Hideous.

wrong on so many levels

I don't know how it differs from other taxidermy we see all over the place in these house tours. Decorating with dead things creeps me out, but I don't see why a stuffed bird would be any different than a deer head mounted on your wall.

Definitely do not like stuffed birds, animal heads or animal skin rugs on the floor.

This is just wrong.

Keep stirring the pot...

AT is running out of material...c'mon!

YUCK!

the one in the house I grew up in used to scare the crap out of the cat

I really do not like decorating with death.

And while I love most of Bryan's Across-the-Hall the taxidermy bird HANGING OVER THE BED skeeves me incredibly. He's a braver man than I am.

I concur... disturbing!

Bad karma.

Wrong, no ifs or buts about it. I can't think of a space a nicely framed artwork or a graceful figurine can't fill better than these totems of cruelty. Ban those cowhide rugs while we're at it.

I can't get over that first BluDot image, and how no one, not even the framed cat, is looking at the rooster... hilarious.

Stuffed animals creep me out and what is with the popularity of antlers lately?

I love the peacock.

Did the old woman in the first photo die while talking on the phone??

Actually, dutchman, I thought the people were stuffed and the chicken was live.

And we do have stuffed people. Reference mummies and Lenin's tomb.

I agree. Not into decorating with death.

Put a bird on it!

I hate decorating with dead things, but I don't find it as creepy as the older woman in bright blue heeled pumps.

Stuffed animals will always remind me of my Great Aunt and her creepy room of dusty taxidermy. Not something I would wish to recreate anywhere, especially my home.

Have you ever seen a live peacock in the wild? It is absolutely the most stunningly beautiful sight. Nothing a stuffed version could ever live up to. Ditto deer heads and other animals.

Not into the antlers, sheep skins, cow hide rugs, stuffed birds, or estate sale taxidermy & vintage fur coats. Keeping dead things in the home is a peculiar kind of grotesque gloating, to me.

Disgusting.

Eh, I have a nifty (fake) raven in my room. I like it a lot! Family used to have a lot of ducks; like, a lot of ducks. And my sheepskin Ikea throw is super awesome.

BUT! That first picture is weird! Looks like they're simultaneously avoiding the rooster while dying, mid thought, of carbon monoxide poisoning!

I'm not a fan of taxidermy, but I sometimes enjoy things like leather, sheepskin and the sort.

what's up with you guys today? first the awful baby shower question at ohdeeoh and now the dead old lady on the phone and the creepy stuffed dead animals......it's february 1st, not april 1st. : )

I like decorating with animals, but not with real animals. I have a couple crows I really like, but they're not true taxidermy. They're just feathered Halloween decorations I leave up year round. I expect the feathers probably came from chickens or something. And I've got a very realistic looking lizard that lives on the coffee table, but he's just plastic. And I have a lot of bird and reptile statues and ornaments.

Don't many of us decorate our Thanksgiving table with a stuffed bird?

This just leads into the next "Clean Something In Your Apartment" post: Five quick/simple/environmentally-friendly ways of cleaning your stuffed bird.

Depressing. Those birds will never fly (squawk, flutter, whatever) again. But I'm OK with electric blue pumps on the older woman. At her age, she's earned the right to wear whatever she wants while averting her gaze from the dead rooster on the coffee table.

i'm totally into it. it's my kind of creepy, but i grew up with vintage taxidermy. there's definitely a line for me though, whole taxidermied posed animals i find awful - i went to a bass pro outlet in calgary and had to leave it was so upsetting. 1000's of posed elk and wolves, who died to sell me cargo pants. *shudder*

Law and custom say that, as far as taxidermied animals, what people do is their own business. In some parts of the country where hunting is popular taxidermied animals still are considered attractive decor. I'm not vegetarian and I use leather, so I don't reject the taxidermy of animals on ethical grounds as that would be hypocritical.

However, taxidermied animals, hairy cowhide, and fur in clothing usually seem very creepy to me. They usually reek of toxic preservative chemicals like formaldehyde. I instead greatly enjoy artificial representations of animals in ceramic, wood, metal, or wall art.

Horns are attached to the skeleton and are taken from the body of a dead animal. Antlers, unlike horns, may have been shed naturally by a healthy animal. If unsure, then check the base for hack and saw marks.

@ *kris* - You haven't seen upsetting until you eat at a certain restaurant in my area that has so much taxidermy that there are dead bobcats on top of the salad bar and dead, glassy eyes staring at you no matter where you turn. The 80's country decor is pretty nauseating as well.

Agreed, Modtomic! Half of these people are going to eat steak tonight. Give me a break.

Yuck, thumbs down.

I kind of like the older lady with the princess phone

love the blue shoes

I very much dislike taxidermy in interior design. I loves me some leather and steak, though (and having seen "Earthlings" have no illusions about where they came from).

I just don't like preserved animal corpses/obvious remains in spaces. It's something I associate with my grandparents' neighbours' place. They were very kitchy French Canadian farmers. I still have a vivid memory of having milk and cookies at their place when I was little, looking over and seeing a deer's foreleg converted into a lamp (amongst loads of other taxidermied animals) and just thinking that it was ugly.

@the flying dutchman, gudnis
Also, body worlds. :)

@mr. modtomic
Thank you.

Though, it doesn't personally appeal to me. I would prefer a live bird (conure? :D) After it dies... hm.... >.>

I like ducks, they are cute but also delicious, on the other hand it might worry me to have a stuffed one in the house, since if it were alive it would probably be flinging poo at me.

Since ppl diverted already, I want to say that I like the look of cowhide (depending on the pattern), but the feel underfoot is underwhelming and it seems no one can make them stay in place. They are always rumpled up even in staged photos, and if it's on purpose that aspect doesn't really appeal.

