How taxidermy fans turn animal finds into chic decor – LancasterOnline

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Sara Parker, a Tennessee-based home design TikTokker, says taxidermy can be extremely chic, especially when paired with the right pieces – like this pheasant that she paired with a rich tapestry from Etsy.
Chelsea Lapp displays a vintage coyote head with framed skeleton images on the living room wall of her Lancaster home.
Chelsea Lapp displays a vintage coyote head with framed skeleton images on the living room wall of her Lancaster home.
Through her business, Mystic Cabinet Creations, Chelsea Lapp creates arrangements like this one: a raccoon skull nestled in a vase of botanicals.
Chelsea Lapp displays a vintage coyote head with framed skeleton images on the living room wall of her Lancaster home.
Chelsea Lapp displays a vintage coyote head with framed skeleton images on the living room wall of her Lancaster home.
 
Chelsea Lapp has a coyote head on her Lancaster living room wall.
“I love how it just adds a different element to your house,” she says. “It’s definitely a talking point. When people come in, they’re like, ‘Woah. Where did this come from?’ ”
Taxidermy is indeed a talker. There are those who are against the practice for various matters of principle. Others find taxidermy — if sourced ethically — an appropriate way to honor animals and memories. For those who relate to the latter, there are some do’s and don’ts to consider from a purely design perspective.
“I think the key to decorating with taxidermy is pairing it with natural elements and choosing pieces that have character,” Lapp says.
Beneath the vintage coyote that she bought online and unboxed on Instagram, Lapp hung framed skeleton images. She says she likes mixing taxidermy and natural history pieces with traditional framed artwork.
“My home reflects the things I’m drawn to, and I like surrounding myself with pieces that have character and feel a little different from what you’d typically see,” she says.
Her business, Mystic Cabinet Creations, came from a culmination of hobbies.
“I’ve always had a deep love for nature and a fascination with the strange and unusual,” she says. “Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved being outside, exploring and collecting rocks and things I find in nature.”
Through her business, Mystic Cabinet Creations, Chelsea Lapp creates arrangements like this one: a raccoon skull nestled in a vase of botanicals.
She combined those with her acquired fondness for glassware to create arrangements like one with a raccoon skull nestled in a tall vase.
“I love the contrast between the skull, the softness of the botanicals and the beauty of the vintage vessel,” she says.
Designer Cecilia Zagas of Lancaster’s Cecilia Interior Design would welcome a chance to flex some of her creativity on this front.
“I’ve always been fascinated with taxidermy,” Zagas says via email, adding she’s hoping a client will one day give her a chance to incorporate some.
“I think taxidermy can be incredibly cool when treated as sculpture rather than traditional hunting decor,” she says. “To me it’s about simultaneously honoring the home and honoring the animal and its life in the most intentional way possible.”
That means allowing the taxidermy to blend seamlessly into the architecture and overall mood of the home, Zagas says.
“Beyond that, understanding the animal itself, its characteristics and the client’s personal connection to it would help inform how I approach the design,” she says. “A taxidermy peacock, for example, would require a setting and presentation entirely different from a traditional deer mount.”
Sara Parker is a home design enthusiast in Tennessee with 4.2 million likes on TikTok. Parker’s content often involves her love of all things bougie. But she frequently includes inexpensive suggestions for same. She encourages people to name their homes and produce personalized house merch like matchbooks for guests.
Taxidermy is another of her favorites.
“I know a lot of people are turned off by it. They think it’s gross or weird or creepy,” Parker says in a phone interview. “But I think it’s incredibly chic and something I’ve been drawn to my whole life.”
She’s not talking about deer heads like the ones her grandfather brought back from hunting.
Sara Parker, a Tennessee-based home design TikTokker, says taxidermy can be extremely chic, especially when paired with the right pieces – like this pheasant that she paired with a rich tapestry from Etsy.
“I don’t really lean into that,” she says. “I lean into the more unique animals. Paired with the right pieces, it’s just extremely chic and I also think it’s a way to honor the animal.”
She has two taxidermy pheasants serving as home mascots. One is visible in some of her videos along with a rich tapestry she found on Etsy to accompany him.
Parker has a wish list of ethically-sourced taxidermy like buffalo, doves and antelope.
“And kudus. They have this really beautiful spiral horn. They’re hard to find, at least they have been for me personally,” Parker says. “And when you do find them, they’re extremely expensive.”
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Deer are not on her list.
“For some reason, deer come across a little bit more commonplace,” she says. “I’m just thinking about my grandfather who was a big old redneck and had lots of deer displayed.”
She suggests thinking beyond that vibe.
“It all comes down to what you surround it with,” she says. “Leaning into antiques will help make a deer head chic for sure. It all has to do with your styling.”
The celebrity set helps keep taxidermy in the conversation.
Actor Amanda Seyfried (currently getting buzz for her appearance in the Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything”) is asked about her taxidermy collection every few years when doing the talk show circuit.
“When it’s done well, it’s an amazing piece of art,” she once told English television personality Jonathan Ross. “I love animals. And they’re very easy to take care of when they’re dead.”
Last year, The Wall Street Journal profiled Chester, New York-based Amber Maykut and described her as taxidermist to stars like Drew Barrymore (butterflies) and Nick Jonas (an antler mount.) Maykut described taxidermy to the publication as complicated and provocative.
“That’s what makes art. It’s a skill set. It can be in museums, but it’s also roadkill,” she told the Wall Street Journal. “But maybe that’s all art — you have finger paintings, but then you have Picasso and Michelangelo. It’s everything, everywhere all at once. There’s death and taxes. And taxidermy.”
Maykut also described taxidermy as a dying art in need of new blood.
In 2015, LNP | Lancaster Online ran a map of 50 licensed taxidermists in Lancaster County. There are now 31, according to The PA Department of Agriculture.
They’ll likely be busy when Pennsylvania’s regular firearms deer season starts on Nov. 28.
More than 12,660 deer were harvested during the last rifle season from what The Pennsylvania Game Commission calls WMU5B — an area that contains much of Lancaster and York counties plus parts of Lebanon, Berks and Dauphin counties.
Andrew Huegel grew up in Peach Bottom but now runs Huegel Taxidermy in Palmyra, about 10 minutes over the Lancaster County line. He says folks would do well to invest more thought into where taxidermy is displayed.
“Seventy-five percent of the time, I feel like it doesn’t do it much justice,” he says. “For the amount of work that went into it, to then put it in a place that isn’t the best?”
Huegel tries getting ahead of that with his clients.
“I usually ask about where it’s going, where someone’s entering the room from and then where the main focal point of the room is,” he says. “So the deer or whatever — maybe a bird — isn’t turning away from that focal point.”
The key point of interest should be in the field of vision, he says. Consider ducks.
“Every bird has a sparkle to it in a different way,” Huegel says. “Maybe it’s exaggerating that spot a little bit better in the mount and then having it face in a way where you see that right away. Don’t hide those spots.”
Putting thought into the overall setting is key, he says.
“They look a lot better when it’s not cluttered. When you have just a couple pieces here or there,” he says. “If it’s getting to be a little much, then you should just have your own little cave to keep them in.”
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