52 Industrial Shipping Container Furniture Ideas

Are you looking for exciting interior decorating ideas that capture the style, feel, and overall essence of shipping containers? Shipping container furniture gives the perfect combination of style and functionality to your unique living space.

If you’re already into alternative construction or shipping container buildings, this is a great way to continue with a cohesive design theme through the interior of your home while showing off your creativity. But whether you own a shipping container home or not, shipping containers can still serve as an interesting and innovative inspiration (or even, raw material) to use when furnishing your house.

What is Shipping Container Furniture

The style of shipping container furniture is instantly recognizable: angular design, strong industrial hardware, and those distinct corner fittings. And within the bounds of that style are almost endless furnishing possibilities: from tables and desks to dressers and chests, container furniture allows you to craft vibrant and innovative interiors that reflect your own design aesthetic.

When we talk about shipping container furniture, we aren’t specifically talking about the furniture you put inside of a shipping container home. In truth, any kind of furniture can go inside a container building, whether the furniture looks like shipping container materials or not. For instance, many people choose to furnish their container homes with a cabin motif using wooden furniture and wall coverings.

So to clarify, when we talk about shipping container furniture in this article, we’re focusing on furniture that shares a similar aesthetic with actual shipping containers…even if that container furniture is used in a traditionally built home or other structure. While you can certainly use container furniture in a container house, you don’t have to! Container furniture can be used in almost any type of home, office, or other building whose owners want to capture the magic of shipping container design on their interior

The natural next question you probably have is whether shipping container furniture is made from actual shipping containers. The answer is often no. Remember, shipping container furniture is simply meant to mimic the look of containers. While you can use pieces of shipping containers to make furniture, often shipping container furniture is purpose-built from scratch rather than upcycling excess or disagreed pieces of used containers.

By far the best way to really understand the possibilities of shipping container furniture is to see examples of it. And further down in the article, we’ll do just that, with dozens of pictures showcasing different shipping container furniture types.

Why You Should Consider Shipping Container Furniture

There are usually a few common reasons that people have an interest in shipping container furniture. For some, it’s a practical consideration, while for others it’s purely stylistic.

Container Furniture Durability

While not all shipping container furniture is made of metal (surprise!), most of it is. And similar to a major reason that people choose to build homes with containers, container furniture can be quite durable and strong.

Shipping containers themselves are designed to be packed full of heavy cargo, moved repeatedly by cranes, forklifts, and other heavy equipment, then survive journeys of thousands of miles by ship, rail, and truck. And they typically endure this unrelenting abuse for a decade or more before retirement.

So when that same attitude goes into a piece of container furniture, you know it’s something that should be better equipped to survive a few moves without issue. With that said, we have to be clear that most container furniture is not nearly as strong as actual containers, and isn’t built to the same ISO standards as regular shipping containers.

Furniture built in the style of containers may use thinner metal, cheaper hardware, and lower-quality welds. In some cases, as we hinted at earlier, container furniture might not even be built from metal. So it’s important to do a little research on your specific piece of container furniture before making a purchase if durability is important to you. And as you might expect, container furniture that is actually made from excess container pieces is usually going to be the most durable.

Aesthetic Style

We already discussed some of the visual characteristics of shipping containers that make them easily identifiable. Those attributes come together to make a modern, industrial style that people enjoy seeing in exterior architecture as well as interior design.

So it’s no surprise that the next step beyond having a corrugated container wall in your house is having a piece of container furniture. And it’s a much more approachable step as well, giving as much or more of the design aesthetic with none of the construction required.

With that style comes a few unique features that are possible with container furniture. For instance, just like with regular containers, many container furnishings can be stacked by aligning their corner fittings. And given that most container furniture is made from ferrous metal, you can utilize magnets to attach things to each piece much as you might do with your refrigerator.

Where to Buy Shipping Container Furniture

The majority of shipping container furniture is made by unbranded Chinese companies, which makes sense given that the vast majority of shipping containers are manufactured in China. You can find many examples of container furniture on shipping portals that cater to Chinese manufacturers, like AliExpress. But given that container furniture is quite heavy, sometimes shipping from China can be cost-prohibitive.

