I recently got the chance to test out a shibari frame in my home, and thought I’d write a quick review.
One of the problems with renting is that we often can’t have hard points or fixed points installed in our ceilings. There’s a whole variety of ways to get around that, and this is yet another.
Over in Melbourne Australia, there’s a kinky engineer who has previously been making steel frames for shibari and other uses, e.g. indoor gym or aerials, silks, etc. He’s got some mad skills, and my local kink group ended up purchasing one of his frames for using at parties.
That frame is available for borrowing by members of the group, so I went ahead and did just that, because I wanted to test it out.
These particular shibari frames are made from carbon steel tubing. I’m a big fan of that, because I like to know that the equipment I’m using is sturdy as hell.
The entire thing fits into two reasonably heavy bags for easy storage.
Opening up the bags, we find a nice set of printed instructions along with the steel tubes and all the pins that hold it all together.
The frame is assembled starting from the top, and moving on down. You definitely want a decent sized room to set it up in. The dimensions for the shibari frame are:
- Ceiling Height: 2370mm
- Width: 1950mm
- Length: 2550mm
I just managed to fit it into my bedroom and above my bed. Just. Because I have a big room.
Fitting The Shibari Frame Together
It very much feels like putting together a jigsaw of sorts. But as you follow the instructions, it’s relatively straightforward.
There’s actually quite a lot you can do with the shibari frame even with just the top of it constructed. Here I’ve got it over my bed, and that means that the bed is taking up a lot of space, but I’ve seen a lot of pictures and even some video of people using frames that are relatively low to the ground.
If the bed wasn’t there, I could probably easily pull off some fun partial suspensions, e.g. tying someone’s legs up and out, etc.
But… I really like using my bed as a center point for a lot of BDSM scenes and bondage, so I figured I’d go the whole hog and see if I could set the whole thing up.
The really tricky part comes as you start fitting the longer legs into place. One side at a time. Things do get very wonky, and you definitely want to make sure you don’t have breakables in the way.
Once you get through that stage though, it’s remarkably sturdy and stable, and yes, I COULD center it above my bed. That’s important for future scenes.
Lessons Learned From First Test
I have learned some very useful things from putting this together. You definitely want to assemble it lengthwise, as much as possible; the legs don’t really form a square, more of a rectangle. That’s helpful to think about as you plan where to assemble it.
The first time I put it together, it took me about 30 minutes. I think that was largely due to inexperience, so next time I’ll probably manage to do it in 20 minutes, and maybe even as little as 15 minutes the time after that.
If your room is arranged right, then it’s not particularly uncomfortable as a permanent installation. Lying on the bed, it feels a lot like a four poster, as the legs come up all around. There’s plenty of room to move around underneath it.
Play Considerations
I think for maximum play benefits, you would probably want it in a larger room. The first time I saw it in use at a party, there was nothing beneath it, and that was really helpful in creating enough space for the two people using it to do a bondage and impact scene.
That said, even positioned above a bed as shown here, I could easily do all kinds of different play, including having someone kneeling with their hands tied above their head. I really like that. So if I were to get my own one, or regularly use this one, I’d probably keep making use of the bedroom for now.
It’s stable as fuck. I really like the crossbars in the top part of the shibari frame; it’s an excellent design for adding stability. You do feel some flex in the legs, but that’s minimal. When I saw the impact scene with this frame, there was absolutely no movement, and that person was being flogged pretty freaking hard while being partially suspended.
Shibari Frame Final Review:
As a kinkster and rope enthusiast who rents, I really like this option. It’s a very portable frame, it doesn’t take too long to set up, and if you’ve picked your rental with enough space, then it’s a really good option for setting up a home dungeon.
It’s not difficult to take down if you have a housing inspection; alternatively, you could leave it up with a pair of gymnastic rings and hey, it’s your home gym. If you’re into aerials, silks, or lyra, it’s great for that too.
I’m honestly not sure if the kinky engineer is still making these, but I really like it’s performance so far. It looks more stable than most aerial frames I’ve seen (again, I really like the crossbars at the top), and it’s entirely possible to put it together with just one person doing the work.
I really like it! And will definitely be making use of it again.
