by Ángeles de Hita - Feb 16, 2025.

 

The beauty of cardboard lies in its simplicity. A plain box can become a car, a house, or a spaceship in the hands of a child. We’ve all seen how, when small children receive new toys, they often find more joy in the box than in the toy it originally contained. Less is more, and simpler is better! Unstructured materials like cardboard give children the freedom to create, dream, and play.

This material is one of the most easily recyclable and renewable resources. It’s also light, resistant, and inexpensive, offering endless possibilities for reuse and immense potential in children’s design. The publishing industry embraced cardboard early on in children’s books. Board books are sturdy and simple for little hands to hold, allowing children to explore without damaging the pages. Yet, despite its many advantages, cardboard furniture and toys have remained relatively uncommon.

Over the years, however, designers have recognized the value of cardboard as a material for children’s furniture and toys. Here are some of the most inspiring examples of cardboard’s role in playful design.

 

THE FABLE GAME – ENZO MARI (1965)

Enzo Mari believed that children’s toys should foster creativity, and his 1965 design, The Fable Game, embodied this philosophy. Consisting of six large, thick cards printed on both sides, the game allowed children to construct their own stories by combining the cards in different sequences. Each card featured a central scene and two side scenes that connected through slots at the top and bottom, encouraging endless storytelling possibilities. The images, inspired by fables, included animals, celestial bodies, and everyday objects such as trees and umbrellas. The Fable Game was a simple yet powerful tool for imaginative play, reinforcing Mari’s belief that good design should invite exploration.

 

IL POSTO DEI GIOCHI – ENZO MARI (1967)

Two years later, Mari expanded on his vision for children’s play with Il Posto dei Giochi (The Place of Games), a modular play structure produced by Bruno Danese. Designed to create a portable play environment, it featured a three-meter-long corrugated pressboard sheet that folded into a protective barrier, allowing children to construct their own private worlds. Ten illustrated panels decorated with abstract shapes—yellow suns, blue waves, and red bricks—sparked creativity while leaving room for imagination. Reissued by Corraini in 2008, Il Posto dei Giochi demonstrated Mari’s lifelong commitment to designing toys that were open-ended and endlessly adaptable.

 

TOY: EAMES (1951)

For Charles and Ray Eames, play was a fundamental part of design. In 1951, they introduced The Toy, a self-assembly construction kit sold by Sears. Designed for both children and adults, it featured colorful square and triangular panels, wooden dowels, and pipe cleaners, allowing users to build everything from play tents to theatrical backdrops. Originally packaged in oversized boxes, retail concerns led the Eames to repackage it in a sleek hexagonal tube for easier storage and display.

Though the toy itself was not made from cardboard, but rather durable paper combined with wooden components, it reflected the Eames’ broader experimentation with the material. Around the same time, they designed large, theatrical paper masks—featured in Life magazine in 1951—and approached Tigrett Industries to produce them. Sadly the masks never reached production.

A smaller version of the TOY released in 1952 took a more architectural approach, echoing the grid-like paneling of the Eames House and reinforcing the duo’s idea that great design—whether in furniture or toys—should be adaptable at any scale.

 

CARTON CITY – EAMES (EARLY 1950s)

At the same time, Charles and Ray Eames were exploring another creative use of cardboard. In the early 1950s, they designed a set of shipping boxes for Herman Miller furniture with a playful twist—once emptied, they could be transformed into playhouses. Printed in bold red and black patterns, the heavy-duty cardboard cartons featured dotted lines and illustrations that guided children in converting them into small structures. The simple process involved reattaching the bottom wooden skid, instantly turning a discarded package into a vibrant space for play.

This approach reflected the Eames’ fascination with modularity. Just as their furniture designs emphasized adaptability, their cardboard boxes encouraged children to repurpose everyday objects into imaginative play spaces. It was a small but clever way of extending their philosophy of interactive, hands-on design.

 

PUNCH-OUT FURNITURE – CRAIG HODGETTS, ROBERT MANGURIAN, & KEITH GODARD (1973)

In 1973, designers Craig Hodgetts, Robert Mangurian, and Keith Godard introduced Punch-Out, a series of flat-pack, die-cut cardboard furniture pieces for children. Made from Tri-Wall, an ultra-durable corrugated board commonly used for industrial shipping, these lightweight yet sturdy designs offered a practical and fun alternative to traditional children’s furniture. Inspired by retail display techniques, the pieces were easy to assemble, transport, and store.

With its bold geometric shapes and interactive nature, Punch-Out encouraged children to engage with their environment in a new way. The designers tapped into the growing demand for modular, adaptable furniture, proving that even simple materials could be transformed into functional, long-lasting objects for play.

 

POLYPOPS CARDBOARD TOYS – ROGER LIMBRICK (1966)

British designer Roger Limbrick spent his career creating toys that encouraged movement and imagination. In 1966, he partnered with the Reed Paper Group to develop Polypops, a collection of large-scale, action-oriented cardboard toys. Among them was Lunartrack, a giant, caterpillar-like tunnel inspired by the space age. Constructed from 18 pre-punched and creased cardboard pieces, it required no glue—just folding and interlocking—making it both a sustainable and innovative play structure.

CHAIR THING – PETER MURDOCH (1968)

In the late 1960s, Peter Murdoch revolutionized cardboard furniture with his innovative seating designs. His first chair, crafted from a single sheet of interlocking cardboard, was originally produced in the United States due to material shortages in the UK. Sealed with clear polyurethane for durability, it was sold in high-end department stores.

Building on this success, Murdoch introduced Chair Thing in 1968, a three-piece hexagonal chair that became part of a larger modular collection. He later expanded his designs with Those Things, a range of fiberboard children’s furniture that won a design award in 1969.

LUMBER TABLE – PESI (2018) 

Decades later, the potential of cardboard continued to inspire new generations of designers. In 2018, Seoul-based studio PESI created the Lumber Table, a side table designed to showcase the versatility of cardboard in short-use furniture. Unlike traditional cardboard designs, which are often folded or laminated, the Lumber Table featured die-cut planks that mimicked the look of wood.

Buyers could assemble the flat-pack table themselves, choosing from 11 colorful “lumber” pieces in shades of blue, red, yellow, green, and natural brown. The table could be configured in six different ways, allowing for customized heights and lengths.