Robin Day chairs: a design classic

Midcentury modern designer chairs don't come cheap. Or do they? These wonderful Polyside chairs, below, and Armchairs, further down, designed by functional, stylish furniture hero, Robin Day, between 1963 and 1967 go on sale this month at the V&A shop... for under 70 quid. 

Robin Day Poly Side Chair, £55
The colourful chairs are made using what was, in the sixties, a totally new technology of injection-moulding polypropylene to create a single form for the seat shell. The chairs, manufactured by Hille, become global best-sellers and these versions have been given a little makeover for 2012.

Robin Day armchair, £65

When is an Eames not an Eames or an Eames fake? When it's Robin Day's Armchair, which was launched in 1967 following the success of the Poly Side chair, but this time with rolled arms and a broad seat. Apparently the chair, which shares some curves with its more iconic – and luxuriously-priced – peer, the plastic Eames – it is very comfortable. But Day was all about affordable, useful design (hence all the public furniture he made, including very familiar school chairs most of us will have sat on at some point in our lives). As such,  his chairs budget-friendly; this range also fits a variety of different Day-designed bases, including one that swivels, so you can mix and match. The most popular version was on the original A frame base (as pictured here) which can be supplied in a chrome or powdercoated finish. I think the chrome looks a little too modern here, so I'd probably go for powder-coated.

You can also buy the chairs direct from Hille, where the powder-coated options are just £59, for the armchairs, or £49 for the side chairs.