Before and After – Stinky 70s Mushroom Stool
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.
I have the EXACT same stool, which was my grandmother’s for over 30 years. My sisters and I all played on it as kids, and I inherited when she passed. But it also reeked of smoke. We wanted to change the foam, but it was crazy expensive at the craft store we went to. Ended up recovering it in a fake fur kind of fabric, but really wanted to do it in a flokati type to keep in the 70s style (which was again cost prohibitive). Good job, great project!
i have a mushroom just like this one (except red) that i have had since i was a child. i’ve been wanting to revamp, but i’m still holding on to nostalgia, hopefully someday.
Thanks for the love! I had no idea there were so many out there… I wish I was cool enough to have one of these as a kid!
It was a pretty quick project for me, only took about a day to do it all. I may re-do it again someday in some flokati too if there’s ever a good and inexpensive resource! It would definitely make it THAT much cooler… =)