People, I am tired. It was a boozy week (+ end) full of birthdays, house parties and the death of our beloved cat, Poop Log (RIP, little buddy, and yes, that really was his name). So maybe I'm still a little delirious, or maybe cardboard furniture is kind of... awesome. Sure it's cheap and tacky, but recycling is good, right? And occasionally it can be very modern material-centric, like Frank Gehry's quintessential cardboard chair:
Or cardboard can go for baroque like Giles Miller's wardrobe and grandfather clock over at UK-based Farm Designs. Check out the cute mustache handles:
Miller also produces seating that belies its humble origins:
The one on the right looks kind of painful, like sitting on the flying buttresses of a Spanish cathedral, but lefty has potential. He reminds me of the Togo sofas from Ligne Roset but comes a little closer to fitting into my furniture budget (which has recently been restricted to about $100 for a sofa off Craigslist). At $1500 it's still a pricey piece, especially considering that it's made of material usually functioning as wrapping paper for whatever it is you're actually buying.
Of course, the craft conscious legions have realized that cardboard is a great material for DIYers. The corrugated form is super strong, but it's still easy to cut with -- what else? -- a box cutter. The good folks at Designboom have several projects that you can do yourself:
And taking it 500 steps further are the Cartonnistes over at Instructables:
That desk does not look even remotely like cardboard and I love the idea that anyone could make furniture cheaply! Cardboard is so very democratic. Usually I'm all about wood, but have you ever tried to make anything out of wood? It's hard. Really hard. Plus I need all ten digits to type.
If you don't feel capable of starting from scratch, you can always order cardboard Legos from Bloxes and build yourself an entire Hooverville:
Is it just me or do those people seriously need to get to work??? Or maybe I'm just jealous that no job of mine has ever allowed me to to build a giant cardboard giraffe.
Really, though, all of my cardboard dreams will probably amount to little more than this:
Sitting on the street, drinking a beer while chilling on my sweet cardboard chair, hopefully without an orange bar over my eyes.
Eat your heart out, Claes Oldenbourg.