate Lowe’s IRIS line of smart home products. It had sturdy walls (holding artwork and a pretty massive monitor), a full set of furniture, a door, and (thankfully!) working outlets.

One of the Lowe’s reps moved a plug down to make room for my charger. Turns out it wasn’t just any plug, it was a smart plug. (Did you know plugs could be smart?!) It’s basically the updated version of those timers you plug your lights into when you go out of town. Except it you can control it from your phone. The only “installation” required is plugging it in to an outlet. That piqued my interest, because we rent our place, so we can’t get too crazy in the home improvement department.

Since I was hanging out waiting for my phone anyway, I asked what else they had that would work in a rental. Turns out most of their stuff would. There are sensors that can text you if there’s motion in your house or just if someone opens the door. (Of course, I had travel on the brain, but it’d be nice if you’re at work all day too.)

I didn’t notice it when I walked in, but the door to The Living Room of the Future (Door to the Future?!) had one of those cool keypad doorknobs. The house where I Airbnb’ed in July had one too. So. handy. Think about not having to coordinate a key handoff for houseguests/pet sitters/a friend stopping by while you’re stuck in traffic/etc.

In case you’re wondering, yes, Lowe’s bought my plane ticket. But I did not expect to get this excited about a smart home system. I’m really not into tech for the sake of tech, but if it makes my life better, I’m in. And their stuff turned out to be pretty neat.

Walking through Pinterest boards

Once I got my phone charged up, I needed a recharge too. I headed over to get some handpoured goodness from the Philz Coffee crew, who had become my BFFs during the conference.

From there, the hall opened up. There was a booth with Luna Bar samples in apothecary jars (Because this was Re:Make. And even the granola bars needed to be cute.), a mini version Brit + Co’s community maker space MakeShop with Brit Kits and 3D printers, a Michael’s “Raw Bar” with projects inspired by the same raw-look trend as our cork vase Make Break the day before, and handmade cornhole games in progress (Can someone explain to me why cornhole is suddenly everywhere?)

There were also lots of photo booth backdrops (also very Brit + Co) for selfies. I snapped a quick one in front of a Lowe’s backdrop, and then someone asked me a question, and I got totally sidetracked and forgot to take a better one.

Sprinkled throughout the hall were DIY stations where you could do things like paint your own tote, make a Lego house, or decorate a Lowe’s paint cans to hold your purchases.

100 vendors were there with handmade and artisan products – messenger bags, ceramics, jewelry, cards, soaps. I basically wanted to buy everything. Combined with all the DIYing going on, it really kind of felt like my Pinterest boards had come to life. Seriously. You can check out the merch in the B+C Shop.

An impressive 4,000 people made their way to the festival by the end of the day. It was overwhelming but so amazing!

I’ll fill you in on the first day of Re:Make (the conference day) next week! In the meantime, check out my Make Break post or Instagrams from the trip.