Sunshine & Sew Much More: Snazziest Dog Bed... Ever

I have been trying to kick my pooches off our beautiful family room couch for eons, nothing seemed to work. I tried putting throw pillows everywhere so they couldn't lay comfortably and would be forced to go to their beds in the basement - not happening - they figured out they could nose the pillows on to the floor or snuggle in between them (which they liked EVEN BETTER!). I tried locking them in their basement room, dudley ate through the door.... seriously. We replaced the door with a new one, but they can still get out... I do like having them roam the house freely, I feel safer that way - They alert us to intruders and any passing sinister looking cats or squirrels (Dudley is convinced they are evil... who are we to disagree?). The dogs have earned their "right" to roam the house - they never have accidents anymore, they let us know when they have to go out, they don't chew or destroy anything and they don't make a sound (except Dudley does snore...), so why not let them protect the house? Well, my poor ~~sanity~~ couch is suffering.

I love my furry babies, I really really really do, but I really really really love my couch too. Kevin and I bought this couch when we moved in, and I still haven't seen one I like as much. It's over stuffed and soft and light coloured.... it's pretty much perfect in every way - except for the fact it's covered in dog hair the majority of the time and it shows the dirt. Clearly my pups like to be upstairs closer to us, and close to the front door so here was my last attempt at saving my couch for doggy destruction:

A Snazzy Dog Bed

I love the colour, it actually looks way more green in person, goes really well with the walls and the green from the throw pillows from my couch (see my couch subtly sneaking in the side of the picture?)

Fabricland had a sale on all their upholstery fabric, and this fabric was very similar feel to my couch (which the dogs love) and it doesn't show the fur - super easy to wash and vacuum. Here's a close up, both really super soft chenille, just different patterns:

Couch Dog Bed

HOW TO:

To make the dog bed, you need about 4 meters of upholstery fabric (for those that work in yards, a meter is roughly 40" wide). I made this like a pillowcase (very very simple) and did a zipper closure at one end.

Finished mine ended up 40"x60" and it fits 2 large breed dogs perfectly (for me it filled a void of space beside my stairs too)

I bought a twin duvet from Walmart (included pillows) for 15$ on sale and used it as the soft center - you could use fiber fill or batting or foam, but this was cheap and available. I actually forgot to buy a zipper so I took the zipper off the quilt bag: