Creating the mould

Carol O’Callaghan finds that there there’s nothing so natural as plastic.

ASTIC furniture may not sound like the most attractive thing to have in your home, especially if your only experience of it is the very affordable purchase of a white table and chair set for your patio that eventually fell foul of mould.

But as an interior product, plastic and acrylic furniture has become desirable thanks to French designer Philippe Starck, whose Ghost chair, modelled on Louis XV baroque, gave a much-copied style a contemporary aesthetic.