Modern Cardboard Chair

I recently moved to a new apartment, and you know what that means - a big pile of moving boxes.

Rather than put all of this fantastic cardboard out on the curb to be recycled, I decided to make it into a chair!

This is a super satisfying project, and you can make with just a few simple tools!

Be sure to check out the full build video for more details:

Let's get started!

All you will need to make a cardboard chair:

Lots of big cardboard boxes (I used about 30 boxes to create 120 layers)

Utility knife (I like the OLFA style with snap-off blades): https://amzn.to/3pIw4by

Extra blades (Though surprisingly, I only went through 3 segments of a single blade): https://amzn.to/39YkSTl

Permanent markers: https://amzn.to/3wqJihL

Super glue: https://amzn.to/3fClbqp

White glue (PVA glue): https://amzn.to/3dBBKjo

5-10 big, heavy books

Time!

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Before touching any cardboard, I drew some lounge chair profiles in my sketchbook until I found one that I liked.

Researching some common chair dimensions is a worthwhile step. My design is loosely based off the proportions of an Adirondack Chair.

Next, I tried sketching the full scale shape on a piece of cardboard.

Keep in mind that your shape has to fit on all of your boxes (and ideally, you want to get multiple pieces from a single box!).

At this point, my goal wasn't to get a perfect profile - I just wanted a starting point that I could test and refine.

I cut out the piece with my utility knife, and then got my girlfriend's help in testing it out!

We realized that the back was too reclined, and there wasn't quite enough support under the knees.

So, I traced v1 onto another piece of cardboard, and adjusted the shape to make v2!

At this point, I realized that it's a lot easier to test the profiles by lying on the ground, instead of awkwardly hovering over a cardboard cutout 😂

v2 was pretty good, but the seat felt a little short. I lengthened the seat in v3, and the shape was just about perfect!

If you don't want to develop your own template, you can get a full-size, dimensioned PDF of my template here.

If I were to change anything, I would add a slight outward curve to the back of the chair, to create some support for your lower back.

This master template is what you will use to trace every. layer. of. the. chair.... so you want it to be sturdy!

You could go all-out and make the master template from a piece of plywood, but mine was just two layers of cardboard, which worked great.

The layers are glued together with white glue, and a smattering of superglue dots held the pieces together while the white glue dried.

... 120 of them, that is 😬

I was able to squeeze 4 chair profiles into each box, so I needed about 30 boxes total (actually slightly less, as some of my boxes were double thick - get these if you can!)

I used a sharpie to trace the master template, and cut out each layer with a utility knife.

It is important to always trace the same side of the template, and cut on the INSIDE of the sharpie line, so that your layers are a consistent size.

Of course, you can only be so accurate when cutting with a utility knife, but this will help you get the best finished product with the tools you have!

It's fine to include notched areas of the cardboard in your profiles (these will have a negligible effect on the overall chair), but I tried to keep these to the underside or back of the chair.

Some of my boxes had big notches, and I filled these in with cardboard "patches" (I'll cover this more in the next step).

Cutting 120 pieces of cardboard in one shot isn't my idea of a good time, so I mixed this step with the previous one.

Every time I cut out 10 pieces, I would glue them onto my ever thickening chair.

All of the layers are held together with white glue, with some scattered dots of superglue to hold the pieces together while the white glue dries. I used my body weight to hold the layers together for a few seconds while the superglue "kicked".

I flipped the chair between gluing on each layer, to avoid cumulative misalignment of the layers.

However, you can only be so accurate with a utility knife. The most important side is the one that you will sit on, and I made sure to line this side up first, gathering all of the misalignment on the back and the underside.

As I mentioned in the last step, some of the layers had relatively large cutouts, and I just patched these with scrap cardboard. If you line up the "grain" of the patch with the larger piece, the patch will be invisible in the final chair!

On this note, make sure to save two pieces of clean cardboard to cap off the ends of the chair!

After each gluing session, I stacked some heavy books on the chair to keep the layers flat while the glue dried.

Then, it's just a matter of repeating this step and the previous one until your chair is thick enough to your liking! I kept adding layers until my chair was 18" thick, and counted 120 layers of cardboard in the final chair.

This chair is SUPER sturdy and surprisingly comfortable!

It's approximately the weight of a wood dining chair, and feels just as strong (as long as you don't soak it with water 😉).

The lounge chair style is nice and supportive, and in the bay window of our apartment, it's a great place for working on my laptop.

However, as I mentioned earlier, I think it would be a bit more comfortable if I added a slight outward curve to the lower back.

If you have a cat, this chair also makes a great scratcher!

My cat, Penny, loves scratching the legs, sitting on the chair and hanging out in the cozy little cave that's formed by the legs.

If you make this project yourself, I would love to see your results! You can tag me on Instagram @morleykert, and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for all sorts of woodworking, leatherworking, 3D printing, and multimedia projects!

Thanks for following along, and have a great day!