Kodi users looking for an advanced, personalized user interface will enjoy this guide that shows exactly how to design your own custom Kodi Build by changing the Skin and adding custom Widgets for a fabulous streaming experience.
This is a great way to use all of your preferred addons and customize the home screen to curate the exact content you are looking for. Best of all, it is much easier than you might imagine.
If you are a frequent Kodi user, you have likely used Kodi Builds in the past to provide a streamlined experience packed with Movies, TV Shows, Live TV, and more. Many cord-cutters prefer builds instead of standalone addons due to the unique, Netflix-style interfaces they provide, similar to premium streaming apps and APKs.
The updated home screen you see when using pre-made builds comes from Kodi Skins, which dictate the entire visual interface of the software. These Skins are often heavily modified by third-party developers to create a complete system for streaming. However, you can easily install these skins yourself, pair them with your favorite addons, and design the layout exactly as you please—effectively creating your own Kodi Build from scratch!
While many are accustomed to the original default interface, pictured below, which uses the “Estuary” Kodi Skin, we can quickly swap this out.
There are dozens of highly customizable skin options that will completely upgrade the user interface and improve your overall Kodi experience. Pictured below is just one example of a popular Kodi Skin (Aeon Tajo) that enhances the layout and content menus.
Kodi Skins vary heavily in size, layout, design, and features. One of the absolute best features available within premium skins is the ability to add and adjust Widgets that display dynamic content on your home screen.
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When you establish widgets within Kodi, you no longer have to manually open your preferred addon each time you launch the app. You can simply browse through trending movies, new episodes, and live channels directly from the main menu.
NOTE: Not all available skins support custom widgets, so it is important to test different options and see what works best for your specific streaming device.
In this guide, we are using the ever-popular Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max. This is one of the most popular choices for Kodi users due to its affordable price and ease of jailbreaking.
However, these instructions also work flawlessly on other platforms, including Android TV/Google TV Boxes such as the MECOOL, NVIDIA SHIELD, Onn 4K Pro, Windows PCs, or any other device running the Kodi software.
How to Design a Custom Kodi Build
The best method for creating your own custom Kodi build is by installing your favorite addons first, and then applying a new Kodi Skin to manage them. After doing so, you can map custom widgets to those addons for instant access to VOD content, live streaming, and more.
In the guide below, we are using the Arctic Zephyr Reloaded Skin, which natively supports powerful widget integration. For an updated list of the best Skin options to try, use our guide below.
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Check Availability & PricingBest Kodi Skins to Upgrade Your Interface
Step 1: Change Kodi Skin
1. From the Kodi home screen, select the Settings gear icon in the top left.
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2. Choose Interface.
3. Select Skin.
4. Click Get more…
5. Choose Arctic: Zephyr – Reloaded (or the Skin of your choice from the list).
6. Wait for the skin and its required dependencies to install.
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7. Click Yes when asked if you would like to keep this change.
8. Your new Kodi Skin will immediately load.
9. You are now presented with the clean, modern interface this skin provides.
In order to truly maximize this new interface, you must set up custom widgets to populate the home screen with streaming links.
Step 2: Set Up Kodi Widgets
Using widgets within Kodi is a fabulous way to fetch and display your preferred addon’s content without ever launching the addon itself. Trending Movies, TV Shows, and sports categories are injected directly onto the home screen!
NOTE: Users must have their Kodi addons already installed prior to doing this. In this guide, we have pre-installed the popular POV Addon and DaddyLive addon. You can use any high-quality options you prefer, such as The Crew, Magic Dragon, Asgard, or Umbrella[cite: 1]. Feel free to browse our categories below for inspiration:
Once your addons are installed, we can integrate them with custom widgets using the following steps.
Add Movie/TV Show Widgets
1. Launch Kodi and from the new main menu, select Settings.
2. Choose Skin settings.
3. Click Customise home menu.
4. Hover over Videos on the left panel and scroll down to select Widget 1 – Fullscreen.
5. Choose Widget 1.
6. Select Add-On.
7. Click Video Add-On.
8. Choose POV (or the specific on-demand addon of your choice).
9. Select Movies.
10. Select Popular (or any other sub-category you want displayed).
11. Click Use as widget.
12. Type a category name of your choice (e.g., “Trending Movies”) and click the blue checkmark.
We will now set up a TV Show widget using the exact same methodology.
