Niche travel

Collectors’ Brooklyn abode

Whoever it was that spoke of the melancholy of the collector obviously never visited the House of Collection in Brooklyn, a glorious riot of – and there’s no better word for it – stuff.

One section of the house, which is actually a loft style apartment overlooking the Williamsburg Bridge, is covered in rusting farm implements, bits and bobs that have fallen off ancient machines and ended up pinned to a wall here.

There is a collection of vintage hats, taxidermy such as stuffed snakes and a mounted deer head with a pink eye patch and false eyelashes, assorted skulls, vertebrae and other wall-mounted bones.

The kitchen is covered with every conceivable cooking utensil. Furniture is of the deep red velvet “fainting couch and throne” kind. There is a selection of antique cash registers in a section where the walls and ceilings are clad in reclaimed and beaten copper.

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There is an indoor garden consisting of a raised platform filled with 70 plants, plus a conservatory, so called because it is used to conserve things, including books, family portraits and framed spiders.

The apartment is available to rent through Airbnb for €1,744 per week, or €309 per night. You will be lodging inthe Birch Loft, a sleeping area like a tree-house overlooking the garden, kitchen, living area and mirrored dance space.

The owners are very often away, in which case you'll have the place to yourself. Otherwise, they warn: "This is not a home that offers a lot of privacy, except the lavatory", which, incidentally, has a floor made out of river stones and a claw-footed tub.
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