Furniture that grows on you

New furniture can be expensive – and while money doesn't grow on trees, a 'green designer' has figured out a way to make furniture sprout from the ground.

Christopher Cattle attaches sycamore or maple saplings to plywood frames to make his garden-variety stools. Then he just sits back and waits, and waits a bit more.

Each one takes five years to grow into shape and ten minutes of Mr Cattle's time every three weeks to tend to the trees. Finally, he fixes a seat on top.

Mr Cattle, from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, started growing his own furniture 15 years ago.

'I thought if I could grow the trees in the right shapes, I wouldn't have to waste energy cutting them,' he said.

The 71-year-old said there was no limit to what kind of furniture could be grown – apart from time.

'Maybe people can start to think laterally and try to do things in a different way. I think an actual chair would take about eight years.'

He has set up a website with advice on growing the stools on www.grown-furniture.co.uk