Crafty-ish: The Modern Dog Bed

I think that J and I are fortunate that we have the same taste in home decor. There is never any fighting over what kind of lamps or couch or wall decor. We pretty much agree on everything. We have pretty simple modern decor at our place but the one eyesore of the whole place was the dang dog bed. It is, of course a necessity, but no matter what kind of dog bed we bought, it just turned into a messy looking dog area. It bugged us. A lot. So we did something about it.

I've seen "modern" dog furniture online but everything was over $1000. I mean seriously? I love my dogs and everything but there is no way I would buy something that pricey for my dog who would probably chew the corners. J, being the genius designer he is, drafted up a brilliant plan for a dog bed using tables. When we were at Ikea picking out the tables, I noticed that they have really great looking fabric and so we ended up buying some and then we were in the dog section and found a dog bed that would fit perfectly within the space.

I'm always a bit wary of DIY projects because you know how sometimes you can have this fabulous idea in your head but when it comes out it is nowhere near as fabulous? Well, this project actually turned out just as fabulous. Maybe even better.

I present to you, our DIY modern dog bed...

It is basically two tables stuck together. Do not ask me about how it was assembled as I don't go anywhere near power tools, actually any kind of tools. J handled that part. I however, took the ugly dog bed (which was covered in black and white spots) and covered it with the fabric. I then took one of their favorite blankets and sewed the fabric on top so that underneath is their favorite plushy furry fabric that they can snuggle under. I found a little pillow in our closet and sewed up a pillow case just for a laugh. I like that it makes it look like a human bed.

And here are our babies enjoying their new bed!

An added bonus of this is that we now have an extra table to put things on! Most of our furniture is that dark wood so it blends in well with everything.

So there you go! Who knew Ikea sold modern dog furniture right? ;) All it took was some creativity and now the dog area actually matches the rest of our place.

I have to mention that painting on the table. We were in the Fremont neighborhood and stopped in the Orange Splot art gallery. We ended up loving these paintings by Ryan Henry Ward and J bought one for us. Later on we found out that he's doing murals all over Seattle (for free) and we have been going around the city hunting for them. They are incredible pieces of art and it is so cool that he is brightening up the city with his artwork. Click here to read more.

p.s. I know it looks weird that there's just that one picture of J above the dog bed, but the rest of the pictures on that wall are individual pictures as well so it looks good when you see the entire thing. J is not THAT vain that he would have a picture of just him hanging up. haha!