How to fold an origami study desk set
Twelve pieces of paper make a little study corner. Four brown squares fold into a desk with legs and a drawer. A red square is folded in thirds, cut and opened into a chair with a seat, a backrest and four legs. Three books in different colours stand on white page edges, the laptop gets a grey frame and its screen opens up, and a yellow desk lamp leans its bent arm over the books. Glue it all on the desk and stand everything up.
You need: Four 15 cm brown squares, a 15 cm red square and 7 small grey, yellow, blue, green and purple pieces (sizes in steps). Scissors, glue stick, pencil.. Challenge, 43 steps, about 60 minutes.
Steps
- Left leg: fold in half. The desk takes four 15 cm brown squares. Take one, white side up, and fold the bottom edge up to the top edge. The leg is coloured on both sides.
- Right leg: new sheet. Set the left leg aside. Take a second big square, white side up.
- Right leg: fold in half. Fold it like the left leg, bottom edge up to the top edge.
- Drawer: new sheet. Set the right leg aside. Take a third big square, white side up.
- Drawer: fold in half. Fold the bottom edge up to the top edge.
- Drawer: in half again. Fold the left edge over to the right edge, making a small square.
- Drawer: once more. Fold the top edge down to the bottom edge, making a thick little strip. Pinch a firm crease about 1 cm from one long edge: only that narrow tab gets glued.
- Top: new sheet. Set the drawer aside. Take the fourth big square, white side up, for the tabletop.
- Top: fold in half. Fold the bottom edge up to the top edge. The folded edge is the smooth front of the desk.
- Desk: glue the parts under the top. Turn the top over. Glue a leg on each end, just over half sticking out, folded edges in front, and the drawer's tab mid-way along the front edge. Turn it back over.
- Chair: new sheet. Now the chair, the tricky part. Set the desk aside and take the 15 cm red square, coloured side up.
- Chair: fold a stripe. Fold the top edge down a narrow strip, about the width of your little finger. This white stripe will run along the top of the backrest.
- Chair: top third down. Fold the top down so the new crease is 10 cm up from the bottom edge, two thirds of the way up. This flap is the backrest.
- Chair: bottom third up. Fold the bottom edge up to the top fold, so the paper is a long strip three layers thick. This flap is the front of the seat.
- Chair: cut off the flap ends. Snip along both folds a third of the way in from each end. Cut across each flap where the snips stop, sparing the bottom layer: its ends become the chair's sides.
- Chair: hem the front. Fold the front flap in half, its edge down to its folded edge. The front of the seat is now half as tall.
- Chair: fold in half. Fold the whole strip in half, top edge down to the bottom edge.
- Chair: cut the legs. At each end, cut from the end edge, two thirds down from the fold, up to the fold, two thirds of the way to the middle part. Opened, a V gap leaves two legs a side.
- Chair: open it again. Unfold the last fold, so the strip lies flat with both flaps on top.
- Book 1: new sheet. Set the chair aside. Now three books to stack, each smaller than the last. Take the blue 5 x 7.5 cm rectangle, white side up, long sides left and right.
- Book 1: fold the cover. Fold the top edge down until it stops about 1 cm short of the bottom edge. The coloured part is the cover, and the white strip below it becomes the pages.
- Book 1: fold the back. Fold the folded top edge behind by the width of the white strip: this coloured strip is the back. Later the white strip bends down in front, the back behind.
- Book 2: new sheet. Set it aside and take the green 4.5 x 6.5 cm rectangle, white side up.
- Book 2: fold the cover. Fold the top edge down the same way, stopping about 1 cm short of the bottom edge.
- Book 2: fold the back. Fold the top edge behind by the width of the white strip.
- Book 3: new sheet. Set it aside and take the purple 4 x 5.5 cm rectangle, white side up.
- Book 3: fold the cover. Fold the top edge down the same way, stopping about 1 cm short of the bottom edge.
- Book 3: fold the back. Fold the top edge behind by the width of the white strip.
- Laptop: new sheet. Set the books aside. Take the dark grey 6 cm square, white side up.
- Laptop: fold the sides in. Fold the left and right edges in by a thin strip, about half a centimetre.
- Laptop: top and bottom in. Fold the top and bottom edges in the same amount, so grey frames the white. The top half will be the screen, the bottom half the keyboard.
- Lamp base: new sheet. Set the laptop aside. The lamp is three yellow pieces. Start with the 3 x 4.5 cm rectangle, coloured side up, short sides at the top and bottom.
- Lamp base: crease in thirds. Fold the top and bottom edges in 1.5 cm each, making three equal parts. Open both. The middle third will rise with the arm, the back one sloping behind it: a tent.
- Lamp arm: new sheet. Set the base aside. Take the yellow 1.5 x 9 cm strip, white side up, standing up and down.
- Lamp arm: fold in half. Fold the right edge over to the left edge, making the strip twice as thin and twice as strong.
- Lamp arm: bend the elbow. Fold the top part down to the right on a slant, a bit above the middle, so it sticks out sideways and a little downwards.
- Lamp shade: new sheet. Set the arm aside. Take the yellow 3 cm square, white side up.
- Lamp shade: fold it down. Fold the top edge down until it stops a little short of the bottom edge. The white rim is where the light shines out.
- Lamp shade: slope the sides. Fold the two top corners behind on a slant, so the shade is narrow at the top and wide at the rim. Its top will be glued over the end of the arm.
- Set it all up. Books go loose at left. Glue only the laptop's keyboard half at right, the lamp base's front third back left, the arm's foot on its middle third, then the shade.
- Desk: stand it up. Fold both legs straight down along the ends of the top and stand the desk on them. Then fold the drawer down under the front edge.
- Lamp, books and laptop. Raise the lamp base into its tent; glue its back edge down. Bend each book's strips down, white in front, and glue them in their stack. Tilt the laptop screen back.
- Chair: fold it up. Fold the chair's sides straight down so it stands on four legs. Swing the front flap down and the backrest up; pinch its crease hard so it stays. Set it by the desk.
Homework time!
Draw a handle on the drawer, keys and writing on the laptop, and a label on the top book. Walk round it: the desk, the chair and the lamp all stand on their own.