Cardboard standing art station

Back to Making things with cardboard!

I sit way too much already for work. The last thing I need to do when I’m making art is sit for long hours at a table.

This simple stand fixes that problem by putting the art up at a comfortable height when I’m standing.

It minimizes the amount of table space I’m taking up, which is good because we often have two or three projects going on this table.

It’s also super lightweight and portable, so when it’s time to clear the table, this can go just about anywhere.

The top is just big enough to hold a letter-sized sketchbook and a decent selection of drawing tools. It also holds my small kit of watercolor supplies.

I’m probably going to add some modifications to keep things from rolling off the top, but I don’t want to rush into it. I want to see what my actual needs are first.

The front view (which is what you’re looking at if you’re sitting across the table from me) is more attractive to look at.

It’s plenty strong, so I’m not concerned about it collapsing while I’m leaning on it a bit. This is a fairly heavy pumpkin.

The strength comes from the triangular upright. It’s just a piece of cardboard I scored and folded into a triangle. It’s held together with strong packing tape.

(Note that the cardboard in the triangle isn’t even in the correct direction - my piece wasn’t long enough to allow me to put the flutes of the corrugation in a vertical orientation, which would have probably doubled the crush strength.)

I cut triangular openings into the top and bottom pieces so that the cardboard from the openings became flaps around all three sides, which I glued to the triangle for a very secure hold. Then there are wide bracing pieces at the top and bottom to give it plenty of strength against angular shearing force.