DIY cardboard chest of drawers with drawings: diagrams and master class

To creatively decorate your apartment, as well as add personality to it, you can make furniture from cardboard with your own hands; the patterns and diagrams are so simple that even a beginner can make the products. A variety of options will allow you to choose the right piece of furniture and make it, involving all family members in the process.

Why can you make a chest of drawers from 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 large load.

From unnecessary boxes and pieces of wallpaper you can make a complete and worthy piece of furniture for a child’s room or living room.

Do you need a drawer for cosmetics? You can use cardboard with a thickness of two millimeters or more; it should support all your accessories.

Are you a renovation and construction enthusiast? I advise you to use boxes with a thickness of four millimeters, since the tools can weigh up to several kilograms.

Anyone can make a chest of drawers from cardboard or other available materials.

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 the table? Making a chest of drawers out of cardboard for cosmetics is a way out of this situation!

By gluing the cardboard in several layers, we get an object with the required strength.

As stated earlier, you will not need thick material. Cosmetics don't weigh much, but they take up a lot of space. This is the reason for creating a cardboard chest of drawers.

If you cover the chest of drawers with bright fabric or colored wallpaper, you will get an original piece of furniture.

Speaking about volume, you need to understand that each woman has a different number of cosmetic accessories. But, on average, from one box you can make a shelf that can accommodate from three to five bottles of perfume (depending on volume), from five to seven packages of cream or countless jars of nail polish, scissors or tweezers.

They are able to withstand books, photo frames, vases with flowers, and other decorative items.

For tools

Now let's talk about the male version of this invention. The vast majority of men have at least once worked in construction, assembling furniture or repairing. Even if you have not had such experience, it is better to always have at least a couple of screwdrivers and a hammer with you. You never know where something will have to be urgently screwed in or hammered in.

White chest of drawers made of cardboard with drawers of different sizes

But, like cosmetic accessories, work tools tend to accumulate in large quantities. The same chest of drawers, made by yourself, will help you solve this problem. The preferred thickness of cardboard used to create this design was written above.

Having subjected the cardboard to external and internal decoration, no one will guess that you made the shelving unit or chest of drawers from cardboard boxes yourself.

Due to the fact that working tools take up more volume than cosmetics, you won’t be able to fit a lot of them on one shelf. One holds about four hammers, one or two power tools or a couple of screwdrivers, and a large supply of nails and screws.

When starting to realize your creative ideas, think about the design of the future product and the place where it will be located.

Making pens

You can make any drawer handle you want. It is enough to show your imagination. Depending on his style they can be:

• bottle caps;
• various beads or rivets;
• buttons;
• small ropes attached to the inside of the boxes;
• wine bottle stoppers and much more.

In our case, satin ribbons will serve as handles for the chest of drawers. To do this, you need to make two holes with an awl, then thread our satin ribbons into them and tie them from the inside of the box.

This is such a neat and cute chest of drawers made from cardboard boxes!

What tools and materials are needed for the job?

The main materials and tools for work are the cardboard itself, a stationery knife and glue. If you are using boxes rather than 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 this, but few people will want it to be brown. And besides, the cardboard itself differs in color. There is both dark and bright light. And hot glue will be needed in the future to add greater strength.

Note! Paint will not hide the side gaps of the cardboard, so to get the best look, you need to use both paper and paint at the same time.

Let's start the lesson

The master class “How to make a chest of drawers” ​​will help you cope with this task without any problems.

To create a chest of drawers from cardboard you will need the following materials:

• Stapler;
• Cardboard boxes or sheets of cardboard;
• PVA glue;
• Stationery tape;
• Acrylic paints (shades depend on your own imagination and desire);
• Brushes;
• Scissors;
• Awl;
• Various decorative elements for your choice.

First of all, on a piece of paper we draw the so-called desired result.

If you are going to make a chest of drawers for the first time, we strongly recommend that you create a “mini version” using plain paper. This way you can save yourself from damage to the prepared materials. Based on the sketch you have drawn up, you can begin further steps to create a chest of drawers.

