So Your Style Is: Curiosity-Cabinet Chic

Curiosity-cabinet chic is somewhat mysterious, sometimes melancholy and subtly reminiscent of the Victorian fascination with the natural wonders of the world. In a nod to old European curiosity cabinets, rooms are rich in uncommon treasures mixed with humble found objects. Adventure, intrigue and unfinished stories seem to hang in the space. While there are no hard and fast rules, the overall feel is that of a well-traveled collector who finds beauty in the details and creates sumptuous displays that hold the eye.

It should not, however, look like an estate sale exploded. Without a cohesive tale to tell, collections can turn into clutter. Done incorrectly, the style can feel claustrophobic and creepy. When it’s done right, you’ll want to linger for hours learning about each little thing.

Why it works: Curiosity-cabinet chic draws you in and encourages wonder. It takes you away from the everyday with fascinating things that create moments of interest. It has an ever-changing mood that evolves with edits and additions, and it’s not something anyone can replicate, because the foundation is all you.

You’ll love it if … You’re smitten with collected shells, antique photos and scientific instruments. Velvet and leather mix seamlessly with butterflies under glass in your mind. You are fascinated with the natural world from an aesthetic and philosophical point of view. You love a room with a whiff of intrigue and a moody, romantic ambience.


Style Tip: Have a Plan

San Francisco interior designer Jonathan Rachman believes that the best examples of curiosity-cabinet chic are rooms in which the collections have a story to tell — and the story makes sense. “Whether you are drawn to undersea mystery or antique botanical drawings, it’s important to have a plan,” says Rachman. “You can collect anything from anywhere, but the pieces should work in the room and with each other. They should be special in some way.”

By “special,” Rachman means that things should be interesting and unique. They should be showcased in a way that complements the room’s furnishings and layout yet be strong enough to stand out.

The dining room shown here provides a stunning backdrop for a collection of framed Audubon prints. The pictures of all the same subject matter (birds), grouped together in a gallery format and displayed against a chartreuse wall, are unexpected in such an elegant room. The intentional display adds a little edginess and has impact because of the varying sizes and number of prints. The style feels pulled from an ornithologist’s library. One can imagine hosting dinner while discussing the latest field studies here.



Experiment: The premise of curiosity-cabinet chic is to capture the wonder of objects — natural, collected, found and gifted — and give them a room in which to shine. Gather some of your most treasured things, from black and white photos of your ancestors to the feathers you collected on a walk in the woods. Play with ways to display them that puts them front and center, like on an open shelf, a mantel or the top of a console.

Your collection should feel at home in the space. For instance, those feathers you found could be joined with vintage bird’s-egg prints and a collection of nests on pedestals. Natural textures — linen, cotton, tweed — in complementary tones would tie together the look.


Style Tip: Use Color as a Foundation

The color you choose for your walls acts as a foundation for your displays. White puts all the focus on the vignettes and adds a bright, laboratory look to your collections, which is fantastic if your style leans toward industrial. Rich, dark colors can have a similar effect, but the look will be more mysterious and cocoon-like. Rachman likes deep hues that visually blend angles together, because they allow collections to form the backbone of the space.

In the Victorian salons of old, deep, dark wood encased most of the rooms, allowing the objects on display to be more readily admired.



Experiment: Start small by painting a bookcase or display shelf in the color you’re considering and make sure the objects you choose stand out against your color choice. Group pieces together to form mini collections that are pleasing to the eye. Sometimes all it takes is adding or subtracting in small doses. Move a seashell to the front, add a taller photograph or place a dried branch into the mix.

There is no wrong way to create your displays, but all the objects should harmonize with one another regardless of how disparate they are.


Style Tip: Put It Under Glass

Old-world collectors put their collections into apothecary jars, under bell jars or in framed shadow boxes to highlight their beauty and individuality. On their own a handful of seedpods would disappear in the decor. Under glass they become important. Mix large and small glass containers, with and without lids, as well as cloches and shadow boxes, to create generous groupings. The space shown here exemplifies a modern take on curiosity-cabinet chic — contemporary furnishings paired with antique pharmacy jars of all shapes and sizes. The effect is both unexpected and intriguing.



Experiment: If jars just aren’t your thing, consider adding a glass display cabinet or glass-topped display table to the mix. Put the smaller objects front and center, with the larger pieces layered underneath or toward the back. Grouping similar objects en masse (as with the shell collection in this glass case) captures the curiosity-cabinet feel and has a striking aesthetic impact.



Style Tip: Play With Your Displays

“I’m a very emotional collector,” says Rachman. “I display things that tug at my heart and remind me of fond memories. If you choose items that have meaning and beauty, at least to you, then you have a solid foundation from which to create your own version of curiosity-cabinet chic.”

In other words, it’s about creating a mood through the objects you’ve chosen and the way in which you display them. No one says you have to apply that style to all your rooms, and you certainly don’t have to constrain yourself to what others would feel are “appropriate” objects.

Take, for instance, this awesome shoe display. The dark walls, the mounted antlers, the gilt framed painting — it’s all about curiosity-cabinet chic, and yet, it’s shoes!



In this room the large display of botanical prints on a pure white wall draws your eye to the grouping, while the sea-life print on the pillows, the organic materials (woven rattan and wood) and the varying styles — Asian, Indonesian, European — blend together to create a relaxed expression of curiosity-cabinet chic.


Experiment: You can create that same eccentric-scientist-explorer-collector look with anything from antique china to modern sculpture as long as you take care to arrange the pieces in eye-catching ways that speak to more than just the objects themselves. A collection shouldn’t be the only thing you notice. You should notice the collection in the context of the space.

This collection of insects associates with the open black frames, random tiny cloches and layered curiosities in this generally eclectic room. It could be anything in the shelves, frames or cloches that makes your heart sing — the aesthetic is that of an interesting, well-traveled and wonder-filled life regardless. What a wonderful thing to aspire to!

More: So Your Style Is: Eclectic

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