Before – Stinky!

After

After – Detail

THE BACKSTORY: The story of the “Stinky Mushroom” gets its origins from the Greek “Fungus foulsmelicus.” Actually, this do-it-yourselfer’s-dream sprouted up on Ebay for $10 and it was love at first sight. “It will go perfectly with our new Thomas Wold Mushroom Table!” I thought to myself… but unfortunately it wasn’t love at first sniff when I opened the box 2 weeks later! It smelled heavily of smoke and had stains all over it, but you get what you pay for! So the day dawned on a new project…

THE PROCESS: After the fabric was removed we found that the foam was in pretty bad shape as well and was pretty much THE source of the nasty smell. So we went down and bought some 6″ thick foam from the local craft store and carved it with an electric turkey knife to the correct shape. For the fabric we used an Urban Outfitters tapestry in Birdie Stamp which we cut and sewed from the pattern of the old fabric. For the top of the mushroom we just placed the foam atop the particle board circle and covered it with a little batting to smooth out the jagged edges. Then we just stretched the fabric over the top, gathered it at the bottom and stapled it down. For the bottom we just re-stapled the fabric to the inside of the tube.