We create the basis of the future chest of drawers. Based on its size, we will select drawers. For boxes you will need six boxes of the same size (for example, cereal or baby cereal). You can also assemble and glue boxes from a single sheet of cardboard. In our case, we will use ready-made oatmeal boxes.

Using scissors or a utility knife, cut the box crosswise, as shown in the photographs. The cut parts of the box must be bent inward to strengthen the walls of future boxes. You can secure the bent parts of the cardboard using PVA glue or a stapler. Similar actions must be done with the remaining five boxes. Thus, all six drawers are ready for the future chest of drawers.

Using your imagination, you can cover the boxes with self-adhesive film, decorative or wrapping paper, craft paper, and even fabric. Or you can simply paint it with paints, for example, acrylic. In this case, the method of gluing the boxes with decorative paper is used. After which, the parts must be left to dry.

In order to make shelves for drawers, you will need thick corrugated cardboard. It is necessary to cut strips from it so that it is possible to wrap two adjacent boxes, namely:

• the width of the strip should match the length of the drawers;
• strip length = two heights and four widths.

In order for the fold to be as accurate and even as possible, you first need to mark the strip by gently pressing the scissors. Because the cardboard is quite dense and thick, it would be advisable to draw parallel strips with a distance of 2 millimeters from each other.

After the work has been done, you can begin gluing the internal parts of the resulting shelf using the same decorative film that was used to design the drawers. To ensure that the edges of the shelf and the cut are hidden, be sure to fold the edges. By gluing the edges and thereby forming a complete shelf, you can first check the operation of the future chest of drawers. To do this, two drawers need to be inserted into the shelf. They should slide out without problems, after which it is necessary to make two more such shelves. In total, you should get three shelves with six drawers.

1. The next step will be to connect the three prepared shelves together. To do this, you need to put them on top of each other and coat them well with PVA glue. Then, using some kind of weight, you need to press it down and leave it to dry thoroughly.

After the glue has completely dried and the shelves are firmly attached, you need to cover the back of the chest of drawers with a solid sheet of cardboard using glue. Apply glue to the bottom of the chest of drawers, its lid, and also to the sides. Next, from corrugated cardboard you need to carefully cut out the back, top of the chest of drawers, its bottom, as well as the side parts, fix them with glue on the resulting chest of drawers. After that, we cover everything with paper.

Manufacturing technology

This article will present the assembly of a spacious chest of drawers, which requires a fairly large amount of cardboard.

Cardboard is suitable for design and decoration, providing a wide variety of original forms.

Note! It's okay if your cardboard is not perfectly smooth. You don't collect furniture to sell. You can use a sheet that is slightly wrinkled or has traces of bending. The main thing is that it does not sag under 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 measuring thirty-four by seventeen centimeters are needed. There are also twelve of them.

A hand-made cardboard chest of drawers can withstand decent loads.

For the front and back walls of the drawers, you will need thirty pieces, the size of which is thirty-one by five and a half centimeters.

Below is a master class on assembling a chest of drawers using these parts.

You can do without any investment at all if you have a supply of cardboard in the house or you know where to get extra.

Schemes and drawings

Scheme for determining cardboard thickness

With careful use and high-quality assembly, cardboard will last 5 to 10 years.

• Bottom, lid, side walls. 1 cell = 1 cm.
• Partitions. 1 cell = 1 cm.
• Front and rear 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 first five, then seven centimeters from the edge. From the top edge, mark six centimeters along the height of the drawer, add the thickness of the partition, and so on until the very bottom. We cut out the small rectangles that we got with a stationery knife and take out two of the three layers of cardboard.

For those who will be making a chest of drawers out of cardboard with their own hands for the first time, choose a lighter model.

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 any further, you need to measure the thickness of the two side walls of the dresser and mark this thickness on the bottom and on the top lid. Then we will know how wide the partitions should be. In this case it is 31.5 cm. Because. each partition measures 34 by 17 centimeters, you need to subtract 31.5 from 34 and divide the result by two. The resulting distance is 1.25 cm, which needs to be marked on both sides.

