How to make your own dog bed

DIY Vintage Dog Bed

It’s easy enough to pop to the pet shop or discount store to find a bed for Fido, but if you’re after something with a bit of style – while still being friendly on your wallet – then we've got a DIY project for you! Follow these easy steps and you’ll not only cleverly up-cycle an otherwise rather useless suitcase, but you’ll also create a trendy, vintage-inspired piece of art for your pet to sleep on.

Dog with old suitcase

Note: this handy DIY how-to runs through the process of making one stylish dog bed, but provided the suitcase you use has two flat sides, you can easily make a second bed for next to nothing in material costs. Try op shops for an inexpensive solution if you don’t have an old piece of luggage lying around at home.

Materials:

Old suitcase – any colour, size or style is fine, but it’s better if it has a hard shell
One old pillow
1 m x 1.5 m fabric (roughly) – your choice of colour, style and texture, but heavy duty fabric will withstand more wear and tear
Sewing machine or sewing needle with heavy/thick thread
Scissors
Hammer and/or screwdriver
Optional: four small wooden chair legs to attach to the bottom of each suitcase, along with strong wood glue

Instructions:

First, you need to separate the suitcase into two pieces. Depending on the suitcase, you will achieve this by either unscrewing the top half of the suitcase from the bottom half, or using the hammer to prise the two sections apart.
Measure the inside of the suitcase and cut two pieces of fabric to fit, with a one-inch allowance of extra material.
Place both pieces of fabric so the front sides are facing each other and sew three sides together, so it ends up looking like an inside-out pillow.
Turn your fabric inside out so the fabric is now facing the right way out.
Insert pillow stuffing into your fabric pillow; if the standard pillow doesn’t fit your dog pillow casing, feel free to rip it apart to use the stuffing so it fits.
Fold over the last open end of the pillow and sew it shut, so all four sides of the pillow are now closed. Voila! You have now made your pet pillow.
Place your custom-made pillow into the suitcase and tuck the corners in.
Stand back and admire your handiwork while little Snoopy makes himself at home in his adorable new bed!
Optional: if the base of your suitcase isn’t quite flat or you want an elevated dog bed, attach four small wooden chair legs to the bottom of your suitcase.