apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I worked at the Museum of Natural History for several years, so this doesn't freak me out, but I suspect many would find it a bit Silence of the Lambs.

But you've assembled an amazing collection. It reminds me a bit of Down House in England.

What a grotesque and bizarre collection of hammer horror props!!!


I think I love it

this would really terrify me but, on a more general note, I hate that I couldn't really get a feel for the space with all the vignette shots! It'd be nice to have a better understanding of the proximity of all these critters to the actual living inhabitants...

I love the turquoise chairs and the brick-colored desk. Any suggestions or resources on how to recreate the look? I'm a bit new to refinishing so apologies if this is a rudimentary question :)

I love the idea of an era that was all about the thrill of discovery. What a neat home, all lived-in and interesting. I'm especially smitten with this couple's vintage stereoscopy postcard collection and the sweet little kitchen.

I LOVE ALL YOUR STUFF!!!

considering i collect bones, i definitely don't have an issue with the nature of your collections...but i just had to say: so much awesomeness!!! oh man!

i do agree that i didn't get a sense of the space at all from these photos, but i still enjoyed this tour very much.

finally, something for ME :)

omg.... I'm in love.

I visited a local off-the-grid house a few years ago as part of a class I was taking. In addition to having built a funky, functional green house way back in the 70s, the couple who built it also designed it so that almost every square inch of every wall had shallow storage shelves built in. They had endless tiny jars of sharks' teeth, rocks, books, etc., etc., etc.. It looked like a nutty professor's house... all wood and wool and random collections.

I love the aesthetic, but I shudder at the thought of the dust. I'd love to have built-in glass cases put in my house, so I could display all sorts of crazy stuff, while keeping things clean.

I think it's cool you guys have this passion and interest in your collections, but I think you should follow your dream of moving into a two-storey and opening a museum on the lower level so you can get all this stuff out of your home and share it with the world. How do you shut your mind down and relax in there?

I would cry myself to sleep every night if I had to live with that crazy lynx on the wall!

I love their collection, but can this really be called a house tour? I wanted to see the whole apartment and how the collection was worked into the design, but this tour consisted of shot after shot of vignettes (interesting stuff, but still). I wanna see some interiors!


http://www.tangiedecor.blogspot.com

Okay, my original comment was too over-the-top and was edited out. So I'll try to express my opinions in a more moderate way.

IMHO this is not original decor -- it is highly imitative decor meant to adapt a particular stance. It's like how Oscar Wilde dressed as a young man, with a wide cravat and a velvet cape. It was meant to attract attention, to make a statement.

I'm not at one with the statement. Modern science is about documenting, protecting, and preserving. Taxidermy is on the way out.

A phrenology bust can be bought at any number of sources, so it's hardly an original acquisition. Occasionally it can be used in an amusing or witty way. Here it's just another expression of beliefs gone by -- and in conjunction with the stuffed animals, it's a little scary.

AustinSarah - I don't think this is a pose. No one lives with taxidermy and bones unless they're seriously interested. I have natural-scientist friends with similar decor, and while it's not for me (at least not to this extreme), it's certainly not an affectation to get attention.

i agree with LTangie. where is the house?

I love old bones and old collections, but this reminds me of a cub scout hall, sorry. Maybe if I saw these great collections in conjunction with the rest of the house it would make more sense.

yep. you have a lot of stuff. all the shots were of stuff. not rooms. just stuff.

ElleNel- The table, chair, and typewriter are vintage. I also love this look and have a lot of it in my home. My sources are craigslist, thrift stores, flea markets, and curbside finds. The only way to get that worn, loved, and old homey look is to go vintage! Don't be afraid to mix and match like they did, let it be eclectic.

Lisa (Montreal): just to continue the conversation. At this point in their life, this couple may believe they love these things. (It's a free country -- and so is Canada! So absolutely no offense meant in that sense.) They can live as they want.

I love vintage. I love antiques.

I also love science, for a lot of very good reasons.

Half of the people on this planet would not be alive except for the advances of science. After a tricky birth, a few chronic illnesses, giving another human a tricky birth, and another chronic illness, all I can say is thank God for the advances of science.

My own father, who is 89, has survived TB, a triple by-pass, a host of other heart procedures, serious colon cancer, bladder cancer, and two strokes. And he has his creative soul intact! Thank God for science.

I have also worked closely with top scientists for years.

I think standards in science have evolved. People used to keep "specimens," then they kept slides, and now they go digital. All of the stuff in the apartment are artifacts of a bygone age. When Oscar Wilde made his statement with his archaic, poetic appearance, he backed up his flamboyance with shining wit and achievement under very difficult circumstances.

