Cardboard is just a throwaway material, short-lived and impermanent. But it doesn’t have to be. While cardboard may perform mostly temporary functions in our lives, it can serve as the basis of some absolutely amazing sculptures, furniture, functioning electronics and even entire offices and apartments. These 45 works of recycled and reclaimed art made with corrugated cardboard might just get you to look at the material in a whole new light.

Christmas Trees

(images via: materlialicious, design buzz, cascades, cardboard christmas tree)

What’s the greenest tree of all? Unless you’re simply decorating an evergreen that’s already growing in your yard, a recycled cardboard creation might just be the answer. Cardboard Christmas trees come in all shapes and sizes, from intricate handmade versions to flat-pack kits you can purchase online.

Shop Interiors

(images via: psfk, ecofriend, francescasignori, great interior design, kostavoyatzis, dezeen)

Eco-minded retail stores – whether permanent, or just temporary pop-up shops – utilize cardboard in the most amazingly creative ways. Lulamae used post-consumer cardboard to create its entire flat-packed store, and a shop called Low in Lisbon, Portugal utilized molded cardboard for shelves, benches, tables and stools. The store eBarrito features a cool display made of cardboard tubes, and the Athens boutique Yeshop used edge cardboard to sculpt its walls. Australian apothecary Aesop used cardboard for a product stand, and a Hiroshima boutique called Karis has cardboard tubes suspended from the ceiling.

Incredible Art

(images via: mark langan, village of joy, peeta.net, instructables)

Cardboard has been used to create art of all sorts. Would you imagine that lowly toilet paper tubes could turn into fascinating scrunched faces, or that the corrugated material could be arranged to resemble aerial landscapes? It has been the medium for three-dimensional graffiti displayed on gallery walls. You can even take a crack at it yourself with a very ambitious project: Instructables has the instructions to make a 17-foot-tall cardboard Ghandi statue.

Furniture

(images via: inhabitat)

Painted bookshelves and flat-pack chairs. A table set made of cardboard tubes. Fun furniture items in the shape of animals. Surprisingly comfortable lounge chairs. Even a barely-altered cardboard moving box can become a sturdy bench or table. Check out all of the possibilities at Inhabitat.

Offices

(images via: smarterware, freshome)

Offices tend to be pretty unhealthy places, thanks in large part due to the toxins that are off-gassed by cheap pressed-wood-and-vinyl furniture. Maybe next time, your company should follow the lead of ‘Nothing’, a creative agency in Amsterdam that made an entire office out of cardboard including desks, chairs, shelves, cubicles and even steps and a small loft. This effect is achieved on a smaller scale with ‘Pop Up‘, a mobile flat-pack office that transforms from a sheet of cardboard into a platform with a desk and chair within seconds.

Stereos, Cameras and Computers

(images via: technabob 1 + 2, amazon, better living through design, hyperbole studios)

Actual functioning electronics made out of cardboard abound. You can find speakers systems, boom boxes, cameras, computers and more that use cardboard as a biodegradable, recycled, eco-friendly housing rather than plastic or metal. The Recompute PC was an entry into the 2009 Greener Gadgets competition. The handy portable boombox has an iPod dock and is so realistic, it would take you a moment to realize what differentiates it from others that look similar. The i-Ecko speakers are commercially available on Amazon for just ten bucks. Another cardboard radio has an appealing vintage look, and there are many cardboard cameras that look amazingly complex, like these by Kiel Johnson.

Pavilion

(images via: dezeen)

409 cardboard cylinders of varying diameters and thicknesses were connected with ties to create this beautiful dome-shaped pavilion called Packed. The pavilion was created by design students Min-Chieh Chen, Dominik Zausinger and Michele Leidi of the ETH Zurich in Switzerland using CAAD (Computer Aided Architectural Design) and was exhibited as part of the Shanghai Expo 2010.

Cities Big and Small

(images via: laughing squid, reuben miller, artnet)

You can walk into the temporary communities that make up the Russian collaborative art project Cardboardia, erected November 1-6 every year in the city of Ulyanovsk. Artist Ana Serrano’s Cartonlandia is much tinier but even more complex with little roads, vehicles, trees and people.  Another miniature cardboard city was built by director Michel Gondry for his film ‘The Science of Sleep’ and displayed at a New York City exhibition entitled ‘The Science of Sleep: An Exhibition of Sculpture and Pathological Creepy Little Gifts.’

