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.

What's Under Your Stairs?

I bet many of you that have a stairway in your house, under utilize the space below it.
But before I get to that, let's look at one of the most charming seating elements: The Banquette.

Banquette at my favorite French restaurant La Grenouille

Who of us has not gone to a restaurant, especially the ladies, and not wanted to claim the banquette? Seated against the wall, with a view of the entire room, you just kind of feel grand. Even the humble booth at the diner, is preferred seating because it's cozy.

Banquette at a restaurant

The space under the stairs just calls out for a banquette. Or you ou could just shove a couch or a jam settee under the stairs.

Couch under the stairs

But it just doesn't make it, does it? A banquette looks much more finished, elegant, and glam.

Tobi Farley

Banquettes have been widely used in many other cultures, in place of couches as we know them in our part of the world. Morocco is a good example. For many of us the optimal floor plan does not involve shoving furniture up against the walls.

Banquette in Morocco

We tend to like to float furniture. However there might be some little corner that a banquette might add a little extra something to the room.

My friend Tim Pope uses this simple banquette in his living room
See more of his fabulous New York apartment HERE

Melissa Rufty, a very talented New Orleans designer HERE, is the master of using the banquette.

Melissa Rufty

Especially when she tucks them under the stairs.

Melissa Rufty holds court under the stairs

Paired with the perfect small tables, she creates a seating area that is useful and popular.
She tells Mimi Read in House Beautiful: "When we have a party, it starts out collecting coats and purses, but it ends up collecting the late-nighters. It's where we hold court."

Melissa Rufty
Do you see the perfect Lucite table?

The banquette used in the odd unused place in the living room is a really smart thing to add.

Arnold Scassi

It offers glam looking additional seating and a great styling opportunity.

Via Chinoiserie Chic

All the old school master decorators used the banquette as a staple. I am so happy see its return. Many of you may already have a banquette in the kitchen dining area, but I think you should consider it for under the stairs, or for that unused corner in your living or family room.

Via Chinoiserie Chic

If you are handy, or have a handy husband, you can custom build one HERE

Or you can use modular furniture. Ballard actually sells some good looking pieces that would be fabulous under the stairs.

Ballard

You also could use a couple of benches in an L-shape and pile on the throw pillows.

Trunks as benches!
Not very elegant
But it could work for young decorators just starting out

Melissa Rufty And My Ikat Pillows

I love Melissa Rufty's work. She elevates the traditional with her own expressive use of color and fabrics and wallpaper.

Melissa Rufty uses Ikat pillows

I was doing some photo research for a post on here HERE.

Melissa Rufty has a terrific editorial featuring her home, in the October 2010 issue of House Beautiful. And while I was gathering images I saw these Ikat pillows, and had an OMG moment.

Visual Vamp living room at the very very beginning
Check out the Ikat pillows!

I purchased these pillows on layaway at perch. long before I worked there, and long before I knew who the fabulous Melissa Rufty is.

I've moved those Ikat pillows around alot

Melissa stops in perch., and we like her so much. The last time she came by, we were all squealing like school girls over Sandra Bullock shopping on Magazine Street.

Visual Vamp living room now
So much has changed! But I still have those Ikat pillows!

So much has changed for me in the last couple of years. I'm back at work in the design world, and loving every minute of it. I've met so many wonderful people because of blogging and working at perch. And I still have those first Ikat pillows I bought!

Melissa Rufty in October 2010 issue of House Beautiful
She changed the pillows!