How To Make A Cardboard Bed With Kids

Looking for a simple craft project to do with your kids that doesn't require all a trip to the store for supplies? Grab an old cardboard box and a pair of scissors and make something.

In this tutorial I'll show you how my daughter and I made a cardboard bed for her teddy bear. It took less than 20 minutes to make and doesn't use any glue. We didn't come up with this idea but saw a picture of another cardboard bed and made are own from that picture.

NOTE: Cutting cardboard can be tough so a good pair of scissors is needed along with some adult supervision and assistance.

Materials needed:
+ Pair of scissors
+ Cardboard box
+ Marker
+ Ruler

The process is simple and just involves cutting out a few shapes from your cardboard. The exact sizes and shapes are completely up to you but you can use the images below as a rough guide to get you going. The key is cutting thing slots in the pieces so that they can all slide together at the end.

View the images below to see which pieces you'll need. Use your marker and ruler to outline the shapes and then cut with scissors.

Our used box was an old Priority Mail box so our mattress size ended up around 12 inches wide, the size of the box. Everything else was scaled off of that size. We cut 5 inch slots in the head side and 3 inch slots in the foot side.

Next up are the headboard at 12x5 inches with 1.5 inch slots and the footboard at 12x3 inches with 1.5 inch slots.

Above you'll see how to make the bed legs that go on the head side. We made ours 8x5 inches with 3 inch slots on the one side and 1.5 inch slots on the other. The curved sides are just for decoration.

Now make another set of legs that will go on the foot side of the bed. Ours are 5x5 inches with slots around 2 inches and 1.5 inches deep.

Assembly of the pieces should be simple. Use the above picture as a reference and assemble your project.

The completed project and the look of satisfaction after a job well done.