An Entire Cardboard Apartment

(images via: gothamist)

A full-scale apartment was erected in Times Square in November 2010 as part of a fundraising effort for Serving the UnderServed (SUS), an organization that provides housing and additional services to the homeless and disabled. The cardboard apartment featured a bed covered in folded cardboard clothing, framed photos, an alarm clock, a telephone and even slices of bread coming out of a toaster.

Bicycle

(images via: inhabitat)

Does making a bike out of cardboard make it less tempting to thieves? The novelty factor alone may negate that intended effect, but then again, it would only cost you $30 to replace it. That’s the biggest perk of this project by Sheffield Hallam University design student Phil Bridge, which can hold a rider weighing up to 168 pounds. The bike is all cardboard except for the tires, seat, chain, gears and pedals.

Bridge by Shigeru Ban

(images via: inhabitat)

Japanese architect proves the strength and durability of cardboard by erecting a cardboard bridge across the Gardon River in Southern France. Made of 281 cardboard tubes, the bridge is strong enough to carry 20 people to the other side of the river all at the same time. Ban has figured out how to engineer the bridge so that the tubes can stand up to the weight. “It is a very interesting contrast, the Roman stone bridge and the paper bridge. Paper too can be permanent, can be strong and lasting. We need to get rid of these prejudices,” Ban said.

Cars

(images via: design boom, reuben miller)

Can you guess the size of each of these two cardboard vehicles? It’s hard to tell, but the top one is a full-sized cardboard sculpture by artist Chris Gilmour while the second is a miniature made by South African Kasi Custom Rides. The scale of Gilmour’s works doesn’t quite come across until they’re placed in context.

Musical Instruments

(images via: oddity central, tjonglolongo, impactlab)

A musician named Hilary Grist built a full-sized cardboard piano and covered it with a miniature cardboard city to use in one of her music videos, and artist Chris Gilmour is responsible for the piano hanging from the ceiling as well as the guitars.

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After a long day of climbing mountains in the Alps, looking out over snow-covered boulders and valleys shrouded in fog, wouldn’t it be amazing to spend a night in this cozy cantilevered getaway? The prefabricated tube juts out over a cliff, resembling a giant telescope from which occupants can continue to gaze at their incomparable surroundings.

‘New Refuge Gervasutti’ was designed by Italian architects LEAPfactory, who specialize in modular survival structures that can withstand extreme conditions and environments. The tube was built off-site and carried to its rocky perch by a helicopter. Though the red pattern has a practical function – making the refuge visible to climbers and mountaineers – it also has a bit of Alpine charm, looking like decorative trim on a sweater.

The refuge pod features a number of circular porthole-like windows on either side, and is covered in solar panels which power lights, a weather monitoring station and other electronics. There’s a living area with a kitchen, a table and seating, and a sleeping area with bunk beds and storage space for gear.

Say the architects, “The realisation of the refuge is a great achievement, in that the materials used are of a high standard and use sophisticated technology capable of handling the problems of extreme temperatures and the difficulties of installation, given the altitude and the position in the midst of a glacier.”

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Thundersnow… if there’s a more awesome-sounding meteorological phenomenon, then bring it on! While the name “Thundersnow” is eminently suitable for a Marvel superhero, a WWE wrestler or a heavy metal band, it’s actually an easily explainable (though rare and unusual) aspect of wild winter weather.

Thundersnow, The Other White Noise

(images via: To Be Sugarfree and Anokarina/Picasaweb)

Thundersnow is one of those odd occurrences that, while fully natural, just seem somehow “not right.” You’ve got your thunderstorms, which we associate with hot and humid summer days. You’ve got your snow, either blown forcefully by howling winter winds or delicately falling in silent flotillas of frilly flakes. But thunder? In my snowstorm? It’s not only less likely than you think, it’s not likely period.

(image via: Night Sky Hunter)

Not likely perhaps but far from impossible, when one considers the same basic “weather physics” that spawn thunder and lightning can occur any time of the year, in any temperature range. What’s required above all is a powerful storm system that features significant vertical mixing of air masses resulting in a separation of positive and negative electrical charges.

(images via: Rance Rizzutto and FamousDC)

Ice crystals are also seen as a catalyst for lightning formation; even in summer thunderstorms. A severe winter storm creates more than enough ice crystals to go around and their presence in cold-weather supercell systems may act to promote lightning strikes regardless of the lower degree (pun intended) of heat energy in winter storm clouds.

