Cardboard Tube Houses

I’ve used a similar method to this to create castles and palaces for many years, in fact it’s one of the ideas that I chose to include in the 50 projects contained in my book ‘Art Shaped’. But, for these ‘cardboard tube houses’ I decided to simplify the process further, and see whether I could break it down so that the basic structure could be constructed from a single recycled cardboard tube.

Whenever I attempt work like this I try not to just stick to what I know, you don’t learn anything new by repeating the same processes. So, I decided to make this a little more challenging by trying to use all of the initial tube, reusing anything that was cut away and incorporating all of the pieces within the design. This is what I call ‘pure making’, which is a mindset that has really helped me to become more aware of the materials I use, how I use them, and what gets wasted.

So, the video shows how you can cut away about a quarter or a third of the original tube, squash the larger section to make the house shape, and then use the leftover piece to create a roof and other simple extras, like a chimney, or a doorstep.

It also shows in the video how I cut out windows and doors. I don’t use a craft knife, I always cut in from the outside of the tube shape. Then, in this case, I fold open the ‘flap’ to make doors, or roll it down to make a ledge if it’s a window.

Doors and windows created by cutting in from the edge of the tube.

Obviously, the sky is the limit in terms of designs and details. You can see in the above versions how different the roof can look depending on which way around you attach it. There’s also lots of different ways you can subtly change the doors and windows, by altering their size, shape, position etc.

To make the houses slightly stronger you can obviously glue the pieces together, I’ve done this here, using a little bit of masking tape to temporarily hold things together and removing it once dry. You could also paste on a little bit of scrap tissue paper to strengthen them, or to add texture. I’ve done this on the roof of some of the houses here. Finally, you could add some extra textures by using corrugated card. If you haven’t got any, you could rip up some box card and just use the interior texture instead. I’ve spent time here adding some small details, cutting up thin strips of the cardboard tube and carefully gluing them on as window and door frames, gutters, porches, or to add small overhanging ledges above some of the windows.

You could obviously paint these . . . and when I get the chance, I might just do that. Watch this space . . .