Sep 2, 2011
A Friday Giggle
The other day Bossy received an email asking if she’d like to write a post about an eco-friendly furniture company.
Frankly, Bossy wouldn’t think of wasting her esteemed council’s time with such a promotion! So Bossy isn’t going to write about eco-friendly furniture! She’s going to make fun of eco-friendly furniture!
Shall we?
You see, this particular eco-friendly company focuses on kid furniture made from recycled cardboard. And they were nice enough to include a few product shots, such as the following playroom table:
Bossy couldn’t recall what this reminded her of, and then she finally placed it: a cardboard box! What a creative use of, um, old cardboard! Bossy never would have guessed!
Still Bossy couldn’t help but wonder what this playroom table looks like once the furniture company completes the piece.
Bossy couldn’t place what this reminded her of, either. And then Bossy realized she’s already quite familiar with recycled cardboard furniture! For instance, the following recycled cardboard bed:
Ot how about this recycled dining room:
Have you heard the Sarah Silverman bit where she says she invited a homeless person to sleep at her house, but she put a cardboard box in the kitchen so he would feel at home.
That cardboard table would only last through one spillage of juice box.
My cats would scratch & bite it until it was no more.
Olivia was on to this idea years ago. Her then preschoolers had their very own cardboard house in the “rec room” (does anyone even know what a “rec room” IS anymore?) and their very own cardboard store, courtesy of a new washer and dryer that Olivia had bought. And they even drew on it themselves.
Ah yes, Olivia was clearly a visionary in her day.
My kid would have promptly peed on that folding chair.
At first glance I thought the bottom photo was a certain someone’s new digs in Morningside Heights… kidding, JUST KIDDING! We know, you have the BEST housing policy.
OK, Bossy crossed over the cynicism line for me. But when I was a kid my favorite toy was a set of giant blocks made of cardboard and painted like bricks. They were super strong and my sister and I could even build a playhouse with them. I wonder if those are still around.
dobes — we have a set of those still around for the second generation to play with!
But isn’t the criticicism just pointing out that the company is capitalizing on the oh so obvious (If you are a parent)? Little Bossy had many things made out of boxes…for instance a desk where she played “car rental agent”, She went for broke that kid.
Ah, memories. I grew up in a house full of cardboard furniture. Really cool stuff. And almost indestructible. Me, my sister, one cat and various dogs couldn’t destroy that stuff. Its worst enemy is fire. One piece met its death from a floor furnace. I’d kill for a piece or two or ten now.
How much are they charging for their cardboard play table? I should get into the cardboard furniture business. I have some old U-Haul boxes in my closet. I bet I could make a killing with those.
My kids favorite toy was the “playhouse” they made out of box from grandmas new washing machine. It lasted a good year before it was left by the side of street for the city recycle truck to pick up.
ok, there are some wacky ideas that are good, and some that just…well,….are not, to put it nicely. All of us were kids, and I’m sure every one of us remembers our own cardboard housing (such as comment no’s 9, 11, 3 and 6). The charm and the things these fond memories were that WE designed it, WE decided what use it was, WE decorated it. Not somebody else trying to charge us and strip us of our creativity. Hats off to the homeless sleeper and diner in the pictures, they have it right!!!
@ runnergirl
Actually, the stuff I grew up with wasn’t the cardboard “housing” and cheap “bankers boxes” type of stuff you see in Bossy’s post. The stuff I grew up with was the Easy Edges pieces. Very cool cardboard furniture done right.
Cute Furniture! Nothing better than creative ideas! Totally love the desk!
I remember when I was a kid and our family got a new refrigerator. My sister and I played in/on/around the refrigerator box for days/weeks. My parents thought it was so funny that the cardboard box provided way more entertainment than the “real toys” that they bought us.
Most people of an older generation (pick your generation – I worked for 8 years in a retirement community) said the best gifts for kids were: cardboard boxes, crayons, and paper. I agree with it and I am of the “I’m not sure what generation I am.” Depending upon what list you look at I am at the end of the boomers or the beginning of the X-ers.
My daughter – with the help of colored markers and a pair of kitchen scissors – has shepherded one cardboard box thru several incarnations as: table, stuffed animal bed, doll house, race car, rocket ship, hat and some kind of ninja weapon. She can also assemble Ikea furniture. She’s 10.