As you may already know, many of the products you buy and use, especially those at stores like Amazon, are actually white-labeled. In other words, built by a contract manufacturer then branded by another company. There are a handful of brands that offer container furniture in this manner, the largest of which appears to be Acme Furniture. You may find some others on furniture retailers like Wayfair as well.

When you buy from these brands, the assumption is that they hold inventory in a location much closer to you, and have already priced in the cost of shipping from China to their warehouse. So while you may pay more for the piece of furniture itself thanks to the brand, you’ll theoretically pay less to get it shipped to you.

For container furniture made of excess container parts, the situation is a little different. These furniture pieces are typically more one-off, custom creations made by companies that build with shipping containers and end up with cut-off metal, removed doors, and other pieces and parts that can be upcycled into container furniture. In these cases, it may be advantageous to simply ask a local container builder or fabricator if they can build the piece of furniture you need…or do it yourself with the cut-off pieces of your own container project!

Shipping Container Table and Desk Examples

A shipping container table is a great way to bring a unique, industrial design aesthetic into your home. With a bold, structural appearance, these tables can easily be the centerpiece of a room.

Similarly, a shipping container desk can provide a creative professional or design-minded amateur with a working area that provides space and inspiration. The old roll-top desks of previous generations aren’t a good fit for many modern consumer tastes.

Below are a few examples:

Shipping Container Coffee Table with Shelves

This container coffee table provides a mix of both open shelving and cabinet doors, good for displaying a few items while keeping the rest of the mess hidden. One interesting note is that the corrugations on top go along the length of the table, which some may find less appealing.

Shipping Container Coffee Table with Doors

If you want the benefits of a table but have plenty of closed storage underneath, this container coffee table is a nice design. With dark paint and bright hardware, the contrast makes the features of this piece of container furniture really pop. 

Shipping Container Coffee Table with Sliding Doors

One of the downsides of container coffee tables with traditional swinging doors is that you need to allow room between them and your other furniture for the doors to swing. Although actual shipping containers don’t have sliding doors, using a sliding door for this table application actually makes a lot of sense. And as you can see, the design still fits well with the overall container aesthetic.

Open-Bottom Shipping Container Coffee Table

For those who like to sit beside their coffee table, having an open bottom to place your feet is a nice feature. Yes, you give up having any storage, but the simplicity of a container table like this one makes it easy for a DIYer to build. With just a simple frame of welded steel and a container wall cut out from a window or door, you could create a container table similar to this one yourself. Note that unless you add a glass top, you’ll have some large corrugations to deal with which may make living with the uneven table surface a bit tricky.

Shipping Container Table

In contrast to the above container coffee table, this table has longer legs that make it more appropriate for use behind a couch, in an entryway, etc. where you can place items on it without bending over. In this example, four large, independent legs are welded to the tabletop instead of having rectangular hoop legs as in the previous example. One important detail to note is that this table is built from a scrap shipping container door. Container doors typically have much fewer corrugations as you can see in the below picture, which gives a much flatter table surface.

Shipping Container Dining Table

This dining table is quite similar to the previous table, and either table could be used for a variety of purposes. The interesting detail here is that the container door retains all of its hardware for an even more industrial look. Normally, that same hardware would completely disrupt the smooth table surface one would need to actually use a table. However, by adding a piece of glass that hovers above the surface, users of this container table have a  smooth area to eat off of while admiring the unique container features just underneath the glass.

Shipping Container Dining Table with Benches

A common farmhouse architecture style that occasionally crosses over to other design styles is using a picnic table as a dining table indoors. As you can see below, this container dining table has a similar table surface to the table above, but uses a pair of crossed legs to evoke that common picnic table style. Adding to this idea, the builders created a set of detached benches built from excess container skin to complete the look.

Shipping Container Writing Desk

While the art of handwriting seems to be slipping away with younger generations, a writing desk can serve other purposes. This container desk would be great for holding a laptop, and with the small enclosed cabinet, still provides a bit of storage.

