Making a chest of drawers from boxes
Making a chest of drawers for cosmetics with your own hands from cardboard is an opportunity to inexpensively get a new place to store your things. After purchases of any equipment, a cardboard box always remains, and over the years they accumulate a dozen. Why not give them a second life?
Why you can make a chest of drawers out of boxes
It all depends on the thickness of the boxes you use.
If their thickness is two millimeters or less, then it is better to refrain from using them. You can, of course, try your luck, but the resulting structure cannot be called reliable, because it will not withstand a heavy load.
Do you need a makeup dresser? You can use cardboard with a thickness of two millimeters, it should withstand all your accessories.
Are you a lover of renovation and construction? I advise you to use boxes with a thickness of four millimeters or more, as the tools can weigh up to several kilograms.
Let's take a closer look at the last two options.
For cosmetics
This option can be called female. Have a lot of tubes, lipsticks, pencils and other cosmetics accumulated? Don't want to take up half a table? Making a chest of drawers out of cardboard for cosmetics is a way out of this situation!
As mentioned earlier, you will not need thick material. Cosmetics do not weigh much, but take up a lot. This is the reason for creating a cardboard chest of drawers.
Speaking about volume, you need to understand that every woman has a different number of cosmetic accessories. But, on average, from one box you can make a shelf that can hold from three to five bottles of perfume (depending on the volume), from five to seven packs of cream, or countless jars of nail polish, scissors or tweezers.
For instruments
Now let's talk about the male version of this invention. The vast majority of men have at least once been involved in construction, furniture assembly or renovation. Even if you have not had this experience, it is best to always have at least a couple of screwdrivers and a hammer with you. You never know where you have to screw or hammer something urgently.
But, like cosmetic accessories, work tools tend to accumulate in large quantities. The same hand-made chest of drawers will help you to solve this problem. The preferred thickness of the cardboard used to create this design has been written above.
Due to the fact that working tools take up a larger volume than cosmetics, it will not be possible to put a lot of them in one shelf.One holds about four hammers, one or two electric tools or a pair of screwdrivers, and a large supply of nails and screws.
What tools and materials are needed for work
The main materials and tools for work are the cardboard itself, a stationery knife and glue. If you are using boxes instead of sheets of cardboard, then use a knife to cut them into separate pieces.
Additionally, you can use hot glue and paper of different colors or paints. The chest of drawers will stand without it, but few people want it to be brown. And besides, the cardboard itself differs in color. There are both dark and bright light. And hot glue will be needed in the future to give it more strength.
Note! The paint will not obscure the side gaps in the cardboard, so to get the best look you need to use both paper and paint at the same time.
Manufacturing technology
This article will present the assembly of a roomy chest of drawers that requires a fairly large amount of cardboard.
Note! It's okay if you don't have perfectly flat cardboard. You are not collecting furniture for sale. You can use a slightly wrinkled sheet or with traces of bends. The main thing is that it does not bend from the slightest load.
For the details of the bottom, top cover and side walls, you will need twelve pieces of cardboard measuring thirty-five by nineteen centimeters. The thicker the better.
For the partitions on which the drawers will stand, sheets of thirty-four by seventeen centimeters in size are needed. There are also twelve of them.
For the front and back walls of the boxes, thirty pieces are needed, the size of which is thirty-one by five and a half centimeters.
Below there will be a master class on assembling a chest of drawers using these parts.
Schemes and drawings
Scheme for determining the thickness of the cardboard
| Length | Width | Quantity | |
| Bottom, lid, walls (side) | Thirty five centimeters | Nineteen centimeters | Twelve pieces |
| Partitions | Thirty four centimeters | Seventeen centimeters | Twelve pieces |
| Walls (front and rear) | Thirty one centimeter | Five and a half centimeters | Thirty pieces |
- Bottom, lid, side walls. 1 cell = 1 cm.
- Partitions. 1 cell = 1 cm.
- Front and back walls. 1 cell = 1 cm.
Master class on making a chest of drawers from boxes
We take the side parts of the chest of drawers (thirty-five by nineteen centimeters). We mark from the edge first five, then seven centimeters. From the top edge, mark six centimeters along the height of the drawer, add the thickness of the partition, and so on to the very bottom. We cut out those small rectangles that we have with a clerical knife and take out two of the three layers of cardboard.
We do this specifically in order to fix the partitions in the future. Otherwise, due to heavy things, the partitions will begin to sag and peel off.
Important! Before going further, you need to measure the thickness of the two side walls of the chest of drawers and mark this thickness on the bottom and on the top lid. Then we will find out how wide the partitions should be. In this case, it is 31.5 cm. each partition is 34 by 17 centimeters in size, you need to subtract 31.5 from 34 and divide the result by two. A distance of 1.25 cm came out, which should be noted on both sides.
We measure 5 and 7 centimeters from the edges of the partition and cut off the excess.The side wall and partition now fit perfectly together.
Everything that we did with the first side wall, we repeat with the second.
We check that the upper partition falls into place without problems and, if everything fits together, you can cut out the remaining rectangles in the side wall and install the partitions.
It remains to glue the partitions into the side walls. To do this, fill all the holes with glue. You can also use hot glue for strength. It will securely fix the partition, and after drying everything will hold tight. We repeat this whole process with all four partitions.
After the glue is dry, do the same for the second side wall.
Important! If you are using hot glue, remember that it dries very quickly, and you need to have time to match the parts before the glue hardens.
We glue the top cover and bottom (two parts measuring 35 by 19 centimeters) and, if you decide to use colored paper, glue it over the entire front of the chest of drawers. Next, we measure the size of the back wall and glue it (it may vary depending on the thickness of the cardboard)
Note! It is highly recommended that you use paper as it will help smooth out any unevenness.
Let's take care of the drawers. The front and back walls (31x5.5cm) must be glued to pieces of cardboard measuring 31 x 16.5 centimeters. After that, we measure the size of the side walls and glue them between the front and rear. It turned out 16.5 by 5 centimeters, but this figure may vary depending on the thickness of the cardboard used.
Further, if you wish, you can paste over the entire structure with colored paper and (or) paint it in any color of your choice. You can also screw on the handles for convenience.
Summing up, I would like to say that many different designs can be assembled from cardboard and this is just one of the options. After spending a couple of hours on assembling, you will have a beautiful and convenient chest of drawers at your disposal, which will cost you mere pennies.
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