I do like ikea's big sheepskin (the one that's about 3' by 6') and will probably get one soon. :D

Also, re: 4, that furry little footstool with the spiky feet; it doesn't seem like you can put any pressure on it. o.O

I guess none of these people have pets?

I don't have stuffed birds, but I do have a stuffed fish! A fish that I caught myself, I might add...

Nothing wrong with tasteful taxidermy.

All I can say is, "Put a bird on it!"

But, seriously, dead animals as interior design ain't my thing.

Not a fan of taxidermy, but, for some reason, that first photo with the chicken just cracks me up! It seems to poking fun at the whole taxidermy trend.

Ditto Patrick & ModTomic!

Wood & Paper = Dead Trees
Fresh Flowers = Dead Flowers
Leather Furniture/Shoes/etc. = Dead Cow
Gasoline in your car/Plastic Things from IKEA & BestBuy/Latex paint on the wall = Dead Dinosaurs
Clothing = Dead Cotton
Tofu/Soysauce = Dead Soybeans
Rice/Wheat = Dead Grasses
Bricks/Dishware/Tile/Porcelain Plumbing Fixtures/Metal Objects = Dead Earth
Glassware = Dead Sea Animal Shells (What sand is made of)

Unless you live in a barren cave, I guarantee that more than one or two things died somewhere along the way to get you all the things you have in your home.

“It's sad... when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son... but I couldn't allow them to believe that I would commit murder. They'll put him away now... as I should have... years ago. He was always... bad. And in the end, he intended to tell them that I killed those girls and that man. As if I could do anything except just sit and stare... like one of his stuffed birds.” - Norman Bates, speaking in his mother’s voice.

Decorating with death! Murder! Dramatics! Grannys ashes in an urn! My stuffed crow is offended.

I think these can be quite beautiful. I have antlers on my wall, that my dad found shed in the woods and mounted for me. I love having it hanging in my living room. We live in the woods, and my plants, the trees through the window, and the antlers feel like nature is inside with me.

Please, just no.

It's not the death thing, I think fake stuffed animals and cardboard antlers are tacky too.

This doesn't exactly relate to THIS this thread, but: I posted the Norman Bates quote from PSYCHO because I love the film. I even did my bathroom in Psycho motif: got a towel at Bloomingdales, had it monogrammed "BATES MOTEL." Alas, I no longer have the towel - that was 30+ years ago. But I think the monogram guy is still there, at the 59th St, Bloomie's. In fact, I think I'll get another Bates Motel towel, :>D

I love steak!

An article like this at AT is like shooting fish in a bucket. 8^Þ.

NO THANK YOU.

but i'll take cowhide and sheepskin.

Say what you will about the dead birds; I just couldn't get over the creepy-hipster grandma in the blue pumps. *Shudder*

I personally don't like it. To me it's distasteful.

Am I the only person who learned taxidermy in high school? Hmm. Maybe the answer to that is yes. Anyhow, I do love me some beautiful critters. I tend to enjoy them in the wild most, but I understand the impulse to bring them into your home and share their beauty. I've got some beautiful feathers in my home from the turkeys that roam around my backyard. Similar impulse.

Some of these comments are so hilarious that I'll forgive Jose for commentwhoring.

"I really do not like decorating with death".

'Decorating With Death' is what I'm going to call my edgy design studio, if I ever decide to start one. Thanks, Cassis!

Personally I'd decorate with a bird sooner than with a mammal - not for any ethical reason, but because birds tend to be prettier. Many feathers have colours and irridescence that no mammal pelt is ever going to feature.

the comments here crack me up! thanks for the laughs :D

i love taxidermy! and i dream of having a collection of birds flying across a wall. im surprised about the reactions.

and to The Flying Dutchman, a method of taxidermy hasn't been created for humans because our skin is too thin and transparent after all of the processing ;)

Those who decorate with taxidermied animals seem to feel about them like others feel about vases of cut flowers. A person's position on taxidermied animals is the result of enculturation and personal experience. There's never going to be unanimous agreement on taxidermied animals because this is a heterogenous society, and that's a good thing.

I had one in my student room. It was a pheasant called Harry, Hitchcock fans will understand.

I also still regret not buying a tiny stuffed lamb I once found at a flea market. It had a morbid cuteness that was hard to resist.

Take a look at Polly Morgan's work. She uses taxidermy as an art form: http://pollymorgan.co.uk/

niet. ever.

Didn't Norman Bates do that? I'm not a fan of stuffed animals, they are just weird. The owner of my company is a big country/hunter guy so we have mounted deer (etc) heads and stuffed birds through the office. I could do without them.

I'll add my voice to the cacophony - please bury dead things - don't hang them on your walls.

i love taxidermy!

I have always been a fan of vintage taxidermy peices, particularly birds. I stress VINTAGE here. I choose to have taxidermy birds in my home that I have saved from junk shops, estate sales, thrift shops- etc. I feel I am re-honoring these little guys. I have had a small ledge/wall of taxidermy for many years now, long before it became fashionable again. I am an activist, a feminist, a lover of animals- as are all of my friends- and no one has ever had a problem with my displays. They key is to make it tasteful, and respectful.

As for the term "Decorating with Death"- so be it. I find death to be a beautiful and natural part of life. Along with my taxidermy, I display several bone peices- bones, skulls, etc that I have found in nature while camping, hiking, etc. All carefully and safely collected, disinfected, preserved, etc.

NEVER would I kill something only to display it. Green thinking, found objects and salvaged peices only.

I do not like the growing popularity of taxidermy, and I worry it will cause another wave of killing. Buy vintage peices, or fake peices if you want to jump on the band wagon.