Ecthomo: The DIY Solution
Posted by Qais Fulton
I’ve featured my fair share of unobtainable designs here on Ectomo, loudly preaching the gospel of DIY approaches to the prohibitively expensive (or simply non-existent) designs of which I’m so fond. Sadly, not everyone has access to the tools, materials, and workspace required to give form to their dream creations. That time is over my friends.
A Parisian art collective calling themselves Le Cartonnistes utilize cardboard to create all manner of furniture, ranging from simple shelves to beds to entire room sets. While it may seem a questionable load-bearing source material, the technique used to form the structures that will eventually become furniture insures the stability of the creation — to a reasonable point of course.
The technique requires a bit of trial and error as well as accuracy within millimeters, but the oaths with which you’ll purple the air as you make mistakes (and learn valuable lessons) are all worth it when the TV box covered in a sheet being used as a coffee table actually becomes a coffee table, and a damn fine one at that.
I highly encourage each and every one of you to try your hand at this. The only limits to your swank boudoir now are the bounds of your own imagination.
Categories: DIY, Rail, Furniture, Ecthomo, Design
Posted at 6:47 pm on May 23, 2008
6 Comments -
I want a dias surrounded by worshipers. One of those elements I can build.
I think I’d be pretty happy with some really swank bookshelves that I don’t have to weep openly about if I abandon during moving, though.
Think about it. Construct out of cardboard. Move. Recycle. Build new, more awesome shelves utilizing new tricks picked up in your mad furniture building sprees.
Comment by Giania — May 23, 2008 @ 8:09 pm
I want a plinth I can stand on.
Thus I shall build one from cerial packets.
Comment by Will — May 23, 2008 @ 8:09 pm
After I move, I’m going to break down all the cardboard boxes with this in mind. Right now, a Canon printer box serves as my coffee table, but I think I can manage something a little more elaborate with spray contact adhesive and an X-Acto knife.
Comment by mathiasx — May 23, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
http://www.amazon.com/Nomadic-Furniture-Victor-Papanek/dp/039470228X
My copy, sadly, was absconded with by an ex-friend.
Between how to work corrugated cardboard, plywood, foam, and hardboard, you could build a fine living space (there’s even a self-contained environment discussion, incase you want to turn your home into a space station.)
As for Giania, there’s a discussion over how to cut a complete bookcase out of a 4×8 sheet of hardboard (Masonite), that was about $7 last time I bought some to paint on.
Comment by Pat — May 24, 2008 @ 12:19 am
It’s a neat idea but the instructions are rather poorly presented. Seemed to work for some of the commenters tho’.
Comment by Evil Jim — May 24, 2008 @ 1:14 am
I think I like the idea of DIY furniture more than I like the idea of cardboard furniture. On the one hand, I’d love to see what kind of designs people come up with on their own, but on the other hand, cardboard tends to take wear and tear rather badly.
Comment by CJ — May 25, 2008 @ 1:58 am