Shipping Container Corner Computer Desk

Corner desks used to be especially popular before the advent of LCD monitors when computers had large CRT screens that ended a foot or more in depth. But even now, corner desks are often a great way to give a lot of useable area in a small space. A corner desk like this one gives strong container vibes with a variety of shelf space providing open storage.

Shipping Container Desk with Hutch

Desks that include a hutch help to make the envelope of the desk feel more contained without overpowering the room. At the same time, the hutch offers additional shelf space for holding odds and ends. This container desk in particular is also graced with an enclosed container cabinet that has functional hardware. Just one glance at a desk like this one makes it clear that shipping containers were the inspiration.

 

Shipping Container Nightstand and End Table Examples

Nightstands are another small but functional piece of furniture that nearly every bedroom has. The provide a place to hold your phone, your alarm clock, books and more. Depending on the headboard you use on your bed, container nightstands can often fit in well with a variety of bedroom decors.

But even if you don’t need container nightstands, most of these container furniture pieces can just as easily serve as end tables in your living room. In that role, they hold lamps, TV remotes, magazines, and other bits and pieces for everyday living.

In either application, the container inspiration allows for a stylish, eye-catching piece of furniture. Some of the simpler varieties could even be made by a DIYer, which would truly be a conversation-invoking project.

Shipping Container Nightstand with Doors

With a mesh metal door on top, this container nightstand gives a small hint about its contents while obscuring the majority. The mesh door also folds down instead of to the side like most doors, which makes this piece of furniture even more interesting and appropriate for either side of the bed. And thanks to the container hardware on the bottom cabinet door, this portion of the nightstand could even be locked if desired.

Shipping Container Nightstand with Shelves

Simplicity is the name of the game here, with this simple container nightstand that is based around two shelves. In exchange for the lack of doors, you get a table that could be made without too much trouble by a competent welder. However, the lack of doors means that you may not even notice the container theme of his nightstand if you aren’t able to see its sides.

Shipping Container End Table Tall

This end table, or what some might call a side table, is similar to a nightstand but a bit taller. With several sets of cabinet doors, it provides ample storage and plenty of container design inspiration. It is likely a bit high to place beside a bed, but would probably be right at home in many living rooms.

Shipping Container End Table

Comprising a single door and a cubical shape, this container end table sounds quite minimalist. But the unique textures of the container corrugation on all sides, plus the obvious container hardware that provides a locking functionality, make this container furniture example stand out.

Shipping Container End Table with Legs

Beyond the color difference, this container end table has a few other clear contrasts to the yellow example above. Instead of sitting smoothly on the floor, this container end table has small legs underneath each of the corner fittings. This should help to keep i it balanced if your hard floor is not perfectly flat, such as with tile. You’ll also notice that the container corrugations are from the angled sides instead of the squared-off ends, giving a slightly different texture to the sheet metal. 

Shipping Container End Table with Protruding Corners

In a similar vein to the above container end table, this example instead employs protruding corner fittings. This is a bit more accurate to the form of actual shipping containers and provides the same benefits of the legs in the previous example when dealing with uneven floors. The one downside is that, unlike feet, the corner fittings are not adjustable, so you might still need to shim one or two corners to get the container nightstand to sit level.

Shipping Container End Table with Two Doors

If you have a near cubic cross-section as most of the previously shared container end tables do, having a set of double doors to mimic the look of actual shipping containers does seem more accurate. An example like this one certainly does look the part, but with all that hardware, getting access to your storage will be a more complicated affair!

Open-Bottom Shipping Container End Table

Finally, a container end table stripped down to its purest form. This example has no storage at all, simply the tabletop and legs. Depending on your usage, the concave surface provided by the container corrugations could be positive or negative. On one hand, it would keep your spare change from rolling off the table, but on the other hand, it would have trouble holding a lamp without it tipping over.

