What do you do with your spare cardboard ?
Mine goes in my front closet in a precarious tower until I decide to flatten it and take it down to be recycled. And after seeing this hack, I’m thinking that was a mistake.
Thanks to TikTok user @genevavanderzeil , I will now be hoarding my cardboard to create SHELVES. Yup, shelves.
The inspiration came from Urban Outfitters.
Organic shapes and arches are THE decor style right now. Urban Outfitters wants $150 and $799 for the two pieces shown here. I’m gonna go ahead and pass on them, thanks.
Thankfully, Geneva has us covered.
She grabbed some cardboard and did the damn thing, guys. The first thing she did was connect a pencil to a string and a pin, and then traced a perfect semi-circle onto the cardboard.
She used a piece of wood for the shelf’s base.
It can’t all be cardboard — we need some structural integrity up in here. She attached the board to the cardboard with some heavy duty glue and made sure to press firmly to make it stick.
She reinforced the front with wood.
Once she attached the arched opening, she cut a small brace for the top of the arch. This will help support the weight of the rest of the arch later.
Fill in the spaces with extra cardboard.
Make sure you fill every space with cardboard, since you’re going to need a lot of surface area for what comes next. Duct tape is definitely your friend here.
Time for some grown-up paper maché.
This part looks FUN AF. There’s no rhyme or reason to applying the newspaper here, just go ham with it and make sure you cover all of the cardboard. Have fun with it!
The fun continues.
Grab some joint compound (TikTok’s favorite craft medium) and start slapping it on there! You can really get creative here and make it as smooth or as textured as you want.
Sand it down when you’re done!
Urban Outfitters is QUAKING.
I actually prefer the look of this to Urban Outfitters’ one. This one has a more organic texture and feel to it, you know? More adobe-style is always good in my book.
You can watch the whole TikTok here.
Take a look at the whole process right here! I actually super love this shelf and really want to make one of my own. I want to paint it pink!
