Curiosity Look Book

Knock knock. It's the case of the creeping curiosities.

Antique hand door knocker from Buenos Aires

As I look around my house I notice there are many curious objects. It probably started when I was girl and wanted to be a scientist. I collected the typical nature specimens we all love as children: birds nests, insects, butterflies, shells, rocks, maps, old books.

Visual Vamp front door

I also loved old and crusty and rusty things, found objects like old keys and bottles, and broken bits of corckery I imagined came from "olden times".

Vignette on the front porch

Specimen charts and natural objects have found their way into mainstream decor accessorizing HERE.

Cholo loves this chair by the window with a sheepskin on it

Step right up and take a tour of Chez Vamp, where every room seems to have a curiosity or three.

The entry table is rusty
Birds, old keys, old house numbers

Rusty old house numbers and keys
Insect and bird antique plate

The door stop is huge chunk of amethyst

The dining room table has cowhide and metal antlers
And hooves on the table legs

A globe, butterfly specimen, botanicals in the dining room

Flower botanicals in the dining room
Sand in the hurricanes

Owl print on a very old vintage calendar
Oyster plate

Even though it is still 90 degrees in New Orleans, it still feels like Fall. A certain restlessness piques me. Recently Alberto and I started a kitchen revamp, and my beloved life size skeleton charts that were hanging in the breakfast area, were removed, rolled up and stashed away.

The living room then - wallpaper mural hides a door

But I missed them, and couldn't think of where to hang them. It's not easy finding a wall space in my house, much-a-less a space for two six foot tall anatomy charts!

Then it came to me! Behind the credenza in the living room!

The skeletons side by side in the living room
The mural is behind the one with the back view

Of course, this invited a whole new look for the credenza, a styling opportunity to use all the curiosities!

Styling with curiosoites

I added an orange branch with a lady head bust, a metal V recently purchased at the new Anthropologie in New Orleans, an antique mercury pharmacy bottle, a large clam shell, a framed letter on sationary with a pelican on it, a framed print of Madame Pontalba (one of the founding mothers of New Orleans). The lamps made from chippy old porch posts add just the right amount of glam decrepitude.

Metal V for Vamp!

Antique mercury pharmacy bottle

The vintage Baker credenza is nine feet long, so there is plenty of room to clutter it up. No matter how many times I self edit, I start to miss the layered look I love and can do in my sleep.
So I say forget it, so I'm a clutter queen.

Bird pillow from Dwell Studio

I also brought the tree print pillow in from the bedroom

Antique mercury pharmacy bottles, a gold wood egg, tortoise shells


An antique painting with chippy paint was also added

The bedroom has a few curiosities too. I took the hide off the couch in the living room, and threw it on the floor.

Visual Vamp master bedroom

There are a couple of trays of shells on an armoire in the bedroom.

Shell collection in leather trays

In the kitchen, with the skeletons gone, photos of New Orleans in the 1940's took their place. I hung them like a film strip. A hide appeared under the table.

Visual Vamp breakfast area now

Here's a look at the then breakfast area where the skeletons hung for a very long time.

Visual Vamp breakfast area then
Skeleton anatomy charts in the kitchen


The skeletons also once hung in the guest room
I bought them in a flea market in Lisbon 8 years ago

Curious little owls on the mantle in the breakfast area

Visual Vamp breakfast area in kitchen now

Curious little details are fun! They make me smile if nothing else.

"Keyhole" on the guest room door
I cut it out from a Fornasetti book

Vintage concrete frog doorstop

The inside of an armoire looks like science class

A mercury glass beetle on a light switch

Is Fall making you restless to revamp and redecorate and rearrange things? Tell us what you are up to, and send photos to me if you'd like to show us. I always love to post what you all are doing.

I Am Curious

Here's a little side project I am thinking about. I have this wonderful vintage Baker credenza. It's done up in this crazy 1970's style interpretation of "grand Italian".

Visual Vamp DIY project - should I decoupage these Fornasetti images on the credenza?

I have over painted the original avocado green and yellow paint, and did a decoupage of suns with faces on the doors to give it a faint feeling of the Fornasetti print on top of the credenza.

The original Fornasetti style suns on the front of the credenza

Fornasetti plates that inspire me

I'm curious to know what you think of me getting rid of the suns, and actually applying the paper "plates" of actual Fornasetti images I made on the copy machine to affix to the front of the credenza. My other inspiration comes from cabinets of curiosities.


I'd like to share some terrific images of cabinets and curiosities:

Illustration from the book, Wondertooneel der Nature
A Cabinet of Curiosities or Wunderkammern in Holland
Date 1706-1715

French Secretaire a Abattant - Circa 1775
Decorated with marquetry scenes after the engravings of Andre-Jacob Roubo

Cabinet of Curiosities - 1690s - Oil on canvas Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence

Cabinet with painted decoration by Fabrizio Clerici - Milan circa 1950s

Painted Serpentine Fronted Credenza
Italian - Possibly 18th Century

Cabinet of Curiosities of Bonnier de la Mosson
Housed at the Bibliotèque centrale du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris

Modern day artist Piero Fornasetti had his own version of a cabinet of curiosities.

Fornasetti version of a cabinet of curiosities.

I used to have a nasty little Fornasetti habit. I couldn't afford to collect big things, so I had about 100 coasters, a couple of dozen little boxes and trays and paperweights and smalls. I've sold them all because frankly I had no need for them, or room to display them. But I still love the images, especially the Theme and Variations plates - those are the images I want to put on my credenza.


The most recurrent Fornasetti themes are the sun, playing cards, harlequins, hands, and self-portraits. The most famous is the one that Fornasetti himself called "Theme and Variations" representing the enigmatic face of a woman. He found it glancing through a French magazine from the 19th century. Her name was Lina Cavalieri. Perhaps he chose this face for its archetypal, classic female features. Like a Greek statue and enigmatic like the Mona Lisa, she was perfect to be the muse of Fornasetti.

At the beginning there were only six white plates decorated with black and white designs representing a female face. Then this series increased during the years until it reached 350 different variations on the theme of classical beauty.

So, should I get out the Modge Podge?

The terrific images of the cabinets and curiosities came from HERE

I suggest you take some time to go to the link as there are many more rare and wonderful images to look at.

Also if you have time go to 1st Dibs to check out some of the great Fornasetti things their dealers have. eBay also has a treasure trove awaiting.

The Fornasetti photos come from Google Images.