Corrugated Cardboard Challenge

Corrugated cardboard is a great and sturdy building material. What’s even better is that it’s super easy to come by--just check your recycling bins! So, here’s your challenge:
Make a stool or a chair using corrugated cardboard. Remember these tips and tricks as you begin building your furniture:
- Corrugated cardboard is strongest when the corrugate (the wavy mid-section) is vertical (or perpendicular to the floor).
- You can bend and cut corrugated cardboard. If you choose to bend it, try bending it along a table edge. This will give you a more crisp fold.
- Triangles are the strongest shape to build with because any force on them is evenly distributed among the three sides.
Here’s an example of a stool you could make using corrugated cardboard. What else can you come up with?
How we did it:
Materials List
- large box - corrugated cardboard (If you’re unsure if your cardboard box is corrugated, just look to see if the cardboard has a wavy mid-section!)
- pencil
- ruler
- x-acto knife - or scissors
- packing tape
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Watch out!
Be very careful and use parental supervision when playing with your cardboard creations!
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Gather your materials!
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Cut the cardboard into an 8” x 24” rectangle. Make sure that the corrugation runs parallel to the short side. If the corrugation runs parallel to the long side, your stool may collapse.
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Mark the cardboard every 8” along the long side. Then, score it with your X-acto knife.
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Tip!
Score means to cut the cardboard without cutting through it. It makes it easier to bend it.
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Optional: Make your stool look more stool-like by adding cut outs so that the “legs” really look like legs!
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Bend the cardboard along the score lines. Then, fold it into a triangle and tape the open side closed.
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Cut a shape out of the remaining cardboard. This will be the top of your stool. The shape doesn’t matter as long as it is larger than your triangular base.
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Place the top of your stool onto the base and then pop a squat! You just made a cardboard stool