Shipping Container Bed Examples

The definition of a home is open-ended, and can sometimes include structures that don’t have bathrooms or kitchens. However, it’s hard to imagine a house without at least some type of bed. And even though bedroom furniture is typically more private and less likely to spur conversation with visitors in your home…if you eat, sleep and breath container architecture…a container bed might be perfect for you!

Shipping Container Platform Bed with Trundle Bed

Everyone likes a two-for-one deal, and this container bed is actually a higher bed with a lower bed that slides out from underneath. Perfect for the child with an occasional guest, and full of plenty of container imagery.

Shipping Container Bunk Bed

Bunk beds are almost synonymous with fun for a lot of children. It’s like having a treehouse in your bedroom, after all. And this container-based example takes that idea to new heights, with massive end-walls that are build in the style of double container doors. As an added feature, this bed can include a trundle bed underneath, offering the possibility of three separate beds in one.

Triple Shipping Container Bunk Bed

If you like the room for three of the previous bunk bed but don’t have the floor space for the sliding trundle bed, a true triple bunk bed may be an option. While evoking some of the head-bruising aspects of ship’s berthing, this container bed example might be ok for young children who aren’t yet tall enough to worry about the limited overhead clearance.

Shipping Container Lofted Bed with Desk

A common site in many college dorm rooms, lofted beds combine the vertical efficiency of bunk beds with the functionality of a desk. This container bed loft provides substantial closed storage next to the desk with a container-door-inspired end wall. Furniture like this is also great for a guest bedroom if the primary use is for an office, but occasional overnight guests are hosted.

Shipping Container Bench, Chest and Ottoman Examples

Benches and chests are great, functional pieces of furniture that also usually have prominent places in a home. Whether near an entrance to allow putting on shoes, or near the foot of a bed to hold blankets, these furnishings are often located in areas where they are sure to catch your eye despite their comparatively small size. Given that the stand out already, they are great candidates for container furniture when you want to really highlight the industrial flair of your home’s interior.

Shipping Container Bench

The simplest form of a bench is just a seating surface and supportive legs. No frills are highlighted in this bench example, which is intended to use in front of a vanity mirror but could work in a variety of locations. Despite its lack of substance, this container bench still manages to capture the essence of container design with its details.

Shipping Container Storage Ottoman

When you incorporate sides onto a container ottoman or stool, the container design inspiration becomes much more apparent. This example ottoman has all the stylistic details you’d expect to see for a container furniture piece, along with a nice padded seat including hidden storage underneath.

Shipping Container Storage Bench with Shelf

Wider container benches offer not only additional seating positions but additional storage as well. This example has both open storage as well as two doors on each end for less regularly-accessed items. With a wide, comfortable cushion spanning the entire length of this container bench, three people could easily have room to sit.

Shipping Container Bench with Shoe Storage

The picture below actually shows two furniture pieces that work well together, but we’ll focus our attention on the bench on the right. This container bench is double-width and sized for two people, along with two swinging doors for closed-storage underneath. Interestingly, the bench includes a back which it both more comfortable and protects the surface of the wall as well.

Shipping Container Storage Bench

The container storage bench below is almost the same as the previous example above, except that it does not include the padded backrest. That missing feature actually makes it more appropriate for placing in the middle of a room, such as in front of a bed or as living room seating. And as before, there is plenty of private, secure storage underneath.

Shipping Container Storage Chest

Contrasting with some of the previous storage bench examples, this container chest forgoes the padded seat and instead provides a top-opening cabinet. While less appropriate as a seat, this type of storage chest may be better suited for storing certain types of items that are easier to see and sort through from the top, as in a toy box.

Shipping Container Dresser, Wardrobe, Cabinet, and Locker Examples

Frankly, the lines between furniture pieces like dressers and cabinets can get fairly gray. Do drawers make a dresser and doors make a cabinet? What about furnishings that include both? And how high does a cabinet need to be for it to be considered a locker?

Rather than debate these subtle distinctions, we’ve chosen to group all of these similar types of storage furnishings together. So whether you’re storing folding clothes, wine bottles, or hanging coats, we have container-based examples to show you. Regardless of the intended use and the room you intend to place it in, we’ve found all shapes and sizes of container cabinetry to add a unique and stylish touch to your space.

