Cardboard bed- finished

I was very busy these days and I passed all my expectations. The bed is DONE!
Some words about final steps and decoration.
I messed up one thing, so I would like to share this mistake with you if you ever try to do cardboard furniture. Before you do any impregnation (wooden glue and water, in the first step), you should have your piece of furniture completely fixed.
When I made side parts of the bed, I have impregnated them immediately before I fixed them to the inner construction. These parts, while they were becoming dry, have distorted a bit, which could be seen on the images if you take a better look.

This doesn't affect the stablity of the bed itself, it affects a bit of visual feeling. So I decided to use smashed newspaper as the final decoration, since it was practically impossible to tear it up from the middle construction. Just cover one side of the newspaper with wooden glue mixed with water and gently press it against the part you want to cover. Use your fingers to get a bit of relief.
Here is the detailed view:

The rest of the bed I have also covered with small pieces of paper. Afterwards I did the final impregnation and let it dry completely. Whole bed is painted first with black acrylic color (you can see on the image that inner part is colored in black).

Than I used beeswax all over the bed, and mixed a red color with a bit of black. With this mixture I colored the bed. When the color was dry, I took sand paper and gently removed the red color from some parts of the bed, so the black color came up again
Here is the detailed effect I have reached using this technique:

And at the end I covered the whole bed with varnish. Now I have to wait several days until everything dries completely. In the next days I will post a new image with final decoration of the bed.

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8:17 PM  Cardboard furniture, Home decoration  2 comments

In the case of hunger, brake the glass

A great aridity happened this summer in Serbia and according to the news, it will be great famine. So I prepared something, just in case.

For this small project you will need following: 

• A wooden frame (or you make it out of cardboard) that has a depth of about 2cm. 

• A piece of pressed cardboard (2mm) that has to be exactly of same size as the frame itself.
• A bit of dried flowers 
• Various grains and seeds you most probably have somewhere in your kitchen. Personally, I have bought some seeds for birds, there you have a pretty nice collection.
• Wooden glue 
• Hammer and nails for frame fixation

Divide the cardboard plate into 9 parts. Use the wooden glue in order to fix flowers and seeds on the cardboard surface.

Make 4 dividers out of cardboard that will serve to separate these 9 parts.

Fix it carefully on the cardboard plate. Use wooden or plastic glue. Let it dry completely.

Turn it and fix it on the frame using hammer and nails.
Do not forget to enclose a frame hook .. and done.

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2:40 PM  Home decoration  No comments

Cardboard painting - a window

Another picture has been created. When I finished it, I found it a bit morbid.
If there were not that window that offers a bit of hope, I'd be sincerely worried.

I fixed newspaper over the cardboard mixing the wood glue with water and arranged it with my fingers on the surface in order to get relief.
 The image consists of four connected parts, each part having size of 11cm x 50cm. I didn't use oil paints, if I did, I would have probably got a better effect. Instead, I used the same acrylic based colors that I normally use for painting furniture: color + acrylic based toners for walls, for shading.
These colors are dull, when they dry; that's why I covered the picture with hair spray, which has smoothly lacquered the surface, without too shiny effect, just as it should. The picture looks like this:

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11:50 PM  Home decoration  No comments

Abstract carboard painting

My fascination with cardboard simply does not stop.
Recently my boiler leaked and I hastily ordered a new one. Boiler just like any other boiler, the only thing that interested me on my way home was - have they packed it in a quality cardboard!
I've recently started a bed of cardboard, actually a box in which I'll put the mattress, but somehow I'm not quite prepared for the chaos that I will not be able to avoid ... (something I think, if I mention it here, then I will be ashamed not to finish it).

And my bed idea turned into a relief image of cardboard.
For background I took two cardboard panels (if anyone wants to try something similar, I suggest to take 3), and merged them with wooden glue; I struggled a lot to get it straight and equally dried.

With tree panels it would be a lot easier, as the cardboard would not be distorted. At the diagonal edges I fixed 2 small cardboard pieces and used a dense mass (wooden glue, wood filler, wall filler, linseed oil and a bit of water). I made reliefs using knife and fork, and spoon, and more or less everything what came on my hand. At the end I wrote random letters, when all was well dried, I colored it. For a first attempt, I'm pretty satisfied, I hope that the following pictures will be better. The result looks like this.

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12:14 AM  Home decoration  No comments

Carboard tablet

The tablet is still not ready. I understood that I have to make several projects at the same time, since I am very impatient one and I really do have a problem to respect the necessary time the carton needs to get dry well. I fixed some additional floral part on my tablet, also made of carton, but the thin one (I used a shoe box). So here it is how it looked before I colored it.

I will try to obtain some antic view of it, but I am not sure that I will succeed in it. More photos anyway later on.

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7:12 PM  Cardboard furniture, Home decoration  No comments

Carton kitchen shelf

And after these two experimental small projects, of course the bigger one.
Up to now it looks like this. It took me 2 and half days to cut parts and to reach this point.

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7:17 PM  Cardboard furniture, Home decoration  No comments