Make Furniture With Cardboard!

A small end or occasional table is always handy to have around. so I decided to make this project and will enter it in the Gorilla glue contest as well.

Step 1 Draw The Design

I just do a rough drawing, saves time, and no need for a CAD program.

Comments

[Sam the Wizer]

Brilliant! I have a small studio apartment and am poor, and think I might employ your techniques to build a large room divider/shelving unit. My only fear is that it might be a fire hazard to have such a large cardboard structure in such a small space. I think if I go with fire retardant paint I should be ok. Not that I expect to have open flames or heat sources near this structure, but it would help to put my mind at ease.

[HandyMummy]

The answer to fire safety as well as strength is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate
1 part to 5 parts of water will do ;-)

[deathbyvolt]

lol i wonder if anyone has used this method to make a guitar?

[Schober]

Making a guitar out of cardboard like this would be next to impossible. You would have a hard time making the cardboard strong enough to support the tension of the strings. Not without some extremely well designed supports on the bridge and (assuming you are thinking of using a wood neck) where the neck meets the body. Even then the tension might still be too great to keep the body from folding over on itself.

[reptedjess]

What if you used epoxy between the layers?

[Cobalt59]

Lol. CAD stands for Communal Arduous Duties. LOL.

[bigjeff5]

I googled CAD - I could not find "Communal Arduous Duties" (I got bored after four pages).

By far the most common result was related to "Computer Aided Design", followed by the comic "Ctrl+Alt+Delete", followed by the Canadian Dollar, followed by the Welsh word "cad".

In other words, I do not think that word means what you think it means.

[Cobalt59]

*sigh* It was a joke.

[jasmineconrad]

No it doesn't...

[ddarkeststar]

Superb. I think I'm going to be looking for a cardboard mine now :-).

[MandingaRes]

Esta idea es excelente!! Justamente hoy me regalaron varios empaques de unas motocicletas alemanas que están compuestos por un esqueleto de madera (que ya tiene destino) y todo cubierto por un inmenso cartón, para el cual todavía no encontraba utilidad y me da mucha pena tirar a la basura.Tengo suficiente cartón para copiar tu diseño (o algo similar) y me sobra para hacer algún gabinete para guardar todo tipo de cosas...
Prometo fotografiar el proceso de fabricación de los muebles y mostrarlos con mucho orgullo. Muchas gracias por compartir la idea!!

[Creativeman]

Gracias!

[star_above_the_clouds]

This is absolutely amazing! I could not believe that this was made of cardboard! Thanks for sharing, now I know what to do with all the extra cardboard that is laying around my house. (:

[seabee890]

It has probably already been said, but I think that I would have more confidence in his hightstand than some of that ICEA (spelled intentionally wrong to avoid slander or copyright violations) Beautiful project.

[javajunkie1976]

That end table with the lamp is CARDBOARD??!! Seriously?? C'mon, what kind of wood did you use? Both thumbs up on this one!!

[Kryptonite]

That's amazing, you can still just see the small corrugates in the picture, I almost couldn't believe my eyes that it was cardboard. I definitely know what I'm pimping my house out with. Any ideas in terms of strength for largest size? For example, how large was the top of your little table, how far apart were the supports and how much can it carry? Not that you'd want to try break it just see how strong, but still...

[karlpinturr]

Your main problem, strength-wise, is that the corrugations cannot take a point-weight. Basically, they are the first point of contact for anything, and your top layer will collapse, despite (or because of) the number of layers beneath it.

A spread weight is better, but can still be affected where the 'top' meets its supports.

I have found that brown (wrapping/parcel) paper over a layer of wallpaper-paste (essentially creating Papier Mache) can add strength

[bigjeff5]

You can significantly increase the point weight (and spread weight) strength with nothing but cardboard, kraft  tape, and glue, but it is tedious.

