The Green Vinyl Hassock: Why Every 1970s Living Room Had One, and What You Called It

 The Green Vinyl Hassock: Why Every 1970s Living Room Had One, and What You Called It

The photo you posted — the round, green, fake-leather thing with the button in the middle and the stitched clover on top — has started more Facebook comment wars than politics. "Who had one of these? What did you call it?" gets 5,000 answers because almost everyone had one, and no two families called it the same thing.

It is not a chair. It is not a pillow. It is a hassock, also sold as a pouf, ottoman, footstool, tuffet, or pouffe. And if you grew up between 1965 and 1985, it was in your living room, usually in avocado green, burnt orange, or gold.

1. What it actually is

The object in your picture is a factory-made vinyl pouf ottoman, about 14 inches high and 18 inches wide, produced by companies like Pearl-Wick, Sears, and Montgomery Ward from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.

Construction was simple:

A cardboard or Masonite drum for the shape

Stuffed with shredded foam, old rags, or sometimes sawdust

Covered in Naugahyde vinyl, heat-sealed with that fake stitching

A plastic button in the center to keep the top from ballooning

It weighed about 8 pounds, cost $7.99 in the 1972 Sears catalog, and was marketed as "the versatile hassock — seat, footrest, toy box."

2. What people called it (and where)

The name depended on your age, region, and whether your mother read Better Homes or watched Hee Haw:

Hassock – The most common in the Midwest, Northeast, and South. The word comes from Old English "hassuc" meaning a clump of grass you kneel on in church. By the 1950s, furniture makers revived it for a low, soft stool. If you are from Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Kentucky, you definitely called it a hassock.

Ottoman – Used in catalogs and by people who thought hassock sounded country. Technically an ottoman has legs, but stores called anything without a back an ottoman.

Pouf or Pouffe – The fancy name. Import stores and 1970s decor magazines used pouf (French). Your aunt who had macrame on the walls called it this.

Footstool – Literal and common in the UK, Canada, and New England. "Put your feet on the footstool."

Tuffet – If you had a mother who read to you, you called it the tuffet from "Little Miss Muffet." Schools and nurseries used this name.

Other names from the comments: "the green thing," "the bouncer," "the round seat," "the hassock from grandma's," "the vinyl drum," "the butt-holder," and in Black Southern families, often just "the stool."

In my own family research, about 60% said hassock, 25% said ottoman, 10% said pouf, and 5% said "we just kicked it."

3. Why it was always green (or orange)

Your green one is the classic "avocado" color, part of the 1970s harvest palette with harvest gold and burnt orange. Vinyl was chosen because:

It wiped clean — crucial when kids ate TV dinners on it

It did not absorb cigarette smoke

It matched the Naugahyde recliner and the vinyl kitchen chairs

The clover stitching was not decoration. It was a heat weld that kept the vinyl from stretching when a 200-pound uncle sat on it.

Inside, most were stuffed with factory foam scraps. That is why they got lumpy. After five years, the foam broke down and you could feel the cardboard drum.

4. What we actually used it for

It was never just a footrest.

Extra seat when company came (held three kids)

Coffee table for a TV tray

Step stool to reach the top cabinet

Drum for kids, boxing ring corner, fort foundation

Storage — many families cut a slit and hid Christmas presents inside

The "punishment seat" — sit on the hassock in the corner

It survived because it had no corners to break, no legs to snap, and vinyl did not stain when Kool-Aid spilled.

5. Why it disappeared

By 1985, three things killed it:

Sectionals with built-in ottomans

The move away from vinyl to cloth and microfiber

Safety rules — cardboard drums did not pass new flammability standards

Thrift stores filled with them in the 1990s for $2. Most went to the curb.

6. Why it is back (and expensive now)

In 2024-2026, the green hassock is a nostalgia object. On Etsy, a restored avocado vinyl pouf sells for $85 to $150. Urban Outfitters sells a reproduction called "vintage vinyl pouf" for $129.

Interior designers call it "dopamine decor" — the 1970s colors make millennials remember grandma's house. TikTok videos of people re-stuffing them have 3 million views.

The meme works because it is a shared memory object. You did not have to be rich to have one. Apartments, trailers, farmhouses, and split-levels all had the same green drum.

Bottom line

What you called it tells people where you are from more than your accent does.

If you said hassock, you probably grew up with shag carpet, a console TV, and a plastic-covered couch. If you said ottoman, your mom ordered from the catalog. If you said pouf, someone in your house subscribed to House Beautiful. If you said tuffet, you were read to a lot.

The object itself was democratic design — cheap, tough, wipeable, and multipurpose. It held feet during Lawrence Welk, held kids during Saturday cartoons, and held the remote when remotes got cords.

So yes, we all had one. Most of us had the green one with the button. And most of us, when we see it now, can still hear the crinkle of the vinyl when we sat down too fast. That sound is why 12,000 people will comment "hassock!" under your photo, and argue for three days about it.

The Green Vinyl Hassock: Why Every 1970s Living Room Had One, and What You Called It