making a dog crate (more) functional.

so gertrude has her own bedroom. most of the time. technically her room is the guest room, but it's also the room that houses her dog crate. and since i'm somewhat hermitish in my ways, i don't have guests very often. so gerty has dibs.

but someday i will have guests. hopefully. in an effort to make her crate blend in a bit and add some function to the corner of the room, i turned the situation into a project.

step 1) gather your tools. you'll need a staple gun, scissors, fabric and a piece of wood cut to the size of your dog crate. thank you to my super handy older brother for shopping for and cutting the wood with (for) me. we were able to find a $2 piece of particle board in the junk wood section.

step 2) center your wood on top of the fabric. trim any excess fabric so you have a border of about 3" on each edge of the board.

step 3) using your staple gun, start in the center of one of your edges and work your way out to the corners. don't staple the corners yet. you'll do that at the end.

step 4) next, repeat the stapling process on the edge across from the edge with which you started. pull the fabric tight to avoid wrinkles. again, leave the corners alone for now. staple the two remaining sides using this same process.

step 5) to secure your corners, fold the fabric on a diagonal and staple in place.

at this point, you might be attacked by your pooch. beware. apparently the staple gun noise is terrifying.

voila. you're dog crate cover is complete. now you just need to slap that bad boy on top of the crate and you are open for business. take a looksie.

it's a subtle change, but i think it makes a big impact. i threw a lamp, towels and toiletries on top so guests will have access to supplies that they might forget at home. gerty doesn't seem to mind the change. it's like she gets to hang out in a fort.

and who doesn't love a fort?