Here's another sheet-goods-plus-rope furniture design, similar in spirit to Claudio Larcher's Paco y Paco project.

For an exhibition in Wales on the subject of design versus waste, UK consultancy PriestmanGoode designed a system for producing furniture from a single sheet of material, leaving minimal off-cuts. Called Knot Waste Furniture, the template created by PriestmanGoode's designers can be scaled to create different pieces of furniture (as long as what's needed is a horizontal surface supported by four legs).

"Knot Waste [is] a modular table and stool system that transforms a scrap sheet of timber into a fully bespoke and sustainable piece of furniture, all held together with rope. Whether you want to build a table, bench, stool or side table, the assembly process remains the same for each item and requires minimal woodwork or joinery skills. The flexible drawing template allows you to customise the size of your furniture components to minimise waste and maximise the size of your unique piece."

For first-time tool users, the most daunting piece of kit might be the jigsaw. But at least the design is all figured out. To walk you through it, PriestmanGoode has released a comprehensive set of instructions, for free, as well as the knot-tying guide you'll need to hold the piece together.

The instructions can be downloaded here.