Way Basics, modern cardboard furniture held together by glue…in a good way

Way Basics are simple furniture building planks, made of recycled material—essentially cardboard core with wooden veneer, very akin to that stuff made from a certain Swedish retailer—which can be assembled in a variety of ways since they don’t use screws, but gluey edges. I’d like to put a boot toe into one just to see how well that glue actually holds up, but the prices aren’t bad: a “Basic Desk” is $133, while a “Modular Table Set” is $135.

1. [Chrs]

   The glue’s probably not the limiter, here. If you’ve ever tried to take foam mounting tape off a wall, you’ll usually destroy the paint before the grip.

   But hey, if they’re building for it, it could work really well!

2. [bardfinn]

   For 135 dollars, you can buy enough /good/ plywood (formaldehyde free!) to make the Basic Desk yourself twice over.

   Or Change your notions of what a desk ought to be and make six of them.

   If I could get these items for, say, a quarter to a third of the retail they’re charging … maybe.

3. [HeartlessMachine]

   For the same price, you could get plywood, yes. But you would also need tools and ability to cut all the shapes you need, as well as fasteners (screws, biscuits, glue, etc.) and tools to implement the fasteners. You would also need the know-how to design/layout/construct such a thing, a way to get the plywood to your workspace, and a workspace to build the furniture. I know people who live in small apartments, have no tools, and no way to bring a sheet of plywood home. Those are the kind of people that don’t care how much plywood costs.

4. [dculberson]

   I’m always up for buying more tools!

5. [Garr]

   At first glance (at the provided picture) I thought this was some kind of childrens toy thing. Reading the price made me reconsider…

6. [bardfinn]

   Heartlessmachine:

   Granted, I’m 6’3″ and 200+ pounds. I live in a small apartment, and with a compass, ruler, handsaw (bought for ten bucks along with the plywood) and some rope – brought home a 4×8 sheet of plywood (sawn in half at the store) on the bus, and built the coffee table linked to above (the table’s build is detailed in Make Magazine issue 7, I think) and several shelves for my child’s closet (long after using the remainder half to lay out a train set for the boy. Seems trains aren’t his thing). My workspace was the common patio in the complex. No screws, no glue, just gravity and slots. It’s my family’s first furniture in our apartment (we had no bed, chairs, desks or tables when we moved in) and has love graffiti on it from my wife and I doodling love notes to each other.

   I had seen some nifty flatpack plywood chairs made from a 4×8 plywood sheet, so I measured the pictures, did some basic (fourth grade, I kid you not!) maths, and reverse-engineered the dimensions and then mocked them up using $2 sheets of foamboard – a most excellent prototyping tool!

   Most people have the knowledge they need to make this kind of stuff – they just don’t work it out for themselves.

   We’re desperately in need of more storage (new baby!) and I’m going to go buy some 3/16 hardboard and set to sawing and slotting. We also need some side tables …

7. [Anita]

   There is definitely something to be said for prefab in this sense. Who has the time to cut all that stuff out? My time is worth the modest amount of money they are asking. I would like to see it up close – is it durable, does it look good in relationship to the price?

8. [SamSam]

   Bardfinn: There are some great no-screw/glue flat-pack chair designs out there that you should look at if you’ve been making this kind of stuff.

   This chair is really cool, and can be created with just plywood and a jig-saw.

   This site also has a bunch of stuff.

   Bre Petis had some videos of making these with a little water jet and a vector file. However, he seems to have changed his site around, because the blog links no longer work.

9. [HeartlessMachine]

   Bardfinn-
   I believe that you did everything you describe. But your experience my be vastly different from some others. Just as my experience is totally different from yours. We all have different capabilities and environments. I’ve got friends who simply cannot do what you describe without help. The Home Depot in Washington DC is not easy to get to when you live in Dupont Circle. So a round trip to the Depot might be an all-day affair. Even people with the capabilities to do it might not have the desire to do it. I make as much of my own furniture as I can, but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

10. [monstrinho_do_biscoito]

    i’d love to know just how strong these are. i’m guessing not very as you are only fixing surfaces together rather than some sort of peg/screw which goes into the material to spread the load over a larger area.

    also, i can take my screw desk apart again when i move house. can’t do that with this.

11. [waybasics]

    I’m Jimmy from Way Basics. Thank you Joel for discovering our company and sharing with your readers.

    Our furniture is actually taped together with 3M double sided tape. All the pieces are stacked on top of each other so it’s super strong. I weight 195 pounds and can stand on our cube. Thank you for everyone’s comments too.

    Let us know if you have any further questions [e-mail] and enjoy the possibilities!