Eco-home makers are permaculturists, artists and environmentalists who actively engage with the environment and nature in order to build self-made, sustainable homes. Through the conceptual lens of “placemaking”, we draw on an ethnographic study of eco-home makers and focus on unpacking important lessons for sustainable HCI research. Engaging with 15 eco-home makers in rural Australia and China, we aim to develop an in-depth understanding of how and why they design, build and retrofit their eco-homes. Our findings show that eco-home makers apply a material-first approach, align their designs with nature and are influenced by sociality and everydayness of making. We conclude by discussing how such insights can deepen our understanding of placemaking and DIY in HCI, and open up new avenues for future design and research of computing tools to empower residents as place-makers, enabling them to make their own living environments sustainable.