(images via: The Courier, Scientific American and IMWX)

Though thundersnow isn’t a component of every blizzard, the aforementioned conditions that are most conducive to thundersnow also frequently produce high winds, heavy snowfalls, severe drifting and whiteouts. If you can hear thundersnow, be thankful you’re indoors or feel anxious if you aren’t. An erstwhile cameraman from Dundee, Scotland managed to capture multiple thundersnow lightning strikes on a wind turbine outside the city’s Michelin works. Image at above top, video goodness below:

Dundee lightning strikes 28/11/10 11:45am, via Thegameof1

Shocks and Awe

(images via: Baird’s Travel, BolgerNow and Deadspin)

The fact that thundersnow often accompanies strong storms producing heavy snowfalls – up to 4 inches per hour in some cases – means that the phenomenon is occasionally observed inadvertently by weathermen (weatherpeople?) who are familiar with the phenomenon… or should we say, “should” be familiar.

(images via: Daily Mail UK)

Take Jim Cantore (above), for instance. The long-time Weather Channel on-air personality and storm tracker has acquired a reputation for really getting into his work, usually on live TV broadcasts. You’d think nothing weather-wise could faze Cantore but a 1996 thundersnow event in Worcester, MA, definitely threw him for a loop. It even made his “Best of Cantore” 25-year video retrospective. Here, check this out:

Jim Cantore: Thunder Snow, via Illinoisfury

(images via: CityRag and HipHopStan.com)

Fifteen years later, thundersnow still has the ability to astound the so-called “Thundersnow King” but Cantore’s thermodynamic theatrics aside, thundersnow is indeed rare if one goes by the official stats. A variety of sources referencing the NOAA note that between 1961 and 1990, only 375 occurrences of thundersnow were officially recorded with the state of Utah accounting for 36 of those events.

(image via: Zazzle)

Thundersnow’s rarity may be somewhat of an illusion, however. Meteorological research has uncovered the fact that falling snow acts as an acoustic suppressor. That is, sounds emanating from within or behind a curtain of snow are effectively muffled. It’s estimated that thundersnow can be heard up to 3 miles from an individual lightning strike while in run-of-the-mill rainy thunderstorms the hearing distance is roughly double. So then, if a lightning bolt falls from a winter thunderstorm and no one is within 3 to 6 miles to hear it, does it make a sound?

Thanks, It’s Been A Wintery Blast

(images via: NovelTP, Web2txt and BearsEatPeople)

“Thunder shook loose hail on the outhouse again…” The eerie opening lyric from Magazine’s disturbing 1979 track “Permafrost” may be the only musical reference to thundersnow, albeit indirectly as hail often falls during summer thunderstorms. What’s worse, sitting in an outhouse during a hailstorm or while thundersnow rattles the walls? Perhaps being in an outhouse in winter, under ANY circumstances, is frightening enough in itself.

(images via: Cerebraleye/DeviantArt, Everyday Odyssey and DatPiff)

Thundersnow, as awesome and unexpected as it is, surprisingly hasn’t made much impact on pop culture. When the writers of 1987′s The Running Man needed a name for an especially chilling villain, they picked Sub-Zero… isn’t that a refrigerator? Sub-Zero later inspired the creation of SubZero, who appears in the Mortal Combat universe.

(images via: Bat-Mania, FoodCourtLunch and Gothamist)

Even Batman blew it, bringing in Mr. Freeze when “Thundersnow!” was a much better bet to finally kick the Caped Crusader’s ice. Then there’s Thundersnow Ice Cream Cone Guy… talk about yer 15 seconds of fame.

(image via: Texas A&M News)

Perhaps thundersnow’s time to shine has yet to come. Weather channels the world over are pumping the Storm Chaser gig for all it’s worth, while at the same time the popularity of YouTube and the improving attributes of mobile phone cameras have turned almost anyone into an amateur weather reporter. With that said, thundersnow may indeed come out of the dark someday… but it’ll never come in from the cold.

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Decorating your home? There’s nothing more environmentally friendly than choosing pre-owned goods, especially those that may be seen as trash by others. Look for aging items with lots of texture and character like apothecary cabinets, bins and baskets, bird cages, dressing tables, suitcases, picture frames, shutters, scrap wood, jars and tins. Use these 35 photos as a visual guide to pick out quality vintage pieces at thrift stores, flea markets and yard sales and integrate them into your home.

