Kids like to make messes. If given the chance, they’d paint all over your furniture, and maybe slap some stickers on there too. This is not, in most cases, acceptable. But it is if you have cardboard furniture.
Developed by recent college graduates Justin Farr, Jake Disraeli, and Jordan Kepler, Kids Imagination Furniture is a set of kid-sized cardboard chairs and tables that can be painted, drawn on, and stickered into infinity. The creators, who call themselves “The Cardboard Guys,” make their furniture for kids–but each piece can hold up to 500 pounds.
The flat-packed furniture can be assembled with five or six pieces, all of which snap together. The pieces are also reversible, so once a kid has exhausted the creative possibilities of one side, they can flip it over. And the tools used to put together the furniture have a second use: once everything is assembled, they can snap into side tabs of the table and chair to become decorative DIY attachments. All of the furniture is made partially from post-consumer recycled fiber that comes from trees grown in the Pacific Northwest. Everything is manufactured in the U.S. as well.
The furniture isn’t exactly as cheap as if you tried to make it from cardboard found around the house; an “early bird” Kickstarter set consisting of a table, chair, extra desk top, and art supplies is $85. But isn’t that cheaper than watching in dismay as your kid draws all over your beautiful kitchen table?
So far, the Cardboard Guys have raised nearly $16,000 out of a $25,000 goal.
If you want some cardboard furniture for mature adult self, Chairigami sells a wide range of cardboard items, including chairs, sofas, stools, and desks.