Furniture in paper and cardboard

The importance of recycling

When you say the word recycle the first thing that comes to mind is paper.
Created as a sheet obtained by felting of a mixture of cellulose fibers, the paper is now present in our daily lives in various forms and colors: from newspapers, glossy magazines, to office equipment up to packaging of any kind.

The elements in the paper are generally 100% recyclable. All this is possible because of the cellulose, the main constituent of paper, is a substance quite versatile that can be recovered and then regenerated several times.



The objects made of paper and cardboard have several properties such as environmental friendliness, recyclability, lightness and economy.

This is one of the reasons that led to the spread of the furniture in cardboard.

It is real pieces of furniture that to be fully recyclable are assembled together without adhesives, but through simple interlocking systems.
The cardboard furniture are easy to assemble, perfect for temporary furnishings and are also low-cost and with a low environmental impact.

Cardboard furniture

The cartoon, which is the basic element of these pieces of furniture, can be customized according to the different needs, with digital prints, Poliplat panels fixed with pins or paintings hung with special pliers and Nylon string.

The raw material which constitutes the cardboard furniture, is not the paper produced by companies but is already recycled cardboard, at least in part, in an amount equal to about 80%.

Among the furniture companies offering lines of cardboard furniture there is Vitra, which has given the design of the chair Wiggle Side Chair to the famous architect Frank O. Gehry

A typical feature of Gehry's architecture is that it has always used unusual materials; Also in this design object he has maintained its constant, managing to give the to the cardboard a new aesthetic dimension.

Wiggle is a chair with sinuous lines in corrugated board with invisible screws and edges of fibreboard.

Etcetera Design which is a line of living design in cardboard, which in addition to the aesthetic value search functionality in the field. This makes possible giving greater attention to the environment that presents with creativity on furniture, but also on objects and ideas eco cheap, like folding screens, tables and desks.

The Tullini Design, a line of home accessories also completely made of corrugated cardboard, where they found items like Cube or Waffel, with no particular signs of use, but very adaptable to different environments.

The cardboard, however, is not simply used at the natural state; sometimes to make these pieces of furniture more beautiful, they are painted with naturals ingredients.

This is the case of A4Adesign, a company from Milan that since 2002 has a production of honeycomb cardboard, recycled and eco-friendly, spanning sets, exhibition stands, exhibition spaces for adults and children, with a general tendency on fun and with a high aesthetic impact.



An Italian company that has made of ecology its workhorse is the kubedesign®, that creates with very special cardboard furniture elements, like bookcases, chairs, objects.

The furnishings in cardboard can also be used to furnish entire rooms such as kitchens and bedrooms, obtaining rooms at the same time functional, economic and ecological.



Other objects always made of cardboard and recyclable items are those produced by Pier design, which proposes lamps, chairs and other furnishings.

This company makes a seating system very special in fan shape: the softseating, designed precisely to furnish the spaces in a spontaneous and flexible way.

The terminal part of softseating, consisting of a magnet, allows to produce a circular seat that can also be used as a side table.

There is also the possibility of connecting to one another, in a modular way, elements of the same size, creating benches and seats theoretically infinite.

Designed to have a good durability, over time their surface softens creating a velvety effect.

They are made with kraft paper, a material made of stiff paper and robust, it consists of a 50% of recycled materials. It is available in natural brown or black color, obtained with a special paint charcoal bamboo.
Kraft is a self-extinguishing material.

Just a little imagination to create cardboard furniture from the most strange and original shapes.
This is the case of the company Corvasce design, which offers a range of very special eco-friendly furnishings, as the chair K'Un, which is characterized by the circular seat in cardboard strongly enveloping.

The structure unfolds in interlocking modular units that give a strong resistance.
The dimensions are: 77x77x68 cm (width x depth x height); weight 5.5 Kg.

This same chair, combined with other elements such as benches and tables or associated with libraries of cardboard or desks, can furnish the space giving it its own identity, depending on the function that it will support.



The Venetian designer Roberto Pamio with Pamio design, has created a new collection of cardboard furniture P-One. These are completely made of recycled paper, coming from the most famous paper mills in Italy.

For some furniture, to the cardboard which in itself is a poor material and simple, were added other materials, in some cases to enrich them and other to make them more stable in time.



With all these companies are talking about the ecological design, which aims to get the furnishings beautiful, functional, durable but also at the same time environmentally friendly.

Homeware cardboard

With the use of cardboard and paper can also be realized other small items of furniture.

For example GrayPants, produces curious lamps in cardboard of various types: there are hanging models, with soft lights that give a diffused light depending on the processing performed on the material; simple structures and light created by packaging and boxes thrown away.



Even the lamps by David Graas are curious cardboard boxes, with the silhouette of lamp perforated surface, from which the light filters.

The company Essential produces a series of complements totally eco, including comfortable chairs made of recycled paper and cardboard, filled with hand me down clothes, newspapers and plastic bottles. Always of the same line, funny frames of different sizes, in neutral color.

Designing a house choosing these cardboard furniture also means to partially follow the principles of green building, according to which, when you build a house you need to reuse any recyclable material, giving new life to each element, according to a continuous cycle.