Apothecary Cabinets

(images via: ffffound, flickr, diychichome)

Originally designed to store herbs, spices and medical goods in retail stores, apothecary cabinets have many small drawers that can be extremely helpful in organization. Often weathered, giving a hint of their history, these beautiful cabinets can be found in excellent vintage condition from locations all over the world. Reproduction models are also available (but are nowhere near as charming or eco-friendly.) They can be used for the home in so many ways: storing linens and special tableware items in the dining room, arts and craft supplies, baby items and random odds and ends.

Bins & Baskets

(images via: restoration hardware, poppytalk, schoengeistig, country living)

They’re among decorators’ most-loved vintage finds: bins and baskets from times past, typically very sturdy and well-made, often printed with text that tells of their initial use. If you’re lucky, you’ll see metal baskets from old locker rooms, industrial metal bins, milk crates and French mail bins. Naturally, the uses for these bins are practically endless. Slide them onto bookshelves, or use them in place of drawers in dressers. Mount them to the wall. Use them in the bathroom for towels and extra toilet paper. Place them inside open kitchen cabinets or pantries to reduce the look of clutter.

Bird Cages

(images via: knock off decor, design sponge, bhg, womans day)

Bird cages have a certain ‘shabby chic’ aesthetic that some vintage-loving decorators just can’t resist. Many are decorative enough to simply hang empty, or place atop nightstands and book cases. Some place candles or potted plants inside them, turn them into hanging lamps, mount them to walls or remove one side to create a cute little organizer. Get instructions to make the latter at Better Homes and Gardens.

Dressing Tables

(images via: craftynest, the how and tell blog, hellolovelyinc, traceytilley)

Why keep dressers hidden away in the bedroom when they have so many uses? Snag one with potential, re-paint it and revamp it into a foyer table, an organizer for tableware in the dining room, a changing table, a television stand or even a bathroom vanity. Look for real, solid wood (not particle board, which can bend and warp) and interesting hardware for maximum visual impact.

Suitcases

(images via: re-nest.com, cupcakes and cashmere, apartment therapy, style me pretty)

Who knew suitcases had so many purposes? Aside from schlepping around your travel gear, vintage suitcases – especially those a little too worn for their original use – make beautiful and unexpected nightstands and decorative elements when stacked. Just like baskets and bins, they can be placed inside a dresser instead of drawers; have one open on a tabletop to display some of your favorite items.

Picture Frames

(images via: shelterness, citified, shelterness 2, curbly)

The trick to making a gaudy old picture frame chic and modern? Spray paint. Even the busiest frames can be vastly simplified with a coat of paint – try black, white or a high-impact bright like red or turquoise. Weathered wood frames are beautiful as well. Take cues from these inspirational images and use them to display photos in unexpected ways, frame a chalkboard or display jewelry.

Shutters

(images via: good housekeeping, martha stewart, iffers, jaimescott)

Room screens. Headboards. Wall art. Furniture. Tuck memos, mail, notes or photos into the slots.
Shutters have so much texture, and their mere presence seems to make a room brighter and more welcoming because they provide the illusion of more windows. Another way to use this effect to your advantage – and visually enlarge a room – is to place them on either side of a large mirror.

Jars and Tins

(images via: houzz.com, etsy, etsy 2, ionwkathy, designsponge)

Vintage jars are so in-demand that they can sometimes sell for up to fifteen dollars each. That’s a big success story for an item that was once thought of as trash. Mason jars, tins and other kinds of glass and metal containers – especially the old blue Ball jars – are a small but dramatic way to bring some vintage flair into a room. They can be hanging lamps, terrariums, vases, planters, soap containers and votive holders. Melt down leftover wax and pour it into an old tin for a double shot of reuse. If you’re in love with the look of those blue jars but can’t find any, try this tutorial by Like a Cup of Tea, which uses glue and food coloring to create the effect.

Weathered Scrap Wood

(images via: traditionally modern designs, u-create crafts, alternative apparel, cenzo design)

Strips of salvaged wood bring so much character into a space, whether used sparingly or applied to an entire wall. Drill 2-inch holes into a scrap wooden post to turn it into a rustic candle holder for your mantle or tabletop. Nail them together into whimsical wall art. Use them to cover the top of an uninspiring table, or create a window valance.