Imitation of the past is fine if that's what you need to surround yourself in order to thrive. It's just not where we're headed. I also feel this "curatorial" approach to biological artifacts shows a certain lack of respect of other species which is increasingly outdated, particularly on a site which stresses sustainability.

I love your style. It looks like you have a lot of fun collecting and displaying your finds. The fox and duckling are awesome. If you ever visit San Francisco you should make your way to a shop in North Beach called Aria. It's on Grant Street between Union and Filbert.

@AustinSarah - why are you making such a personal attack on these folks? Geez, "At this point in their life, this couple may believe they love these things." How do you know where they are in life? Why suggest they will someday not love these things? If you don't care for it fine, you don't have to be so rude.

Sorry, but how is this a house tour?

We haven't heard much from the "OMG I LOVE YOUR KITTY!" crowd in this comment thread. I wonder why?

AustinSarah, vintage stuff (including scientific esoterica like this) is wonderful precisely because it's so obsolete. It is indeed "another expression of beliefs gone by". We look at the stuffed fox holding a duckling and we marvel at the mindset and social conventions that made it. It's social history as well as natural history come to life, and evokes the spirit of wonder and exploration that characterised the Victorian era.

I also have a lot of skulls, preserved insects and cowskin rugs in my home, but that tends to be because I love their colour, texture and structure. I also love them because they speak of our connection with dynamic nature in a way that a bland Jonathan Adler vase never could.

All those dead things! What terrible feng shui! (Though the optical moon gadget looks quite wonderful....)

Love this place. I wouldn't want taxidermy in my house, but the specimens otherwise are fine! Do wish I could see more of the house and less of the individual things.

AustinSarah, I beg to differer with you. As a zoologist who has spent countless hours studying bones, skins and making slides, these materials are in no way obsolete, if anything, using original material instead of fancy digital techniques can reveal so much more information, and to get digital images you need the actual specimens (bones, feathers and all). In the end the newer techniques will become obsolete long before the preserved specimens. It will be a sad day when we loose the knowledge to preserve material in its original form.

I have some older microscopes and many scientific posters at home, I'd love to have some mounted skeletons!

Hmmm.

AustinSarah: Enjoying the aesthetic of an earlier era does not amount to endorsing the circumstances which gave rise to that aesthetic or celebrating the beliefs and actions which attended it. One thing of particular beauty in an era with many ugly realities was a sense, at least among those fortunate to be educated, that curiosity was worthwhile. Exploration was a worthy activity; experimentation was to be encouraged, and disciplinary boundaries were unknown. The aesthetic that arose from those ideals, the curatorial approach to home decor, is a fun look that evokes adventure and discovery.

Those two kids love modern science; trust me.

Everyone who said you can't get a sense of the place from the pix:

You are right. It is a tiny place with weird narrow angles; there does not appear to be a way photograph it that portrays a sense of the space (as opposed to just the decor. I tried myself.). The apartment is in a large Brooklyn complex built around the turn of the century for refinery workers. It has a very narrow hallway, long in proportion to its width, running alongside a small bedroom and sitting room and ending in the kitchen.

Well....this is definitely different from what is usually featured on AT. Not for me though.

As others have said its not a house tour. Animal corpses in the home.

Austinsarah, 'thank God for science'???

With a home as unique as this, how could a proper home tour help anyway? It seems the point was to show off the oddities the couple collects and not so much as the home itself. I guess that's disappointing to some, but I really liked looking at all their cool things. If the main focus of the house tour would have been taking pics of entire rooms, I would've been wishing I could get a better look at all the strange things they had on their shelves but couldn't see.
Some readers are making a bigger deal out of this house tour than it should be. If you don't like the house tour, don't look at it! Is it really taboo that AT does something a little out-of-the-ordinary? I, for one, appreciate this house tour whether I incorporate taxidermy into my home design or not.

I am baffled as to why people are going out of their way to be negative. Doesn't anybody have any manners anymore?! If you don't have something nice to say then shut the f*ck up and let and let live. Yes, of course people put themselves out there for criticism on these tours, but there are real people with actual feelings living in these houses. Sheesh.

@Austinsarah

You clearly have a different aesthetic. That's fine. There's no need to make this a personal issue.

Interesting collection...kind of like living in a museum.

I don't relate to that aesthetic. When I look at the pictures, nothing stands out, and they have gorgeous pieces. I just don't see them in all the clutter.

