Interior designer Kerry Phelan was mooching about the shores of Lake Como in the Euro summer of 2022, reflecting on the first COVID “comeback” Milan Furniture Fair she had just seen.

“Everything was just so comfortable,” she recalls. “And not in a good way, not in a manner that would move the style dial forward.” So Phelan and partner Stephen Javens decided it was time their Melbourne studio K.P.D.O. made a move to shake up the furniture design sector. They would do that by devising seating, tables and home accessories that are flamboyantly robust to the point of teetering on the rudimentary; turning standard-issue components and materials seen on highways and construction sites into high-glam items for the home.