Mindobitto products are displayed at SangSang Madang Design Square in western Seoul. Captured from SangSang Madang Design Square's Instagram
By Lee Gyu-lee
As the personal customization trend continues to surge among younger generations, everything from diaries and bags to keyboards is being transformed into unique expressions of individuality. From specialized stationery boutiques to hidden gems offering unique keyrings and plush accessories, various shops have become creative havens for decorative enthusiasts, fueling the DIY movement that's transforming everyday items into personal statements.
Explore these stylish shops filled with charming and unique decor supplies and products that satisfy young consumers’ creative urges.
Located in the bustling alleys near Hongik University in western Seoul, SangSang Madang’s Design Square offers a wide selection of products, from accessories, craft supplies to stationery items in different characters and patterns made by various designers. The store often collaborates with trendy characters to release new merchandise.
This month, the store is holding a pop-up joining hands with popular duck character Qwakcheol, introducing products like keyrings, stickers and color-changing mugs.
One can also find decorative supplies like masking tape, stickers and phone grips featuring other popular cartoon characters such as Crayon Shin-chan and Zanmang Loopy.
A goldfish bag design iPod case / Captured from Akdang House's Instagram
For those who are into diary decorating, Rihoon Mansion, a small shop in Yeonnam-dong, presents a treasure trove of customization supplies.
From colorful diaries in pastel tones to an extensive collection of decorative items, the shop carefully curates its selection, allowing visitors to mix and match items to align with their personal aesthetic.
It also offers diaries and planners with various templets to suit the customer’s need, like for studying, organizing daily schedules or keeping pregnancy journals. The sticker and memo pads selection include simple and minimalist designs as well as vibrant and funny patterns like food stickers.
The store also has an extensive selection on its online shopping platform from digital planner templates for tablets to wall calendars and notebooks for expense journal entries, catering to those who extend their customization hobbies into the digital realm. It also offers personalized engraving for those purchasing diaries, notebooks and pen cases.
Akdang House is another popular select shop for customers looking for charming everyday goods from mobile phone and earphone cases to home decor. The store offers unique products like strawberry muffin-shaped multi-purpose boxes, flower vases in the shape of a loaf of bread and teddy bear doorbells.
It also sells quirky designs for Bluetooth earphone cases like a goldfish in a plastic bag, a giant tooth or pink lips, along with cute designs like Hello Kitty donut-shaped cases and fluffy koala cases. One of its DIY items is an Apple watch strap that can be decorated to any liking with different shaped pendants like bunnies, ribbons and hearts.
A keyring designed with various patches at Object Sangga / Captured from Object Sangga's Instagram
If anyone is looking to make their own keychains or keyrings, Tag, located in the trendy neighborhood of Seongsu-dong, is the perfect destination.
The select shop has various pieces and supplies for customers to make their own keychains. From colorful initial pieces to metal and plastic pieces in various shapes like hearts, wings and stars, it allows customers to find fresh inspiration for DIY keychains.
The shop's intimate atmosphere encourages visitors to take their time browsing through the shelves and discovering unique items. Along with DIY keychains, the store has premade ones, from metal and beaded keychains to plush keyrings. It also has decorative supplies like stickers and postcards, as well as items like mini purses and cassette tape cases in colorful designs.
For enthusiasts of hand drawings and decorating patches, Object Sangga is a go-to place. The shop put on display a wide selection of patches from hand-drawn designs to alphabet or numeric pieces for customers to pick for their creative projects.
Pebble On's colored keycaps / Captured from Pebble On's Instagram
The store sells bags, diaries, coin purses and other items for one to choose from and mix-match the patches to their liking. The customers can use the patches to decorate their items like bags, pouches and gloves, or to create something of their own like keyrings, cellphone straps, cup holders or even bookmarks.
The shop has two physical locations near Hongdae in Yeonhui-dong in Seodaemun District and Seogyo-dong in Mapo District, as well as an online shopping platform. It also holds pop-up stores in different locations like Jeju Island, which launched this month, and Nagoya, Japan, which ran until last month.
For those looking to refresh their workspace, Pebble On offers various decorations for keyboards to create a more unique and lightened mood while working.
The shop specializes in creating different designs of keycaps and keyboards. The product includes colorful keycaps from pastel tone or vintage style colored ones to vibrant tones like violet or rainbow.
It also sells unique designs like ones with traditional style drawings, popular characters or in the shape of a metal book, as well as transparent ones that light up in different colors.
Winnie the Pooh-themed planner template on Webudding / Captured from Webudding's Instagram
In the digital era, craft and decorating have also gone digital with the online marketplace Webudding.
The platform is home to thousands of digital templates from individual designers for those who digitally keep their journals on phones or tablets. It offers various themed templates from popular characters like Hello Kitty and favorite K-pop stars like BTS to simple color-coordinated designs.
Along with planners, the platform also offers digital stickers for the journals and wallpapers to decorate the devices.
English (United States) ·