I love it when poeple have passions and that is clearly the case here. But I still think that this place doesn't do justice to that passion. Every surface has something on it, so I call it clutter. I totally agree that you should get a bigger place, if you can !

On the other hand, I appreciate that for once, poeple do not describe their style as modern ecclectic. Even if I'm not into this particular style, I really love poeple who are opiniated.

I've always been drawn to this curiosity shop style in theory, but in actuality it usually comes off as cluttered and dusty and kind of creepy. But this place really works for me, it's like my idealized version: orderly, clean, bright. I wish there were more room shots though.

I appreciate the discussion AustinSarah's comment provoked even if I don't agree with her. Everyone's responses helped clarify for me what I like about this style, why it's appealing beyond just "cool stuff".

As someone who's had serious arguments about how to fit her mutant sheep skull collection into an apartment's decor, this little place brings me near to tears of relief and admiration.

So many odd little things arranged just right in such an odd little space. It's perfect.

Glad I could provoke conversation. I didn't mean to mount a "personal attack" on this couple because I don't know them personally. As I said earlier, it's a free country.

As to people believing they like one thing or another -- I think we can all agree that we all go through certain phases, then grow and change. Some individual preferences don't make it to AT -- we don't see finely appointed Goth apartments, places where people are devoted to witchcraft, S/M closets or dungeons, etc. The post on the vintage suitcases altered to contain weapon silhouettes indicated how little most of us would like to see a well-outfitted hunter's cabin. I have relatives whose greatest pride is their beautiful gun racks filled with top-of-the-line guns. We don't see those places.

Reasonable minds can differ about some of the issues I raised in my second post. But some people may agree with my point of view, particularly about respect for other species and sustainability. To me, when other species are used as trophies and not respected as fellow inhabitants of the planet, it's just not aesthetically pleasing.

Yes, thank God for science. Science does not equal atheism. When I refer to God, I refer to the mysterious merciful fate that is larger than us all. The post-Galileo Catholic hierarchy (and I am not a Catholic) has always favored science because enlightened members of their religion understand its potential for alleviating human misery. I have heard many a physician say that there are things that cannot be explained by what we know of science at this time.

I love the first photo and although you guys have a great collection of "strange things" :)
I'd wished I would have seen more of "your" place as well as the vignettes to fully appreciate this tour.

slowdown, you summed it up best - but now i feel like a "very curious" lil kid wanting to see more.

These people like what they collect and I say hooray! So much so that I am going to celebrate their typewriter, scientific curiosities and turquoise chair with some butter pecan ice cream.

Thank you for inviting us into your home and toasting it with ice cream-y goodness!

I could really see this in a Victorian House or something that looked like a 40's Military Lab.

It also reminds me of pics I've seen of an artists' studio, in general, or somebody like Mark Ryden's in particular.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/mark%20ryden%20studio/markzarate/MarkRydenStudio.jpg

As an avid RSS follower of Curious Expeditions and a collector of antique technological, medical, scientific and, er, other stuff, I gotta say I'm thrilled to see this apartment on AT. It's a Brooklynn wunderkammer! I hope Michelle and Dylan do open a museum someday, because I'll come a-knockin'.

I couldn't do this because I wouldn't have the patience for all the dusting, but I love seeing places like this. It reminds me of eccentric friends of the family I used to visit as a child...and also one time when I insisted on sleeping over at my aunt's house, but when it came time to choose which one of their adult, gone-to-college sons' rooms to sleep in, I had a choice between a room with a taxi'd tarantula on the wall next to the bed - or the other room, which had a big stuffed iguana next to the bed. I ended up just being so freaked out I insisted on being driven home.

Victorian natural history museum is not my style though I wouldn't mind a visit on a rainy afternoon.

Maybe because I live in the Sonoran Desert where all dust comes home to roost, but I can't imagine how much time you have to spend dusting to avoid the Miss Haversham effect.

Well, I enjoyed this thread. Strong opinions, civilly expressed--joy!

I have one piece of taxidermy---a large, remarkably ugly old boar, probably from the 19th C or early 20th. I love it. The boar was killed before I was born: what's wrong with honoring its spirit (which, remarkably, filled the room as soon as I hung it on the wall)? I didn't shoot it, but I can be pleased with having it, instead of its being in some junk pile or worse, no?

This is definitely not my thing and makes me sad. I think it is interesting that everyone is talking about science when the second photo is of a buck that was clearly killed for sport, not science...but whatever.
I do want to respect that the homeowners put themselves "out there" by sharing, but they must know that dead animals are not exactly a bland topic for many people.
There is a lot I'd like to say, but I'll stick to that.