We measure 5 and 7 centimeters from the edges of the partition and cut off the excess. Now the side wall and the partition fit perfectly together.

Connect the surfaces with instant glue, a glue gun, then place under a load for an hour for adhesion.

We repeat everything that we did with the first side wall 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.

All that remains is 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.

Glue the parts on the inside of the sides so that there are gaps in the places where the shelves will be inserted. The dimensions of the groove must correspond to the height of the shelves.

After the glue has dried, we will do the same with the second side wall.

Important! If you use hot glue, remember that it dries very quickly, and you need to have time to fit the pieces together before the glue hardens.

We glue the top cover and the bottom (two parts measuring 35 by 19 centimeters) and, if you decide to use colored paper, cover the entire front part of the chest with it. Next, measure the size of the back wall and glue it (may vary depending on the thickness of the cardboard)

For neatness, the edges are covered with paper tape or paper.

Note! It is highly recommended to use paper as it will help smooth out any rough edges.

Let's take care of the drawers. The front and back walls (31x5.5 cm) need to be glued to pieces of cardboard measuring 31 by 16.5 centimeters. After this, we measure the size of the side walls and glue them between the front and back. It turned out 16.5 by 5 centimeters, but this figure may vary depending on the thickness of the cardboard used.

Then, if you wish, you can cover the entire structure with colored paper and/or paint it in any color of your choice. You can also screw the handles for convenience.

To summarize, I would like to say that you can assemble many different designs from cardboard, and this is just one of the options. After spending a couple of hours on assembly, you will have a beautiful and comfortable chest of drawers at your disposal, which will cost you mere pennies.

Interior decoration

Options

• The furniture is covered with decorative paper (napkins), then varnished; this coating will give interesting shades depending on the chosen texture.
• Finishing with fabric will give the furniture a “boudoir” look.
• The chest of drawers is decorated with tissue paper using glue with the addition of colored pigments.
• The furniture is painted with acrylic.

Instructions

After applying a leveling coating to the cabinet and drawers, the structure is sanded and then painted with acrylic paint.

Attention! It is necessary to paint the fronts of the drawers, but do not paint the inside, as the paint will peel off. It's better to organize using paper.

How to make handles? There are many options:

• made from polymer clay,
• buy ready-made in the store,
• use cotton thread.

If cotton ropes are provided, use a drill to drill two holes in each box. Next, the ropes are prepared. Cut to desired size. A knot is then tied at one end and the other end is dipped into the wax, waiting a few seconds until the wax hardens. The "waxed" end is then rolled between the fingers to form a hard edge. This will allow you to easily thread the cord through the drawer opening. Once the handles are on, tie a knot on the other side.

Photo of 50 design options for homemade chests of drawers made of cardboard

What to look for when choosing

You always want the item you purchase to be of high quality, comfortable and last a long time. In order not to be disappointed in your purchase in the future, you need to initially approach the selection process correctly.

Criterias of choice:

1. Size. Correctly determining the required dimensions of the product, corresponding to the amount of cosmetics and the size of the room, will allow you to optimally place both the chest of drawers itself and all the things necessary to store it.
2. Material of manufacture. The product should not only be beautiful, but also of high quality. Strength, reliability and safety of the material should be the main criteria when choosing a design. If you plan to install the chest of drawers in a bedroom, you must make sure that no toxic materials were used in its manufacture.
3. Matching the interior. The style and color of the chest of drawers should match the overall design of the room, unless it is planned as a separate decorative element, which is not often the case, because its main function is storage.

Otherwise, the choice of this product depends entirely on the wishes of the woman, her taste and needs.

Preparation of accessories

The first thing you need to do is find the items that will be used to create a chest of drawers. The base can be shoe boxes or trays. You should also take care of decorating the product. You can cover the base with thick fabric or beautiful cardboard with an exclusive design. If necessary, you can decorate the chest of drawers with beautiful fittings and special decor.