DIY Dog Nook- Indoor Dog House
An indoor dog house is an important essential for your dog. See how we took an unused space and made it a fun and cute space for our pets!
DIY Dog Nook – Indoor Dog House
Indoor pet beds are a must where we live in Oklahoma. The weather can be extremely cold in the winter months, and of course we have that summer heat and wind, too! In storm season, our dogs can get pretty anxious unless they are in their own familiar spaces in view of mom and dad– us!
Creating a Dog Nook was an idea we had when we were trying to decorate a space off the living room. The house is not old but does have a built in desk. As most of you know if you have built in's, they go through many different purposes over the years. Ours is primarily for displaying décor items and gives us a place for minor living room storage. We definitely don't use it at a desk to sit at! My husband and I are more mobile with our devices, so if we are working on the blog we prefer to have our laptops on the sofa or larger chairs. So, we knew we had to figure out a use for this blank space!
Why decide on a dog nook? As many of you know from following our BarkCations site, we have several smaller dogs. We've adopted rescues over the years and some of them have been in poor health, with histories of trauma and neglect. This means they are very particular about their own spaces– as well as needing larger, cushioned beds for support.
The desk area was a light bulb moment– we could put one of the largest dog beds inside that little nook to give a “den” for our pet, and at the same time, save the space this bed was taking up in the middle of the living room.
Planning for Style and Functionality
If you don't have a nook like we did, consider using the bottom of an end-table, or even re-purposing the bottom of an older armoire or entertainment center. Using part of a free-standing furniture piece can be a great dog nook! If you prefer to build a custom dog house from scratch instead of repurposing existing spaces, you can find detailed dog house building plans online which offers various styles including indoor and insulated options
Some things to consider prior to starting out are listed below. Be sure to think through your project before starting!
- How large of a nook is needed- be sure to allow plenty of space for taller or larger breeds
- Preferred dog bed and dimensions
- Where the nook will be in the home
- Will it take the place of a current dog bed, and will your pet at home prefer the new space
How We Put Together our DIY Dog Nook
First, we chose a bed to fit the dimensions. We didn't want a built in bed since we wanted the space to be reversible if needed later on. We did have a custom design dog bed made to match the room and colors (we have a lot of black and white colors, and farmhouse décor in the living area).
Next, we chose a simple tension rod you can find at Amazon or Walmart. These come in various sizes. If you have a larger dog, I would recommend getting a wider tension rod so it's not pulled off by accident if a paw catches it the wrong way. 🙂
Finally, I added the curtain!
Making or Purchasing a Curtain for your Dog Nook
I would say the thing that really made this is the curtain. I am not a huge fan of sewing, and decided to cut a few corners where I could. Buying a pre-made set of small window curtains was what we decided to do for this project. However, if you have very specific taste you may wish to make your own curtains.
You may end up spending more money than you prefer– or end up settling on a pattern that isn't exactly what you were going for– if you decide to purchase ready made curtains!
If you decide to make the curtains, just purchase two sets of fabric and hem around the edges. This is pretty basic so can be accomplished with just about any skill level. If you don't have a sewing machine you can actually use the iron on hem tape, which allows you to just fold over the raw hem and iron it in place.
If you love the black and white look and want to go for a neutral Dog Nook space like we did, you can find the Curtains here and tension rods here. Tension rod brackets also give the rod more stability.
Our pups loved this safe space they could walk into if they needed to relax on their own, away from us humans or our other pets! Hope you can use this indoor dog house DIY!
DIY Dog Nook- Indoor Dog House
Save floor space and give your pet his or her own quiet space with this easy DIY!
Materials
- 1 set curtains
- Dog Bed
- Screw in tension rod
Tools
- Screwdriver
- Wall anchors- optional
Instructions
- Measure your space and select approprioate size tension rod. For a sturdy curtain, we recommend the screw in type of tension rod with anchors for either side- linked in post.
- Hem or adjust curtains to appropriate length. If using hem tape, measure length to top of dog bed and iron in hem tape according to package directions.
- Add curtain and dog bed to space.
- Optional- if the room is very dark you can place a stick-on LED light inside the dog nook.
Notes
Measure dog bed to fit space before purchase! Most are more than one layer so you do not want to try to make adjustments to the dog bed if it's oversized for the space.
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