Big Dog Daybed from Small Person Bed

With my new ugly duckling sofa set in the living room and the old, truly hideous set going out the door via Craigslist tomorrow, my dogs are a bit out of sorts. They've always been allowed on the furniture. Or more accurately, I was tired of fighting about it and my couches hid dirt beautifully. That was fine except for the fact that no people sat on the couches because they were always full of dog hair. I had to vacuum them daily just to keep it to a manageable level. We had some very large, expensive pet beds. The new set is much lighter-colored, so we're ushering in a new era. No dogs allowed. Now, that doesn't mean they don't get treated fairly. I had to come up with something to entice them away from the lure of beige canvas. They already had "real" pet beds. Only one dog actually used them. We looked into getting one of those end tables which doubles as a dog crate, but it was $550 before shipping. No. I looked at Pinterest for ideas for making end tables into a pet bed, but they seemed to all be for small dogs. Our dogs are definitely not small. So, I'm sure you can guess where my quest led me. The thrift store, of course. I found this toddler bed at Salvation Army and thought both dogs could fit on it nicely. I was planning on spending at least $50 for two fancy new regular-store dog beds if I couldn't come up with anything else. This was $49.99. Perfect! I went to pay for it, it turned out to be half-price that day. Unbelievably awesome! I told you I'm having a stellar thrift store week. Here's what I did to make it fit into our new decor...

This is it, complete with waterproof crib mattress. It originally came from Ikea. Suckers.

To further entice the dogs to their new bed, I found this electric blanket at Goodwill to use as a mattress pad. Look how happy this couple is, gazing into the sunset, enjoying their "delightful moment."

I used about a can and a half of this. The shade is called "Eden." Ooo, so forbidden.

The first coat.

 All done. Just watching paint dry. Yawn.

I put the electric blanket on top of the mattress and added a brown crib sheet.  (Target  - $10) Then I made a few dog-friendly pillows I could easily wash. It's his own mini-couch!

Frank says, "Thanks for checking out this post!"