Designing a "Van Richten" study [image intensive]

[VikingLegion]

My wife and I have been doing some remodeling of our home. She gets mostly carte blanche on several of the upstairs rooms as far as aesthetic goes.

But the basement is mine!

I've recently found myself very interested by Victorian/Gothic influences, classic horror movies, and so on. I have half a mind to design the basement in the scheme of an office or study of a proclaimed monster hunter - like a Professor Abraham Van Helsing (the older, scholarly Anthony Hopkins version; not the young, swashbuckling Hugh Jackman flavor) or, more appropriately for this crowd, Dr. Rudolph van Richten. I'm wondering if any members of this site have ever tried something similar. I also wonder if any of the old gaming products had pictures of Van Richten's residence. Way back in the day I had the core box, as well as nearly all of the excellent Guides to Various Monsters series. I can't recall seeing a visual depiction of his study in any of them, and now sadly I can only find copies of two.

Lacking that, I still have an abundance of visual/literary inspirations. I'm mainly going for a Victorian London theme from the classic Penny Dreadful age. I'll list a bunch here:

Dracula - Bram Stoker - both the novel and Francis Ford Coppola's film
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley - both the novel and Kenneth Branagh's film
The Writings of: HP Lovecraft (Cthulu, etc.), Robert E. Howard (his pulp work, not Conan), Lewis Stevenson (Jeckyl and Hyde), Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray), Edgar Allen Poe, maybe just a hint of Jules Verne to show the spirit of adventure and discovery of the time.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)
Brotherhood of the Wolf (film)
Penny Dreadful (TV series)
Possibly just a tiny bit of light Egyptology, again to show a desire to obtain eclectic artifacts from around the world that may posess mystic energy
A dash of Ash vs Evil Dead (even if it's just a Necronomicon on a bookshelf) just to satisfy my own love of that property
and of course some nods to Ravenloft

Now I know that sounds like I'm throwing too much at the wall, and maybe it is, but they are just inspirations - not any hard and fast rules. I jumped on Pinterest and started doing searches on things like "Victorian Study", "Vampire Hunter" and so on, and here's the general plan:


1. Lots of wood! Built in bookcases, enormously oversized desks, the more ornate the woodwork/molding/paneling, the better. Some sample pics:
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2. Then add in some curio cabinets with weird stuff, bones and rocks and shells and dried herbs in glass bottles:
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3. DIY some of the bottles using everyday household items like so:
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4. Put together a Dr.'s/Slayer's Kit (again searched Pinterest for "Vampire Hunter") which seems easy enough to make with a wooden case and velvet lining:
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5. Or, if that's too gruesome, tone down the hunter angle and go more with the doctor/apothecary aesthetic:
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6. Lastly, finish off with some cool accent pieces like:


This gives a nod to both Ravenloft and Poe simultaneously


Some kind of old-timey map with sea serpents and the like hanging on a wall, again stressing the adventurer/explorer angle


possibly something like this for the Frankenstein's Monster/ Adam nod


Thoughts? Is this a crazy undertaking? Any other looks/inspirations I should take into account? I think the desk is the key to it all, the piece that ties everything together. I'm going to scour antique shops, local estate sales, and the like until I find the perfect one. Any other input you guys can throw in? I'd love to hear if anyone has tried something in this vein.

[VikingLegion]

Some additional thoughts:

- It seems like leather furniture is all but mandatory for this look - a couch and maybe a chair or two, even better if they have metal rivets down the vertical lines.
- If I don't go with the Sea Serpent map on a wall, a spinning globe antique might be even better!
- a creepy/spooky portrait on the wall. I'm thinking twin children in Sunday dresses, a weird old dude with a monocle, etc.
- Just to throw one more element into the mix, I'm tempted to add a touch of Steampunk, which blends well with the Mordenheim aspect:


Light switches:




Some cool shelving that's easy to make (use painted PVC pipe instead of actual metal plumbing)


Throwing this in here just because it's awesome:


And if I get SUPER AMBITIOUS, use designs like this to minimize/hide the functional aspects of the room (washer, dryer, water heater, etc.)



Lastly, and I swear I'm powering down and going to bed after this edit, here is an image I found of the personal home office/study of director Guillermo Del Toro. If only I could just get this guy to come and design my basement!

[High Priest Mikhal]

Going by what little I know of Van Richten from his Guides, the wooden bookshelves would be quite apropos. As would the Vampire Hunting Kits. Certainly the desk and chair would fit with the image of a scholar who valued brains over brawn. The apothecary case is also a nice fit, as are the shelves using painted PVC. I'd avoid the lever-like switches since they just look gaudy IMO.

[VikingLegion]

Oh, I definitely wouldn't do all of the light switches in that style. The majority of the basement would be your standard variety except maybe one in the same corner as the Mordenheim/Frankenstein looking apparatus, just to pay homage to that particular sub-genre.