Shipping Container Floor Cabinet

A floor cabinet that includes both top drawers and bottom doors, this container cabinet example would be great in a kitchen or bedroom. The double swinging doors closely match the double doors of an actual container, while the drawers provide easier access to smaller items.

Shipping Container Open Storage Cabinet

For a slightly different take on the floor cabinet above, this container cabinet utilizes mesh upper doors that fold down. Depending on what you’re storing, that may be advantageous for access and give a bit more style by allowing the contents to be partially visible. Furthermore, the dimension of this cabinet are a bit wider for additional storage in a larger room that can fit it.

Shipping Container Tall Cabinet

For smaller rooms, a simple single-door cabinet may be all that’s needed. This container cabinet example is narrow enough to fit in slim spaces while still maintaining the look and feel of its shipping container inspiration.

Shipping Container Stackable Cabinet

While many shipping container cabinets that are the same size could theoretically be stacked, not all of them have the necessary strength or way to be attached. This container cabinet example is made with actual shipping container pieces, making it much sturdier than other examples that are only inspired by the appearance of containers. 

Shipping Container Shoe Locker Cabinet

By providing four internal shelves, this container locker is perfect for storing at least eight pairs of shoes behind its double doors. And with a small drawer on top, you can hold additional items like socks, insoles, and extra shoe laces.

Shipping Container Upright Locker

This container storage locker probably reminds many people of the hazardous material storage lockers seen in many factories and instrial areas, where chemicals like solvents and paints are stored when not in use. But this style of locker could just as easily hold clothes in your bedroom or food in your pantry. The full length locking bars and other hardware, along with the corrugations, make this piece clearly container-inspired.

Single Door Shipping Container Locker

If a double-door locker like the previous example is too wide for your space, there are always single-width options to explore. A container locker like this one can be a great way to store all kinds of items out of sight and securely kept thanks to the locking clasp.

Shipping Container Locker with Eight Cubbies

If you have a larger family or just like segmented storage, a container locker like this one might be a great fit. Instead of two full-length doors, the locker is broken into eight separate compartments each with its own door and hardware. While that doesn’t necessarily mimic the usual configuration of shipping containers, its not hard to see the inspiration thanks to the brightly colored hardware.

Six Drawer Shipping Container Dresser

A dresser, or are some might call it a chest of drawers, is most commonly used in a bedroom. This container double dresser has two sets of three vertical drawers, and could easily be used in a living room or office as well.

Four Drawer Shipping Container Dresser

For a room with less space, a container dresser with a single stack of drawers is more practical given its narrow width. In this case, four drawers provide plenty of storage while offering impressive container imagery.

Three Drawer Shipping Container Dresser

For shorter users or just those with fewer storage requirements, a three-drawer dresser inspired by container design might be the ideal choice. This one is very similar to the above example in width and depth, only differing in the lower height required for one less drawer.

Shipping Container Shelving Examples

Shelving is perhaps the most common and obvious example of storage capacity in a home. Used in almost every room of the house, shelves provide flexible, open space to store all kinds of household items. Below are a few different examples of how shelves inspired by the shape and style of containers can be found.

Shipping Container Modern Bookshelf

Our first shelving example is one of the most interesting. Rather than having the full-width horizontal shelves that many come to expect, this example divides its space into a variety of different units to hold items of various sizes. With both sides of the shelf mimicking the style of container doors, this bookshelf is undoubtedly container-esque. But it has a modern style that pushes the creativity a bit further than most other container shelving units.

Large Shipping Container Bookshelf

Slightly more subdued than the previous example, this container bookshelf has four large horizontal shelves, not including the top. Additionally, it has a closed-storage area at the bottom with side opening doors that cover those less-presentable items.

 

Shipping Container Shelf with Cabinet

Containing two shelves and a large enclosed storage area underneath, this container shelving unit pulls double duty. With large print and patina coloration, this shelf presents more like a used container than a new one.

