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Cabinet of Chic Curiosities
Category / Desirable Digs

The Forgotten Power of the Parlour Palm

We forget that once upon a time, social status had a lot to do with the common houseplant. We’re talking about the parlour palm, one of the most significant decorative features in a Victorian home, which referred to any number of varieties of palms, ferns, and other hardy perennials that were native to South America,…

An Ode to Floating Lighthouses

Sure, we’ve all admired picturesque lighthouses on rocky shores, or with waves crashing over them at the edge of a harbor, but…what about floating lighthouses? Like something out of a Wes Anderson movie, these fascinating vessels did exactly what their name suggests: they were lighthouses, guiding ships around obstacles and into safety. They were also…

Atlanta’s Phantom of the Fox and His Secret Theatre Apartment

Theatres are inherently haunted places. By night, actors tread the boards, conjuring the spirits of those who lived and those who never were. We can hardly expect all those shades to simply evaporate into the ether after the final curtain. Instead they seep into dark and secluded backstage corners – an underground  lake, perhaps –…

Oh, The Fun We Could Have With This 1960s Ghost Town For Sale

In today’s atypical real estate news, we head to Warsaw, Missouri, where a 20-cabin pioneer style settlement, including two original 1830’s cabins, is up for grabs. The whole 20 acres plot of land with everything on it is asking $295,000. Let’s take a look around…. Located between two of Missouri’s largest lakes — Truman Reservoir…

That Time they Stripped the White House Down to its Bones

When American President Harry S. Truman took office, there were many signs that the White House needed some construction updates. The literal breaking point came in June 1948, when the leg of First Daughter Margaret Truman’s piano fell through her second-floor sitting room’s rotting floorboards into the family dining room below. What followed was a…

At Home and in the Office with America’s First Black Millionairess

There are so many grand Gilded Age homes in New York’s Hudson River Valley, it led one 19th century wit to comment that ‘one couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a millionaire’s mansion’. Walk along the always fascinating Croton Aqueduct Trail and you can catch glimpses of these luxurious mansions that were once homes to…

How America Became Enamoured with Octagon Houses

Explore America’s small towns, and you might be lucky to stumble across a peculiarly shaped house that stands out from its surrounding neighbours by virtue of having eight facades. Back in the middle of the 19th century, there were once thousands of these ‘octagonal’ houses all over America when they were the height of fashion,…

A Brief Compendium of Modernist Homes for Movie Villains with Flawless Taste

Why is it that the bad guy always inhabits an incredible spread? It seems every self-respecting movie villain needs a strategic hideaway to devise all their evil plans, so let’s take stock of some memorable cinema locations for movie villains with a weakness for Modernist design… The Chemosphere House, LA The Chemosphere, perched on the…

Forget Roadside America, Let’s Location Scout in “Weird France”

I’ve been yearning to get back across the pond for a good ol’ dose of “weird America”, but I tend to forget that my own country has some pretty odd, quirky and wonderfully nostalgic sights to see when you venture off the main road. Wes Anderson would have a field day with Atlas des Régions…

Who Will Rescue this New York Manor Worthy of a Tim Burton Movie?

This incredible historic home has been sitting on the market for a little longer than we’re comfortable with. Fairview Manor is the sort of place that’s pretty much straight out of Tim Burton’s imagination, so it’ll take a special sort of owner to take it on. But of course, pairing quirky houses with even quirkier…
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