Of interest: Cardboard furnishings.

[ http://inhabitat.com/karton-art-design-cardboard-furniture/ ]
[ http://www.foldschool.com/ ]

Given my interest in handicrafts and a naturally large quantity of cheap (or free) cardboard available to the common man, I think it would be interesting to try and construct something load-bearing and stylish from materials that are otherwise easily affordable.

My thoughts are something like the following:

Corrugated cardboard is paper and adhesive.
Reinforcing cardboard by stacking it in layers where grains are at right-angles to one another will create a product similar to plywood.
The large quantity of empty space in the constructed cardboard results in an ultimately lightweight product.

The end-product is (most likely) going to be nothing except for cardboard and adhesive. As a result, non-toxic adhesives that also do not eat through organic material will give rise to the production of cheap (and possibly load-bearing) constructs.

I also understand that a bit of reason is required for this- I wouldn't expect to see a cardboard garage see loads of use, although such a thing might be possible.

A definite reason-for-success would be that the furnishings would be cheap, simple to construct, and require only a modicum of shipping costs (in terms of weight/mass moved from point a to point b).

Problematically, such construction requires higher degrees of skill with small-scale and large-scale papercrafts.

Just an idea, I guess.