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Just when you think you’ve seen it all, a new crazy-creative decor trend comes along to prove otherwise. The latest is from Ecovative Design, a New York-based biomaterials company with a mission to market Earth-friendly materials to consumers. In this particular instance, we’re talking about lampshades that you can literally grow on your own, out of mushrooms.
Ecovative Design was born in 2006, but the organic, sustainable, and biodegradable Grow It Yourself Mushroom Material (formally deemed mushroom mycelium) was launched in 2014 to encourage consumers to use it to create eco-friendly personal projects such as garden planters, lamp shades, product packaging, and more. For this project, Ecovative teamed up with Brooklyn-based bio-designer Danielle Trofe–creator of the aptly named MushLume collection–to make the Grow It Yourself Product Line become a reality.
A pendant lamp kit from the Ecovative shop sells for $45 and includes a bag of the famous Grow-It-Yourself mushroom material, a lampshade-making tool, a UL-certified pendant light cord & bulb, and some handy instructions. The lampshade can be grown and molded in about a week, but it must be baked in the oven to hold its shape and halt its growth (and to prevent it from growing mushroom-related unmentionables). The final product will come to resemble a plaster-like material.
If you don’t have the time to get hands-on, you can also purchase the fully grown lamp by Trofe for Ecovative’s Design Collection online. And when you’re done, simply break the product into pieces and throw it into your compost bin to biodegrade.
Also available in the Evocative Shop are grow planters, which sell for $25. Each kit contains enough raw material to grow two planters that are perfect for housing succulents. Whether you choose to display them indoors, plant them directly into your garden, or to grow herbs in your kitchen, these sustainable decor alternatives are an exciting feat for the future of unique and sustainable home decor.
Check out Ecovative Design’s Instagram page as well as their Grow-It-Yourself how-to video and let us know in the comments what you want to design with mushroom mycelium.
Related reading:
How to Throw a Zero Waste Dinner Party How to Grow Vegetables, Even if You Have No Space How to Make Your Own Scented Candle