Tres Chic Play Kitchen

Word of the day:
mon·o·ma·ni·a (mon-uh-mey-nee-uh) n.
1. Pathological obsession with one idea or subject.
2. Intent concentration on or exaggerated enthusiasm for a single subject or idea.

I confess, I've been somewhat of a monomaniac this week, or rather a duomaniac, since I've been intently concentrating with exaggerated enthusiasm on two projects this week. It's been a glorious convergence of a) Spring Break (ie. not having to drive into town to drop off or pick up kids from school) and b) Spring Weather (upper 60s all week , kids playing outside lots and lots.) This has left lots of time to devote to these two projects that I have been planning and accumulating the pieces for for some time now.

My oldest son attends the local parochial school, and I'm on the planning committee for the big Spring Fundraising Gala. After all the fun I had creating the Bugga Boo's Play Kitchen, I thought it would be great to do another one for the Gala's Silent Auction to raise money for the school. (In all honesty, I'm always looking for excuses for another project.)

Not long after committing myself to doing the play kitchen, I came across a twin bookshelf headboard on FreeCycle.org that I knew would be perfect for a puppet theater a la Infarrently Creative! With NO room for anything of the sort in our house, it would be destined for the Silent Auction as well. (I'm still tweaking the finishing touches on this project, but keep an eye out in the next couple of days for the pics!)

So, once I had decided to jump into another play kitchen, the first step was to find a piece of furniture that would work as raw material. I came across this small entertainment center thingy on the free section of Craigslist:

(Blogger tip #62 - Don't try to take a before picture while said item is crammed in the little space next to your car in the garage...)

After several weeks mulling over design possibilities, I decided to do a Tres Chic French theme, with a pale pink, black and white, a faux chandelier and damask curtains over the window with the view of the Eiffel Tower. I have to say, I am tickled pink with the results:

Since the piece of furniture was a big, fat FREE, I figured the whole thing only cost about $15 for the faucet, "sink", knobs and pulls, "window frame" (which is actually an old cabinet door that I jigsawed the center panel out of), the stuff for the faux chandelier, and the paints.  Everything else was stuff I had on hand.

Here's to hoping this little maniacal labor raises beaucoup money for the school!

Next up, the puppet theater!

'Till then,

This project is competing in the Kid's Crafts Challenge at The CSI Project!