13. Return to the Settings menu and select Widget 2.
14. Make sure the Status for this Widget is set to Enabled.
15. Follow the previous steps to select your preferred Video Addon for TV Shows and map your target category (e.g., Popular TV).
16. Enter the title for this category and select the checkmark in the lower left-hand corner.
17. You can continue enabling and setting up as many widgets as your device’s memory can handle using these same instructions.
Return to the Kodi home screen, and you will see your new widgets elegantly displaying content from your preferred categories.
Scroll down to browse through the various rows of TV Show and Movie custom widgets that you just mapped.
Add Live TV Widgets
As noted above, you can integrate any addon category you prefer into these menus, including Live Streaming and IPTV channels.
Use the steps below to map a Live TV Widget to the home screen.
1. Open Settings and select an empty Widget slot you wish to enable.
2. Make sure the slot is enabled and click the Widget title again.
3. Click Live TV.
4. Choose Add-On.
5. Click Video Add-On.
6. Select the Live TV addon of your choice (e.g., DaddyLive).
7. Choose a specific live-streaming category from within the addon.
8. Click Use as widget.
9. Enter a name for this live streaming row and click the checkmark icon.
Available Live Channels from that addon will now display directly on your Kodi home screen for instant access.
Step 3: Create Custom Home Menu Tabs
Besides populating the default Video and Live TV tabs, we can easily create an entirely brand-new menu tab with the content of our choice. In the steps below, we will create a custom home screen tab specifically for Sports Content.
1. From the Skin settings customization menu, hover over a category tab on the left and click the Plus (+) button to add a new menu item.
2. Click Label to change the name of the tab.
3. Type whatever you wish to name this tab (e.g., “Live Sports”) and click the blue checkmark button.
4. Select Widget 1 for this new tab.
5. Click Add-On.
6. Choose Video Add-On.
7. Choose your preferred sports addon.
8. Select Live Sports (or whichever specific category you wish to isolate to this home screen tab).
9. Click Use as widget.
10. Enter the title name you wish to describe this widget row with and click the checkmark icon.
11. The home screen will now display your entirely custom menu tab and corresponding widget!
How to Install Addons on a Custom Skin
If you are used to using the default Estuary skin, you probably have the traditional addon installation process memorized. The layout for adding sources in File Manager looks slightly different on a custom skin like Arctic Zephyr, but the process is exactly the same.
1. From the main menu, select Settings.
2. Click File Manager.
3. Click Add Source.
4. Choose None.
5. Type the Repo URL of your choice. (In this instance, we are entering the URL for Seren).
6. Enter a media source name and click OK.
7. Return to the main Settings Menu and click Add-ons.
8. Click Install from zip file.
9. Choose the media source name you just created.
10. Click the zip file to install the repository.
11. You will see your Repo installed message appear in the corner.
12. Click Install from repository.
13. Select the repo of your choice.
14. Click Video add-ons.
15. Select your preferred addon from the list.
16. Click the download/install button.
17. If prompted with a list of additional dependencies, click OK.
18. You will then see an installation success message for your addon in the upper right-hand corner.
Your new addon is now installed and ready to be mapped to a custom widget!
Advanced Customization & Cache Maintenance
The best way to truly dial in your custom Kodi Build is by actively testing different Skins and Widgets on your preferred device. You can easily add and customize as many widgets as you prefer, including dedicated rows for Music, Pictures, and Maintenance Programs.
You can effortlessly remove pre-programmed category options by clicking the X button next to a title selection in the Skin settings menu.
There are deep customization options available, including the ability to completely change the Home menu style and layout.
You can also adjust the global screen aesthetics, including Background Brightness, Fadetime, Fanart overlays, and more.
Optimizing Your Build (Crucial Step)
If you are loading up your custom build with heavy add-ons and constant widget refreshing, you are highly likely to run into cache overload and severe buffering issues[cite: 1]. To keep your new build running smoothly, I strongly recommend installing a maintenance add-on like EZ Maintenance or Open Wizard to automatically clear your cache and tweak your advancedsettings.xml file[cite: 1].
As noted above, there are tons of different Skins available that vary wildly in size, layout, and widget functionality. We suggest installing and testing numerous options until you find one that suits your device’s memory limitations. An official list of verified Kodi Skins is available directly on the Kodi website below.
Official Kodi Skins Repository
For more tutorial guides to get the absolute most out of your streaming device, check out our popular resource guides below:
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