Cutting Tables For A Safari Theme?

Kim Churchman
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July 10, 20070 found this helpful

Big jungle leaf shape?

At a focus group I was paid $60 for my ideas for a complete new type of restaurant that had never been done. It was used by the company who got the feedback from this Market Research Focus Group they'd hired for such a venture, and actually built it all TO MY TOTAL AMAZEMENT, and it has become the most wonderful and unusual place in the state. It has a Tropical Jungle theme.

For your table idea I would strongly urge you to
make ONE GREAT table out of the two by doing this:

Take the legs off one table, paint white, and set aside to dry until later.

Draw and cut out the pattern of the top of a hippo head, from a bird's eye view, and paint it and the remaining legs from the bottom table, the typical med. gray of a Hippo, wrapping the edges of the table top with the paint.

When dry add the black "dots" only for imitation whiskers, paint the nostrils shading black or dark gray, eyes in black/white. Then cut and atttach tiny grey vinyl or gray leather "ears" tacked well to the outer edge of the table top, a little past middle towards rear of Hippo head, but over the big mouth. (A chld will likely be attracted to these ears and pull on them off and on in playing/talking to the "Hippo" )

Find the best line to cut the painted top ALMOST in half, but just after the ears, side to side, creating the illusion, when tilted up, of the open mouth of the Hippo, when in fact it turns into a caged hollow
storage table for placing things inside the Hippo's mouth-cage when open). but nothing can sit on top, keeping it CLEAN to view the HIppo, and CLEAR to open the "Hippo Mouth-Cage"for storing inside.

(cut top almost into half but hinge the halves back into place with a piano hinge, if you can afford it, hiding the hingepin underneath so that the top can become the top of the Hippo cage'mouth storage table.)

Take the painted white legs and measure off/sawing straight, the equal lengths of about 4-5" each. Turning over the Hippo-head that's now dry, mark off the correct numbers of places all around the underside edge, gluing leg lengths with Carpenter's Glue (Elmers?) and leaving them sticking onto the spots marked until dry. This will be the top of the table and the

When all paint/glue is TOTALLY DRY, drill holes for thin 2" wood screws ( you will drill through the top
down, and from the bottom up, into each "tooth"

The top front teeth of the mouth-cage will be attached ONLY to the top. The bottom front teeth AREA will be flat when mouth is open for sliding things into the table for storage.

By sawing the hinge opening not quite at the half-way mark on the top of the table, it will be easier for a child to open the Hippo's mouth with teeth attached
all the way back ovwr the head and put the upper
"teeth" out of the child's way, also allowing a surface to set something out from storage.

Turn table upside down and attach the bottom legs, (which you have painted grey, complete with white cloven hooves, and dried well overnight as well), to the finished Hippo Mouth-Caged Table. Before taking into the home, give the entire table, teeth, mouth, inside/out, a single spray-coating of clear polyurethane.

If the child is shown how to take care of things well, it should last through the early growing stages until ready to be matched up with more "grown up" furniture, such as a "caged/mosquito netted" bunk-bed and tree-ladder?

I believe a painted jungle wall or two, with tall giraffes against a tall golden light brown bamboo grove/olive-drab leaves, Drk green vine, and a friendly brown/gray/olive boa snake, wrapped around one thick bamboo stalk, with a bright shade of blue sky peeking through at the top, from the same colored blue ceiling would about complete the room for a starter, don't you? Remember a couple of zebras off in the distant horizon on the third wall, standing on the painted grassy plains? Don't add too much to your paintings. Less is more, especially when all the toys get scattered around. You'll want to keep it bold and beautiful, right? Good luck. Hope you make and enjoy my ideas? God bless you as you consider some of His creation as your child's theme, and perhaps with a simple scripture on a Jungle sign: " Where your heart is, so is your Treasure. +God loves you." theme? : )