Sit back and relax as the Design Squad teams create innovative, yet practical cardboard furniture for the home goods superstore IKEA. Furniture shoppers take a seat in the judges’ chair to decide the season premiere’s winning team.
- 1) The Challenge
Watch the Show
Bonus Footage
Green Team's Process
Purple Team's Process
- 1) The Challenge
- 2) Brainstorm
- 3) Design
- 4) Build & Test
- 5) Judging
- 1) Accessorize
- 2) Troubleshooting
- 3) Nick's Feminine Side
- 4) Naming the Chair
- How do you build functional and comfortable furniture for Ikea made only of cardboard? Green team ended up with a lighthouse shelf and a shared bookshelf for the boys' room.
- The bookshelf had a tube on each end, one for each of the twin boys. They cut notches in the tubes so the shelves could fit in and then added more circular shelves inside the tubes.
- A first attempt at the lighthouse ended up with a cardboard cut out that folded together but didn't fit very neatly.
- So instead they used half of a big tube with flaps attached onto the sides. This maintained their lighthouse idea with a design that was easier to build.
- They added a light on top and a coat of paint, and the lighthouse turned into a functional and unique bookshelf.
- The public liked the green team's furniture because the shelves were functional and realistic. Also the nautical themed night light was popular with the kids.
- How do you build functional and comfortable furniture for Ikea made only of cardboard? Purple team decided on a shoe-shaped chair and a funky side table for the girl's room.
- First they glued many layers of cardboard together to make one thick piece that would be strong enough to support a person's weight.
- They cut out the shape of the chair and then put tubes across it to sit on. They had to figure out how many tubes they needed so a person could sit on it without bending the tubes.
- For the side table they took three tubes for legs and cut notches in them to fit in the circular shelves. Then they cut a cardboard spiral to go inside the table as either a magazine holder or art piece.
- When they tested the chair by sitting in it, they found that it was comfortable and didn't bend under the weight. The extra tubes even provided some shoe storage.
- The public were impressed that Purple Team could build a chair out of cardboard. They thought the extra shoe storage was very clever and wanted to buy the furniture. Purple Team got more votes and won the challenge.
Jennifer Chua designs product packaging for Method. Watch this.
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