Instead of using flat pieces of cardboard for the horizontal sections, cut the cardboard across the grain at the thickness you desire, then glue the individual pieces together end-up.  Once done, use the kraft tape (or the parcel paper) to cover the entire piece - wrapping the tape parallel to the vertical pieces.  Make sure it is nice and tight.  Note that the tape (or paper) is critical to the integrity of the shelf, and it is important to have pieces of tape that wrap all the way around the shelf.

This provides incredible stiffness to the pieces by simply reconfiguring the grain in a more ideal direction.  In order for an object to break the table it must be heavy enough to tear the tape by tension only, which is pretty difficult.  You could probably break it by pounding on it with something, but less than that wouldn't likely cut the mustard.  Basically, if you can tie one end of craft tape to the object and lift it, it won't deform the shelf.  You'd probably be surprised what you can lift with that tape, and in most cases you'll have four or five pieces of tape resisting, not just one.

You can do this one better by placing another layer of cardboard on the top and bottom - again with the grain parallel to the vertical strips.  This is more difficult to plan out but is a little less tedious to build and is even stronger than just the tape - and it looks better.

[CyborgGold]

you could make it pretty strong, much stronger than it is already in fact, by adding some fiberglass to it. You might even be able to make patio furniture using the fiberglass method, layering the card and fiberglass should provide enough support.

[Kryptonite]

Yes, but that's not using just cardboard! Maybe I'm just a perfectionist.

[reptedjess]

That's being a purist, not a perfectionist. Maybe if you can use an epoxy finish instead of a varnish. That would definitely make the entire project stronger

[spanner1969]

Whilst what I am about to suggest does not constitue 'just cardboard' I would like to say that a really thin wood veneer on top would make the functionality (strength) of the top much better in terms of taking on point weight.

You could use really cheep 2mm ply wood or you might even be able to recycle some wood scraps from somewhere.

So in essence this is a fantastic instructable which I will attempt to make this weekend if LOML (aka SWMBO) lets me have some shed time by my self! LOL.

Keep up the great work.

[JeonLab]

This is great inctructable. Thank you for sharing your idea. :-)

[Creativeman]

You're welcome!

[quan_chi]

Me gusto, quedo muy bien

Salu2

[husamwadi]

now if only we could build card board airplanes with engines....OH YEAH, NEW PROJECT!

[Cobalt59]

Simple CAD tool? Do you even know what CAD stands for?

[apapp77]

You know that was sarcastic, right?

[janetsellers08]

These are superb instructions - thanks so much.

@ Cobalt: chill out. Nobody is worried about CAD...

[Yotta_Byte]

CAD also stands for Computer Aided Design... so there is definitely no need to worry! :)

[janetsellers08]

Thanks for this. Very nice looking, too. In college, I used liquor boxes ( they have the partitions which makes the box stronger) and made beds and sofas out of them with a plywood top. 6 of those boxes with plywood on top & foam will hold 2 people easily. We just covered them with a clothe/dust ruffle and the sheets and blankets and voila.

[Creativeman]

hey, thanks for the comments jantsellers08! You piqued my interest so I checked out your blog-cool. Nice to know there are some somewhat kindred spirits operating out there, and apparently you do it big time. That makes your comments and interest that much more special. Thanks again, and your quip about who artists are, and why they do what they, i.e., JUST BECAUSE, allows me to validate my art, however humble it may be.

[santis308]

did you use school glue? would school glue work? does it make that much of a difference? any help would be greatly appreciated!

[tynow]

on mine i used school glue for making the layers of cardboard, then gorilla glue for putting the pieces together

[tynow]

great job, love the idea im making a small table with cardboard with a frosted glass top woth a light underneath to light up top any ideas where to get glass?

[rstackhouse]

Are you cutting the cardboard with a band-saw?

[Species9]

I think I'll make a sofa bed

[arstudent4]

do you have any other methods of painting or waterprofing?

[WYN soldier]

just what i call a perfect project in every aspects. keep it up!!

[fireguard]

Is your varnish spray on or brush on, and do you think it makes a difference?