Katherine Heigl Becomes a Furniture Designer for Charity

You can own Katherine Heigl's personally designed vanity table for $25,000. The furniture item is part of a guest designer charity event which will also include limited-edition, made-to-order pieces by Victoria's Secret model Karolina Kurkova, fashion designer Gregory Parkinson (who has dressed Michelle Obama), jewelry designer Irene Neuwirth (worn by Reese Witherspoon and Rashida Jones) and interior designer Molly Isaksen (whose clients include Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg.)

100% of the net sale proceeds of each piece will benefit a charity of choice by the guest designer. The benefit, which launches with a private, invitation-only party on Wednesday, June 8, has been put together by Jean de Merry, a high-end French deco furniture line based in Los Angeles, to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Only ten pieces of each furniture item will be produced.

For her charity, Heigl chose her year-old program, The Compassion Revolution, which is funded by the Heigl Foundation and addresses the pet overpopulation crisis in the Los Angeles area. Last year, it announced a $1 million pledge to support spay/neuter programs in the city.

Heigl's vanity table, which will sell for $25,000, is a sensuously rounded, French lacquered, hand-carved walnut piece (pictured) finished with bronze pulls and topped by a three-piece mirror. "She told me she wanted something very glamorous and very feminine," says furniture line co-owner Jean de Merry, who sponsors a pet shelter in north Los Angeles. "She decided to do a vanity because she cannot find something that fits her needs. We talked quite a few times. I started to do some drawings, and she would tell me, 'I like that, but I would like the drawers to be deeper.' She has 25 lipsticks and the brushes and all that." The piece is done in six to seven layers of lacquer; each layer must not only air-dry for 24 hours, but also be carefully hand-polished, a step which itself takes a minimum of four hours.

The pieces will be on display through September 2 at Jean de Merry's Los Angeles showroom at 8417 Melrose Place.