Cardboard can be incorporated in modern design pieces — check out this impressive gallery of cardboard furniture. Bloxes (shown above) are the latest option in cardboard furniture. The corrugated cardboard puzzle pieces lock together to form sturdy shapes such as chairs, walls, and play forts.

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The Tube+9 Lounge chair was designed with the user, environment, and budget in mind while maintaining a modern of the times feel and appearance. This chair achieves this by using materials that are either recycled or recyclable. The frame is constructed from a 3′x4′ sheet of plywood cut into 1/8″ strips, laminated and formed from one single formwork for both the back and legs to minimize material waste.

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This chest, by Ecodesignz, is made out of strips of bamboo, and finished with a clear, low-glass lacquer. The bamboo laminate is made with E-1 glue, which meets tough European standards for outgassing. Ecodesignz furniture is virtually formaldehyde-free.

Available for $245 from Ecodesignz.

This coffee table is made out of Kirei board, which is a material made out of the recycled stalks of the Sorghum plant. Usually these stalks are thrown away after the Sorghum cereal is harvested, but in this case, they are reclaimed, and then bonded into a sheet using formaldehyde-free adhesives.

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This modern rocking chair is built of out of sustainable, non-toxic mateirals (Baltic birch veneer and non-toxic painted wood). It’s part of the new “Built-By-Me” collection from OFFI, and it’s designed by Jennifer Carpenter. Available from Velocity for $109.

Wouldn’t it be great to sit in a chair and breath easily, knowing you are not inhaling chemicals like
“perfluorooctane sulfonate”. Sustain Lane has a short guide to help you to know what to look for when shopping for furniture. Here’s a summary: avoid PVC, other plastics, high-emitting particleboard, polyurethane foam and synthethic fibers for upholstery, toxic finishes and glues.

The chair seen here is a Prasada Club Chair from EL Furniture. You can read about how it is constructed with non-toxic materials here.

This low-profile chair is handwoven by Indonesian artisans out of renewable, fast-growing seagrass and includes a tufted cushion with an unbleached cotton blend cover. The frame is made of locally harvested Mango Wood with a clea, water-based lacquer finish. Available for $199 from Hanson Products

This “donut chair” is an example of modern wicker design. The dark two tone color comes for the natural color of the rattan. It has a washable cotton cushion.

Rattan furniture is durable, smooth to the touch and made from plants that grow quickly and replenish easily.

Available from Surroundings for $295 each.

They also have this rattan Tika Armchair:

Even retail stores sometimes offer efficient bent plywood furniture, like Hold Everything which sells this “Bent Ply” chair. You may need to go to their site and zoom in to get a good look at the wood grain.

Available in four different stains for $88 (including shipping) from Hold Everything.

This attractive “Kinetic Santa Catarina” chair (below) is available from HomeClick for $98.

Bent plywood is energy efficient in its construction. Also, less wood is wasted because the wood is not milled but molded instead. This overlap tray by Offi is molded plywood with a Baltic birch veneer, and has a cork covered area for your cup of coffee. Read more about Offi here.

Available from Amazon for $99.

This coffee table is made with rubberwood, which is considered a renewable timber because it is only milled from rubber trees that have ceased to produce latex. See more information on rubberwood here.

Available for $60 from Amazon.

This cork chaise lounge, designed by Daniel Michalik, qualifies as being ultrametaefficient because it is: made with a renewable material, light, aesthetic, waterproof and impervious to rot and mold. It can be used indoors or outdoors.

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PIE’s curvaceous
furniture

is
handmade using

natural materials
like water
hyacinth,
liana,
bamboo and rattan.

We have to call this furniture “ultraminimalist”.

Designed by Adapt using strips of bamboo (hence renewable). The pieces are portable — you can bring it to the beach or an event on grass.

John T. Unger makes these vibrantly colored “Dot! Quadriped” chairs using over 50% recycled material.

The chairs can be used indoors or out, and are built to survive even the harshest weather conditions.

The powder coat enamel surface is durable and easy to clean.

Link: John T. Unger Studio

Rubberwood (also called Parawood in Thailand) is considered a renewable timber because it is only milled from rubber trees that have ceased to produce latex. After about 26-30 years, the latex yields from the tree become extremely low and the planters then fell the rubber trees and plant new ones. So, unlike other woods that are cut down for the sole purpose of producing furniture, rubberwood is used only after it completes it’s latex producing cycle and dies.

In fact, rubberwood is one of the more durable lumbers used in the manufacturing of today’s home furnishings. Rubberwood has very little shrinkage making it one of the more stable construction materials availabe for furniture manufacturing.

Rubberwood furniture available from: Overstock: (another table here) and many other furniture stores.

These very attractive tables and chairs are designed by Scrapile.

They are made of reclaimed scraps of wood from local wood shops. The unique texture comes from the combination of the various types of wood that is recovered.

Scrapile is run by Brooklyn-based designers Carlos Salgado and Bart Bettencourt.

For more information contact: Carlos Salgado

3Form has just introduced a new line of furniture made with Varia Ecoresin. (See our previous post on Ecoresin.)

Varia is manufactured under strict OHSA approved standards and is free of VOC’s, solvents and emissions.

3form ecoresin and Varia are built to exceed LEED accreditation insuring at least 40% post industrial recycled content, and are free from plasticizers and stabilizers.

Home Page: EcoResin Funiture

The idea is simple: collect post-use, single-use chopsticks from restaurants in China, sanitize them at extremely high temperature and pressure, and use them to make elements of a living space.

This was the original idea of Bryan Parks, an American who lived in China for several years. Bryan made a steady habit of eating with chopsticks while there. One day during lunch, Bryan rather nonchalantly asked his lunch partner how many chopsticks did he imagine were used per year considering China’s population size. Research showed that literally billions of single-use chopsticks were consumed annually.

This question would prove to be the catalyst for Parks to make an innovative coupling of art and repurposing.

The lamp is available from Gaiam and for $36, Vivavi sells the CD/DVD holder for $44.90 and the Floor Lamp for $99.

These ottomans are made of rattan — a dense, grass-textured renewable fibre. The rattan is tightly woven around a wooden frame. Can be used as compact tables, footrests or extra seating. The set of three ottomans store inside of each other.

Available from: Gaiam ($89 for set of three).