Most of us would not be able to guess the origin of these plump stools, pouffes and chair for the designer, Dutch born Frank Willems has truly given old mattresses an extreme makeover. His idea came about after a project on material life. He noticed almost all unwanted waste material could be recycled except mattresses. They were destined for the landfills simply because they could not be shredded - they would get stuck in the machines.

What he does is to fold them up in different ways and then lashes the voluminous seat on top of the legs of varying styles of antique chairs. The whole thing is made hygienic by a spray-on water resistant foam coating. He then paints it in vibrant colours. The stool was his first creation but he has since gone on to add chairs and pouffes to the endearingly named Madam Rubens Collection. His stool is currently being displayed in an exhibition on seating entitled “Please do not Sit” in the Tooles Gallery in France. - Via

Remember your grandmother’s Chesterfield couch? Old fashioned floral fabric and frills may have put you off but those buttons were a nifty design feature. Well, now you can have your own updated button couch. The Star System of modern sofas shown here were designed by Enrico Buscemi and Piergiorgio Leone and were recently presented at the Milan Furniture Fair. They are part of the Giovannetti Collezioni, known for their innovative furniture design. It is easy to see why they called their collection the Star system because those buttons are reminiscent of stars at night.

The designers described taking the chester classic sofa and transforming it into a “radical monoblock sculpture.” The “chester classic block” designs come in deliciously vibrant candy colours – purple, blue, red, fuschia and basic white, enough to make you all starry-eyed. The rolling curves and sculptured shapes of the Star and SuperStar make for plush and wide seating. The Starlet, the swivel armchair is the smallest of this starry collection.

The furniture pieces are constructed from double density polyurethane foam. The wide patented steel buttons are removable to allow easy laundering of the stretchy fabric cover- something you cannot do with traditional chesterfield sofas. Five stars for this innovative feature! - Via