I love cardboard furniture — it’s easy to move around, simple to assemble and serviceable to look at. But it’s temporary furniture at best, so paying regular furniture price for it (like many cardboard furniture makers seem to expect) just isn’t something I can see doing unless they can last as long as their wood and metal counterparts. That’s why SmartDeco’s affordable pricing makes perfect sense.
While none of these furniture pieces are likely to win points in stylish design (Karton’s pieces, for instance, make them look so boring and uninspired), they seem to be plenty functional. Plus the pieces are customizable using connection kits, so you can attach different pieces to each other, allowing you to outfit a home office pretty tightly.
SmartDeco uses a corrugated fiberboard called Enviroboard, which weigh a little heavier than regular cardboards, but are cheaper and 100% recyclable. The collection is quite basic, consisting of a desk, a four-level dresser (which looks more like a filing cabinet) and a two-level stand, each of which can be connected to one another using their add-on kits. Like Ikea, every piece ships flatpacked, with included instructions on how to fold to get to the desired shapes.
There’s no word on the website about how much weight each of the furniture items can handle, but they do harp on about utilizing “the highest grade substrates and expert engineering for maximum structural integrity.” So we guess that means it can hold decent heft, but find out the threshold for yourself.
Pricing for the SmartDeco Furnishing pieces are as follows: Intellidesk ($50), SmartStand ($34) and SmartDresser ($54). Connecting lids are $25 each.