When checking out the new café/tapas bar at Scarlet Wines in Lelant at the weekend (of which more to follow), on the Old Forge pottery site, I discovered a neat new branch of St Ives vintage design shop Beaten Green in the hut next door.

There’s all manner of shabby-chic furniture piled up (chests-of-drawers, shelves, armchairs) – some more shabby than chic, some more chic than shabby – but it’s the unconventional pieces that really demonstrate a designer’s eye for potential.

There’s a chair reupholstered with fabric from an Argentinian hessian food sack; first-class airline chairs (you’ve got to wonder where you source those in west Cornwall); shocking-yellow plastic stackable chairs; a smooth gold mannequin (see below – sold!) and – my favourite – an old doctor’s couch reupholstered in retro floral print. (Maybe I’d lose my white coat phobia if all white coats were replaced with retro floral print…)

Designer Kerry Knight has an outlet of Beaten Green on St Andrews Street in St Ives, and may also be branching out to Brick Lane, where it’s probably fair to say the market for designer doctor’s couches is more buoyant.