I usually max out Smithing and Enchantment and make my own gear for my character. But after a while, it's boring.

Soo I acctually make use of the unique Armours/Weapons. Witch made my gaming much more fun now.

While yes, there is not really any unique Gloves/Braces/Gauntlets and Boots exept few sets like Thief, Assassin, Nightingale and Old gods (Basically a HomeMade Farnsworth set) sets.

Well yes, I make the armours and weapons better on the Grindstone and Workbench. And if not having the set items, I have home made Arms and legs items.

Resently, I use:

Head: Aetherial Crown

Body: Ebony Mail

Hands: Home made Ebony Gauntlets

Boots: Home made Ebony Boots

Amulet: Amulet of the Gargoyle

Ring: Ring of the Erudite

Shield: SpellBreaker

Sword: Harkon's Sword

2-Handed: Volendrung

Dagger: Bound Dagger (Spell)

Bow: Dwarven Black Bow of Fate

DragonBone Arrows (Have to make use of the smithing skill and Dragon Bones on something )

Thieves guildmaster armor with nightingale gloves.

Hide Armor and Ancient Nord Greatsword.

I haven't used any made armor/weapons this round. I use heavy steel armor and the skyforge Greatsword. Looking to make a change here soon though.

Uniques, I have had characters collect every non Faction Unique Item in the Game

I am obsessed enough with Unique Weapons and Armor to have played a character that only used the Woodsmans Friend until aquiring the Rueful Axe.

My current Dwemer obsessed character only uses Dwemer made Weapons and Armor that are a reward for a Quest (Spellbreaker), or found in a Dwemer Ruin (Nchuand-Zel).

For an interesting playstyle, have a Mage only use Found Spellbooks that are not loot in a chest or on an opponent.

On my recent Khajiit thief/assassin I've been using a combination of the Guild Master's armor with the Shrouded hood, gloves and boots exclusively for 90% of my current game.

On my Dunmer (who has pale skin and white eyes), I wear the Ancient Falmer Armour with the Aetherial Crown and Auriel's Bow/ Sun arrows on my back.

My evil Imperial wore Ebony Boots with the Ebony Mail, Nightingale Gauntlets and the Nightingale Hood.

My Dunmer lass is a heavy armour gal, and I'm aiming to get the Ebony Mail at some point. For now she's using the Heroic Stormcloak Armour from Immersive Armours, because I'm not overly fond of any of the vanilla heavy armours (and she's a Stormcloak, so it's nice that she now doesn't have to put on light armour during battles - not that you actually have to, but, you know, roleplaying and that). In terms of other equipment, she's using the Ebony Broadsword of the Blaze which Ulfric just gave her after the Battle of Whiterun, and Spellbreaker. She's not got a unique bow, there aren't many of them about, I think, which is a pity, it'll be a long time before she's got Auriel's Bow, though I guess she might pick up Zephyr soonish. At some point, she's probably going to diversify into 2H, at which point she's got the Bloodskal Blade or Volendruung (??) to choose from.

I rarely make my own stuff and when I do it's not enchanted....that got boring long ago when I learned how to break the game so now I just use whatever feels natural for the character.

Thats pretty much where I go with my characters. Although I still enchant but nothing too crazy. Same with smithing.

I remember the first time I had 4 pieces of fortify smithing enchanted gear, the proper smithing perk and drank a fortify smithing potion then broke the bow I had as I upgraded it to do 400 damage...it's not so bad to 1 shot certain weak enemies with a bow but to 1 shot almost everything is lame imo. I try to find a good balance of smithing now to do a reasonable amount of damage with my weapons.

Always make my own stuff as I like it's unique feel.