DIY cardboard furniture

Do-it-yourself cardboard furniture is a great alternative if ordinary furniture is too expensive. Chairs, tables and sofas can be made independently. Cardboard, which we, as a rule, throw away without hesitation, can serve as an excellent material for the manufacture of good furniture. Of course, you can assume that such interior items will not be durable and can easily bend under the weight of the items placed on them, however, this can be avoided by correctly processing the cardboard. How exactly to make a variety of interior items from this material - you will learn from this article.

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Advantages of Cardboard Furniture

In furniture made of such a material, there are many advantages:

• Profitability. You will need very few tools to work.
• Stylish design. You have the opportunity to design any thing for your home, exclusively to your taste.
• Mobility - such furniture is very easy to fold, for example, when moving.
• Ergonomics You do not have to go shopping in search of things that at the same time will be convenient, convenient and fit into the interior - now you can combine these three qualities.
• Security. Such furniture is completely safe.
• Environmental friendliness. If cardboard furniture loses its attractive appearance, just take it apart and put it in a bag. You can simply throw it away or use it for ignition - cardboard does not harm the environment.
• Strength. Provided that the cardboard is correctly processed, the pieces of furniture made from it will last for quite a long time.

Despite all these advantages, such furniture has one significant drawback: when in a humid environment, the material deteriorates. Therefore, it is worth considering this feature and removing products from the street, otherwise, a sudden rain can damage them.

Important! Cardboard is not the only material available to everyone for the manufacture of various furniture items. Today there are a lot of ideas that you can use to conveniently equip your home, give it a unique design. Here are just a few options that you are also advised to consider:

• Furniture from newspaper tubes.
• DIY rattan furniture.
• DIY furniture from a profile pipe.

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Materials and tools for manufacturing

When making furniture from boxes with your own hands, the following materials will be irreplaceable:

• Packing cardboard (cardboard boxes) - you can ask for boxes in some store or search at home from purchased equipment.
• Color and plain tape, double-sided and paper tape.
• Stationery knife for cutting.
• Dumb knife.
• Sharp scissors.
• Iron ruler / tape measure.
• Pencil and eraser.
• PVA glue. You can also prepare another composition usingDIY glue recipes.
• Sandpaper for sanding cardboard sections.
• Kraft paper (dark and white) and tracing paper.

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The nuances of working with cardboard

To create furniture, as a rule, packaging cardboard is used, while its thickness, measured in layers, plays a huge role. A layer is understood to mean small waves that give strength to a given material. Thus, cardboard furniture can be made of one-, two- or three-layer cardboard.

Here's what to consider when choosing a specific material:

• A single-layer material is often used for the manufacture of internal walls having curved shapes. If you need to fill the internal volume with straight lines, it is better to take a thicker material.
• Dark cardboard is usually more durable than light cardboard.
• Pay attention to the fact that the seamy side of a cardboard is rough, and the front - smooth. In addition, different inscriptions are often applied to the front side.
• In addition to cardboard, you will also need craft paper to do the work. Using glue, they usually glue the furniture on the outside as a finish.

Important! Kraft paper must be torn, and not cut with scissors. As a result of registration with such paper, the product becomes smooth and suitable for gluing with decorative paper.

• Kraft paper makes it possible to design seams and edges of furniture, and then it will already be possible to proceed to paste over the rest of the surface.

Important! Hand made craftsmen try to replace kraft paper with tracing paper. This option will be a little worse, since such paper is thinner - you will have to use masking tape in addition to gluing corners, but at the same time it is much cheaper.

• It is advisable to process the cardboard itself with a jigsaw. At the same time, you should not immediately cut out all the necessary workpiece, since this can damage the blade - it is better to cut it gradually. For fine finishing work, it is advisable to use a medical scalpel or clerical knife.
• When cutting, be sure to use a metal ruler and tape measure. So you get the most accurate execution.

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How to make cardboard furniture more durable?

Depending on what the item will be intended for (for example, it will be a cabinet for children's toys or a bedside table for a TV), cardboard can be strengthened in different ways. For a more stable and reliable fastening, you need to remember the following:

• To protect the cardboard from moisture and its strength, parquet varnish can be used, which is applied to ready-made and decorated pieces of furniture.
• Try to make symmetrical products - they will be more stable compared to irregularly shaped furniture.
• If you want to make asymmetrical cardboard furniture, then try to add more support for the fortress to it.
• The more transverse parts there are in your furniture, the more stable it will be.
• To give the structure more stability, use a trick: make two cardboard layers on all elements of the furniture. However, it should be remembered that the layers must be different: in one layer the waves must be vertical, and in the other horizontal.

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Shoe rack

To begin with, let’s take a look at a master class on manufacturing such a simple design as a shoe stand, since anyone can handle this work. So, having prepared all the necessary items, we begin:

1. Take sheets of cardboard about 21 by 24 cm in size, divide them into three identical strips. Using a blunt knife, push the strips well so that they can bend.
2. Glue the long sides of the sheet with any color tape.
3. Fold oblong triangular shapes from the sheets and secure with the same adhesive tape.
4. So make any number of triangles.
5. To fix the shelves, take whole cardboard sheets and glue the prepared triangles to them with glue or double-sided tape.
6. On top, put another flat sheet of cardboard, and on top of it make another series of triangles. Thus, you can make a design of any height - according to your desire or the presence of cardboard.

Important! If the family is large, respectively - you have a lot of shoes, boots, shoes, also look at the selection of ideas to convenient to store shoes.

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Bookshelf

A shelf for books made of cardboard is a very convenient piece of furniture that will allow you to organize the space in the room. To do it, you must act as follows:

1. Take wide and long sheets of cardboard. Part of the sheets will go for a vertical base, so they should be slightly longer. Although, the size of the sheets you can choose at your discretion, and part - on the horizontal, that is, shelves.
2. Make cuts in the sheets so that they are inserted into each other at an angle of 90 degrees.
3. If you have thick cardboard, then when connecting the sheets together, the structure will be strong and additional funds will not be required. But if you use thinner material, then it will have to be additionally strengthened with glue.
4. After joining the sheets, you can immediately use the shelf for its intended purpose.

Important! Having a lot of books in your home, perhaps just a few shelves will not be enough for you. In this case, see the master class from another article that will help you. make a convenient cardboard shelving.

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Little table

When you move or move a young family into a new apartment, furniture from improvised materials will help out, for example, a cardboard table with your own hands. For its manufacture, the following blanks will be required:

• Racks of 3 pieces for each corner at a distance of 5 cm from each other.
• Longitudinal stiffeners which are inserted into side racks.
• Crossbars which are put on longitudinal elements.
• Worktops - one will serve as a shelf, the second - a furniture cover.

Assemble the design of the table, carefully fixing all the elements with glue or double-sided tape. And after complete drying, decorate the table by pasting it with paper or painting with paint of the desired color.

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Care

Since cardboard furniture is disposable, it does not require special care, however, it is worthwhile to adhere to several rules that will help extend its life:

• Such pieces of furniture should not be placed in humid rooms, as they are afraid of damp and will burst out a couple of hours after being exposed to rain.

Important! If you need to make various items for relaxing on the street in the country, then it is better to use other materials. All of them are as affordable as cardboard. And detailed instructions for making various items can be found in the articles:

• DIY plastic bottle furniture.
• DIY tire furniture.

• Follow fire safety rules as this is a highly flammable material.
• Make sure that children do not jump or jump on such furniture.

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Stock footage

Thus, making cardboard furniture with your own hands is quite simple. Such things do not require large financial investments and do not take much time. As a result, you will receive practical and convenient items that will help organize the space of your home.