New homemade equipment
I love finding inexpensive alternatives to pricier specialty bread equipment, particularly things like bannetons that are ridiculously overpriced. I do fairly big batches of bread and also don't have a lot of room to store things. I've been proofing loaves in wireframe 'couches' that I made out of 1/2" (1 cm) garden wire fencing, lined with napkins, but they are awkward to store, have sharp pointy bits and the napkins need to be washed all the time.
So I gave the DH a new task - cut me two pieces out of 1/4" plywood or scrap boards, cut two half circles out of them and drill three holes in each one into which a dowel can be loosely inserted. The 'couches' themselves consist of bamboo placemats ($1.25 each from the dollar store) which are well-supported by the wooden frames. And the whole thing comes apart easily and stores flat.
Here is the prototype, loaded with today's bread (a nice Kamut loaf). These are fairly small loaves - a 600 gram 'chubb' you might call it, but most of my loaves are 750 grams so will fit quite well too.
Once risen, the loaves released very easily from the floured bamboo; much easier than the ones risen in floured napkins. I just lifted the placemat off the frame and placed it flat on the counter, rolled each loaf onto my hand, then onto the prepared peel (long strips of 1/4" plywood). They had a very nice pattern on them too!