Do you hang out on Pinterest at all? If you do, I'm sure you've seen pieces of furniture turned into a cute dog kennel. Every time I see one, I want to make one! Well, I finally got my chance when I got this text from a friend.
After a few back and forth texts, it became clear this was a project we both wanted to work on together. I couldn't help but get super excited about creating something new out of this corner piece. I knew it was going to be quite a puzzle but that's my favorite part about up cycling. It's so fun to pull everything apart and find a new way to put the pieces back together!
Always start with the easy things to take apart.
The doors and the backing were quick to remove.
The next thing we decided on was to remove the shelf. The storage space under it was just too small for even a small dog. That proved to be much trickier to remove than I had expected. Thankfully, with a lot of patience and finesse, we accomplished the job.
Once the shelf was out, we had to redo the trim that used to go around the doors. We decided to divide the space in half so that we could put a door on one side and bars on the other.
At this point, we had spent a few hours on it and decided to pack it up for the day. We had made a plan for how we would put the next steps together and gathered the rest of the materials needed to finish the job.
Though it lacks in execution, the idea of slicing the doors and making them into one was our best solution. Part of the fun is in using the parts that are readily available. The cabinet was painted a deep blue and the door would be painted too so the hope was that the slice in the door wouldn't be as obvious once the whole thing was finished.
I was so busy building the cage piece that I totally forgot to take any pictures. It was quite a process, chipping away at the framing pieces with a chisel. If the bars had been cylinder-shaped, I could have used a drill bit. These bars are squared so I had to dig out square holes. Once that was done and I fastened the framing together, we had to stop and work out how we were going to fix it to the cabinet. Thankfully, I remembered I had small, black brackets that we could use on the inside of the frame. It was a functional and decorative fix! We topped it all off with a beautiful red color on the door.
I was actually pretty sad helping my friend load it into her car and drive away with it! I will just have to make one for my own dog next.
Now where's my staple gun?
Comments