How to Make a Phone Booth From a Cardboard Box

Things You'll Need

Large cardboard box
Straightedge
Craft knife
Duct tape
Spray paint
White paper
Stencils
Glue
Shoebox
Phone receiver
Staple gun

Red telephone boxes are a common sight in the UK and some former British colonies.

Phone booths used to be a ubiquitous fixture of most cities around the world. Today cell phone use has rendered public phones less essential but phone booths are still a common sight on many streets. If you need a phone booth for a prop, you can make one out of a large cardboard box, such as a refrigerator box. Ask for one at a appliance store. For the telephone itself, pick one up at a second-hand store.

Step 1

Mark the areas of the box to be cut with a straightedge and pencil. For a traditional American phone booth, remove most of all four sides. Leave a panel around the top for the "telephone" sign, the corners to connect the base to the roof, a strip around the middle on three sides and a panel around the bottom on three sides. To create the iconic red British phone booth, create a grid on all four sides to make divided windows.

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Step 2

Cut out the marked areas with a craft knife. Leave enough cardboard at the corners to keep the box standing -- you don't want the supports to buckle. For the American phone booth, remove the front panel completely. For the British phone booth, cut out the front panel but reattach it at one side with duct tape for a door that opens and closes.

Step 3

Spray paint the box silver or red. Use a stencil to spray paint the word "TELEPHONE" in capital letters on white paper. Use blue paint for the silver American booth and black paint for the red British booth. Make four signs and glue one to each side of the phone booth on the cardboard panels you left at the top.

Step 4

Spray paint a shoebox black and place a black phone receiver inside. Tape the end of the cord to the inside of the box. Staple the shoebox phone to one of the strips of cardboard inside the booth, or create a new place for the phone by cutting a panel of cardboard, spray painting it and duct taping it vertically against one of the back corners of the booth, forming a flat surface to staple the shoebox to.

Tip

If you need your cardboard phone booth to hold up with repeated use, reinforce the vertical corners with 1-by-1 boards.

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