Newspaper Wood Transformed into Usable Lumber

Upcycling cut, colored, pressed and printed newspapers back into usable lumber sounds like an impossible magic trick. That, however, is precisely the improbable goal of this curious reuse project – to transform used paper-pulp pages into new building-block logs.

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Newspaper Wood Detail

Mieke Meijer and Vij5 collaborated to create these remarkable rolled-newspaper logs that, when sliced, show patterns that bear an uncanny resemblance to real wooden tree trunks. Cut lengthwise, the “Newspaper Wood” segments reveal irregular and unique grain patterns. Sliced perpendicular, they exhibit tree-like rings.

Newspaper Wood furniture
Newspaper Wood drawers

This is not the first project to propose reusing newspaper material in a new and structural way. However, it does bridge a large and long-standing gap between the textures we associated with wood and the strikingly different visual pattern of conventional newsprint. Even outside of the overall look, the process is surprisingly similar too: a log is sliced, diced, set up on wooden separators and left to cure just like traditional trees would be.

Newspaper Wood cabinet

More from the creators

“NewspaperWood reverses a traditional production process; not from wood to paper, but from (news)paper to wood. When a NewspaperWood log is cut, the layers of paper appear like wood grain or growth rings of a tree and therefore resemble the aesthetics of real wood. NewspaperWood is the result of a 2003 project of Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Mieke Meijer. We are dedicated to the production and development of the NewspaperWood material in order to find new intermediate products and innovative applications.”

Newspaper Wood cabinet
Newspaper Wood surfaces

About Studio Mieke Meijer

“Studio Mieke Meijer is a Dutch design studio founded by Mieke Meijer and Roy Letterlé. The studio designs, develops and produces extraordinary objects for the public and private domain. Studio Mieke Meijer maneuvers between the architecture and design field. This allows them to move freely, regardless of architectural restrictions and beyond the boundaries of the traditional product. The studio aspires sustainable design solutions, reflecting the logic of construction and respecting material properties, while pushing the limits.”