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Humble and beautiful in their imperfection, little cottages with hand-made details call to mind the tales of the Brothers Grimm and other fairy stories, making us long for an adorable abode to call our own. These tiny houses provide inspiration to simplify and live smaller, and they’re definitely fun to look at. So make yourself a mug of hot cocoa, settle into some blankets and get ready to daydream about cozy snow-covered cottages brimming with the magic of storytelling.

The Queen’s Hamlet, France

(image via: stuck in customs)

You could say this is a real, authentic fairy tale cottage. It’s called ‘Hameau de la Reine’, or the Queen’s Hamlet, and it was built for Marie Antoinette between 1785 and 1792. Everything from its proportions and thatched roof to its lopsided staircase and beautiful garden serves as ideal inspiration for modern-day cottage copies.

The Storybook Cottage of New York

(images via: storybook-cottage.net)

If you’re longing for a fairytale experience but no where near building a little home of your own, live out your fantasies at Rhinebeck, New York’s Storybook Cottage. This rental home is in high demand, so the wait list is long, but it’s so worth it: the stone walls, warm wood and whimsical design details make it feel like it’s fit for a princess.

English Thatched-Roof

(image via: simply think shabby)

Thatched roofs, as seen in this adorable example, are one of the hallmarks of storybook homes. Thatching methods are used all over the world but are most closely associated with the countryside of the United Kingdom. Over 250 roofs in Southern England have coats of thatch that were applied over 500 years ago!

Rounded Stone

(image via: home-designing.com)

This sweet stone cottage has a sculpted thatch roof, leaded glass windows and multiple chimneys along with a gated garden – can it be any more evocative?

Tiny Cottage in the Catskills

(images via: tiny house blog)

A hunting cabin transformed into an all-white, shabby chic cottage in the hands of Sandra Foster, who uses it as a romantic retreat. The cottage measures just 9 by 14 feet and cost just $3,000 to renovate and furnish into this Victorian beauty.

Picturesque Garden

(image via: 24 media)

This little cottage almost looks too perfect to be real. Its setting, just against the dark woods, contrasts with its picture-perfect topiaries and welcoming steps.

Tiny Victorian House

(image via: Pandorea)

It’s a playhouse and garden shed rather than somebody’s home, but this tiny colorful house with Victorian details could easily house a person inclined to live small. Cecile’s Garden is reminiscent of a Tumbleweed House, which are tiny wooden houses built on wheels or foundations.

Hansel

(images via: tales from carmel, storybook1)

There’s no greater modern-day fairytale village than Carmel-by-the-Sea in California. This community features a number of charming homes built in the 1920s by Hugh Comstock. It all began when the architect’s wife asked him to build her a doll house as a show room for the rag dolls she sold, and the result was ‘Hansel’, above.

Windamere

(image via: redbubble)

Windamere is another Comstock cottage in Carmel, with its most eye-catching and distinguishing feature clearly being its unusually textured roof. The cedar shingles were steam-bent to curve and meander along the surfaces of the roof, a skill that is not easy to find among today’s craftsmen.

Sunwise Turn

(images via: tales from carmel)

Imagined by many a passer-by to be the cottage of the Seven Dwarves, Sunwise Turn is another Comstock creation. Shabby and sweet just as a real unkempt cottage in the woods, the home also known as the Elspeth Rose house is totally timeless.

Obers

(images via: linda hartong)

Obers was Comstock’s own home, made of adobe brick, local stone and hand-carved trim.

The Tuck Box

(image via: linda hartong)

Looking almost like something straight out of Disneyland, the Tuck Box was Hugh Comstock’s office and was built in 1927. It’s now the Tuck Box gift shop, which includes a tea room.

Marchen Haus

(images via:tales from carmel)

One more Comstock house to make you sigh in dreamy envy. Marchen Haus bears all the hallmarks of a lovingly hand-crafted home including asymmetrical windows, curving roof tiles and a misshapen chimney.

Rectory Cottage, Plymouth, England

(image via: bex ross)

Who wouldn’t want to live in an old rectory in the English countryside? This old groundkeeper’s cottage is now a private home, still adjacent to the old cemetery with which it was once associated.

Amazing Wooden Cottage, Poland

(image via: kebabsuperior)

From Poland comes another stunning hand-crafted creation. This cottage is located in Białka Tatrzańska, the Tatra Mountains.

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