Entry No. 15 — the Seattle file — filed under: oddities
Odds & Ends - A Curiosity Shop
A downtown Olympia curiosity shop billing itself as a place to make your house a haunted home with sustainably sourced oddities. The mix leans eclectic taxidermy, macabre home decor, and bone-and-bug curios, with a candle-and-gift component for visitors who don't want to take a skull home. Worth the drive south for collectors building a domestic cabinet of curiosities.
The story
You don't head south down I-5 to downtown Olympia for standard suburban antique mall fare. You pull up to 120 4th Ave E because someone decided home staging needed a lot more bone, beetle, and taxidermy work. Odds & Ends pitches itself explicitly as a supply house for turning your living space into a haunted home, catering to anyone whose idea of interior design leans toward articulated skeletons, mounted specimens, and dark Victorian parlor aesthetics.
What keeps the shop off the shady fringe of specimen collecting is a strict policy on origin: every piece of taxidermy, insect pin, and bone display in the room is sustainably sourced. That means the osteology cases and framed oddities come from ethical salvage and natural mortality rather than questionable poaching or sketchy import channels. For anyone who likes the vibe but doesn't necessarily want an animal skull on their coffee table, the shelves balance out the heavy skeletal displays with hand-poured candles, botanical prints, and macabre gifts.
What it's like
Stepping inside feels like entering the curated, dimly lit study of a natural historian with a theatrical streak. The space smells of soy wax and dried herbs rather than formaldehyde, with glass cases of pinned beetles, skull mounts, and taxidermy lining the walls. It is a compact downtown storefront, so expect to shuffle around other collectors on weekend afternoons when I-5 traffic pours into town. If you aren't ready to buy a preserved specimen, stick to the candle racks and art prints, but take time to look up at the higher shelves for the weirder one-off taxidermy pieces.
The move: Make a day of it down I-5 and each pick one weird object to start a shared shelf of oddities at home.
- 📍 Olympia
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 120 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA 98501
Hours: Added 2026-06-24 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve — Pair a trip to downtown Olympia's cabinet of curiosities with a walk across thousands of unexplained, grass-covered earthen domes just south of town.
- Dickman Mill Park — Break up the drive back north toward Seattle by stopping in Tacoma to inspect the rusted, fire-gutted remains of a late-19th-century waterfront sawmill.
- Recycled Spirits of Iron (Ex Nihilo Sculpture Park) — Keep the hunt for oddball art going by heading toward Mount Rainier to walk through a outdoor forest filled with welded scrap metal creatures.
Good to know
Are the bones and taxidermy specimens real?
Yes, the bone curios, taxidermy mounts, and pinned insects are genuine natural specimens, displayed alongside themed candles, prints, and gifts.
How does the shop source its animal curiosities?
The shop operates under a strict sustainable sourcing pledge, ensuring all bones, taxidermy, and insect specimens are ethically acquired.
Where in Olympia is the shop located?
You'll find it right in the heart of downtown Olympia at 120 4th Ave E, surrounded by local coffee roasters and downtown shops.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: experienceolympia.com · Yelp · Instagram · wanderlog.com
last checked: 2026-06-24