BREAKING THE RULES AT CURIOUS GOODS

Thursday, a woman who bought a reproduction of a French chair asked Charlie Kent's opinion of reupholstering with an animal print. He approved.

"In my mind there are no real rules," Kent says. "And if there were I wouldn't want to live by them."

The 36-year-old Kent is the proprietor of Curious Goods, a new store at 612 Broadway. Formerly a display designer at Rust & Martin, Kent has always wanted to open a shop based in his eclectic views of design.

"I love antiques, old things and unusual things, things a lot of people would overlook," he says.

Like the weathered door, complete with frame, near the shop's entrance. "It's an unusual object you wouldn't see in a home, but to me it's like a piece of art," he says.

Or the bar he is making from a shipping crate and assorted old doors. "I'd like to think not everybody has one," Kent says.

Curious Goods combines the kitchy with the beautiful in a store that looks like a set for a play about bohemians.

In fact, Kent at one time was associated with the former Broadway Players community theater group, directing and designing sets. Curious Goods is Kent's real-life set.

"I like to create an illusion," he says.

Kent is a scavenger from way back. Flea markets, yard sales, estate sales are his homes away from home. The steamer trunk that hangs over the doorway is an appropriate symbol.

Among the hundreds of items scattered around inside Curious Goods are four aging Elizabethan costumes whose ancestry is a mystery. "You can't find this at the mall," the price tag says.

Hanging from the ceiling is a 1962 concoction of mirrors and cubbyholes called a shadow box, which Kent says was a living room ornament during the period. As curious as it is, on a trip to Chicago he came across two more of them.

Kent's piece de resistance is a 7-1/2-foot-tall cabinet behind the bar. He previously used the weathered furniture as an entertainment center at his home and is having trouble parting with it. "I had a price on it and then took it off," he says. "If someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse I'd probably take it."

Another quirky star of Curious Goods is a colorful piece of modern art titled "Gorky Spaceship." Kent loves it and a cousin loves it, too. So he has put a price on it that would provide them with a trip to Cancun.

Kent likes everything he chooses for Curious Goods but not all of it reflects his own tastes. The back corner of the store, the part that appears to need painting, is much like his own home, he says.

"I have a very deteriorated look. I want it. I love peeling paint."