Recycling Inspiration: A House Made From Newspapers

Do you know of anyone that still gets their news from a newspaper? I remember when I was a little girl, we had a “paper boy” that delivered a newspaper to our house every morning. I don’t know of anyone that reads a newspaper anymore. I don’t like newspapers because they make my hands dirty, so like many people, I read all of my news online.

Even though many of us no longer read old-fashioned newspapers, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a purpose. In the spirit of recycling and reusing, you can see here that newspapers can be made into d’eco art and even a fabulous dress. As creative as these projects are, I have another one to share with you that I think is the best use of newspapers I’ve seen yet. Would you ever think that recycled newspapers could be used to build a house? Surprisingly, they can.

Ellis Stenman was a man ahead of his time. He built this house made from thousands of newspapers back in 1922, decades before the focus was on recycling and reusing to be more earth-friendly. It took two years to complete construction and according to How To Be A Retronaut, “Eventually, he began crafting chairs, tables, lamps and even a piano out of rolled-up newspapers held together by a glue he created himself out of four, water and apple peels.” This house, which is now a museum, is still standing in Rockport, Massachusetts. I don’t even know what to say except wow!

[via How To Be A Retronaut]