Shipping Container Bookcase with Cabinet

With slightly less storage space behind doors and slightly more on open shelving, this container bookcase is otherwise similarly constructed to the example above. One key difference is the double doors compared to the single door above, which make work better in rooms with less front clearance.

Shipping Container Corner Bookshelf

In the same way that we fawned over the corner desk in a previous section, we really appreciate the flexibility of this container corner shelf. With plenty of both open and enclosed storage, plus strong container style throughout, this shelf would be a great accent piece for any room.

Shipping Container Wine Storage Shelf

We’ve talked about storing almost everything else, so why not alcohol too? The most obvious use case here is for wine bottle storage on top and a liquor cabinet beneath. This creative container shelf system would pair the contrasting elements of container steel and glass bottles perfectly together.

Shipping Container Accent Examples

The last section of container furnishing examples is one we’re calling accents. While most of these pieces are functionally useful, due to their size or lack of commonality in many homes, we’re labeling them as non-essential accent pieces. But given that most of these are smaller (and cheaper), they can be a great first step into shipping container furniture.

Shipping Container Dressing Mirror

A clever changing mirror that also includes vertical storage elements for a tie, keys, and even a phone, this first container accent example is quite subdued. Four tiny corner fittings grace the frame’s perimeter and a few letterings and corrugations are present, but this mirror is overall pretty tame and could blend well with a variety of less industrial decors.

Shipping Container Vanity Mirror

Taking the mirror idea and expanding upon it, this vanity mirror increases the size of the mirror itself while transforming the storage area. Instead of open storage with a few hanging pegs, this container mirror uses a side-opening door to conceal a shelving system reminiscent of a medicine cabinet. And due to the container-inspired door and included hardware, this mirror is more obviously based on container design than the previous example.

Shipping Container Tissue Box

It’s fairly common for people to purchase or make stylish covers that fit over tissue boxes to make them appear a little more formal. But this container tissue box takes that idea and really runs with it. Despite its small size, this ABS plastic container box is pretty dimensionally accurate to the real thing, with all the pieces and textures you’d expect, only shrunk down. 

Shipping Container Planter

By removing the top of the previous container tissue box, another application emerges: a planter. Whether it’s flowers, herbs, or succulents, this plastic container box would be a great home for a variety of small plants.

Shipping Container Office Organizer

Now, taking the container planter theme and adding a few compartments gives us something entirely new: an office organizer. As a holder for pens, paperclips, and every other kind of tiny office tool, this container organizer would be a great desk addition to use while you’re planning your next container home.

Shipping Container Door Veneer Sticker

For a slight detour, consider a budget-friendly way to give a container look and feel to your home without any furniture moving or construction required. This unique idea is a photo-realistic applique that attaches to a regular home door and makes it look like a container door. Obviously, it won’t have the physical texture of the corrugations and hardware, but from across the room, it’s a pretty convincing substitute to give your space a little jolt of industrial style.

Shipping Container Box Stickers

Sticking with the sticker theme (see what we did there?!), this container box idea takes things in an entirely new direction. Made to work with a specific size cardboard shipping box sold by FedEx, this sticker attaches on all sides of the box to make it appear from a distance as if it was a container.  

Now let’s be honest, most people don’t want a FedEx box as their living room coffee table, even if it looks like a container. And the longevity of such a piece of furniture, if we can even call it that, is probably not long. Still, the design is creative enough that we thought it worthy of inclusion, even if we doubt that basically anyone would actually use it!

Summary

Did you ever think there were over 50 different ways to use these style of container construction in household furniture? We were surprised at the number of examples we pulled together once we added them all up. But it just goes to show that shipping containers truly inspire creativity in everyone that see and experiences them.

We hope you’ll take away some ideas from the article that you hadn’t considered. Whether it’s an upcycling application for your upcoming container project, or a cool piece of container-inspired furniture that you buy for your existing home, this article is full of amazing ideas.

Have we missed anything you’ve seen or built yourself? Tell us about it in the comments.