Every summer we put up a collapsible shade canopy on our back deck. To make it high enough for tall people to walk under, I screwed short pieces of scrap 4x4s onto the legs, like stumpy little stilts. They worked but they were ugly, and had to be roped in place in case the wind ever tried to carry the whole thing away. This meant setup and takedown took time and it all looked sloppy.

So I designed and printed a trim set of stilts on modular joints that twist-lock into fittings permanently screwed onto the deck, tapered and nearly flat so people won’t trip on them. They’re barely noticeable and the whole project is super mundane, but I’m inordinately proud of them because I am a dull man.

edit: as requested, I added an image of one of the “stilts”. Besides what I already mentioned, another reason I did this was that with the 4x4 stumps attached, the frame didn’t fit in its fabric storage cover when taken down every year, and I didn’t want to unscrew and reattach the 4x4s every time. The new stilts attach to the canopy legs with one small screw, and they’ll all fit in a zippered side pocket of the cover. The other reason for doing this, and if I’m honest the main one, is my love of 3d design lol.