So lately we have been setting some new rules around our house. They mostly evolve around Nala. I admit it, Nala has been a bit spoilt. I tried not to let her get a spoilt brat mentality, but she has grown up being pampered by everyone in our family. To them she is (so far) the only 'grandchild' or niece in Perth so they do things like:
- Bring her a gift when they come back from holiday. She sulks if she goes to investigate someone's suitcase and they have brought no material offering to place at her sacred feet.
- My sisters call me to ask if Nala would like to go to the beach. They do not think to extend the invite to me.
- At family dinners, she frequently gets her own spot at the table.
- Talk to her on the phone. Nala loves to talk on the phone. (Yes, you can stop reading my blog now if we are too weird for you).
They struck fear into my heart, I tell you. I cannot STAND spoilt bratty kids. I think I was one and no-one liked me. So we decided we had to start re-training Nala before the baby comes.
One of the things we decided not to let her do anymore was nap on our bed during the day. From now on all naps had to be taken in the living room on the couch or on her beanbag. But this made Nala sulky, because she loves napping on Cloud Bed (what we call our beloved new bed, because it is so soft and comfortable).
So when I spied this crappy-looking dog bed during a verge picking detour one day on the way home from an interview, I snatched it up. Ah, I love verge picking. One of the reasons I love verge picking is that, much like Forrest Gump’s mama’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Mr Nerd calls this ‘hoarding’, I call it exciting. Ok, so the dog bed was pretty gross. But I have ALWAYS wanted to get Nala one of these metal frame beds. But I had never wanted to spend $50 to $90 on buying one from the shop when, well, they usually don’t look that nice. But when I saw this one lying on the side of the road, I knew I could give it a mini makeover to make it look good and suit our house.
Bed dud.
And it was one of my easiest little DIY projects ever. I cut off the crappy old sack bedding, cleaned the frame and then sprayed it with two coats of Dulux Duramax High Performance Enamel spray in Wiggle. This spray paint is one of the newest in the Dulux range and you can spray paint metal, wood and most plastics and it dries ten times faster than regular spray paints – only an hour. They recommend priming all bare steel and iron surfaces with Dulux Duramax Metal Primer beforehand but as Nala’s bed was for indoor use only I skipped the primer, the adhesion was still great and it looked fantastic.
Clearly needs more support, but Nala is clearly already thrilled.
I am useless with a sewing machine, so my lovely mum made the new bedding with material I got from Spotlight for $9.99 a metre. I love this material! Kind of tribal-inspired and it goes nicely in our living room. Nala knew instantly that the bed was for her even before it was finished. Mum and I tested the material out with Nala sitting on it beforehand, to see how taut the bedding would have to be. As you can see, it had to be pretty taut. Nala is not exactly the most lightweight girl.
We had some material left over so Mum is actually making me a throw cushion for our couch. Mum doubled up the material and ran it tightly along one side and we pulled it on, before fixing little ribbons to keep the edges taut against the frame, so that it can be taken off for washing easily and as often as I like (ha! That will be like, once every four years).
BEFORE. Nala looks happy with it in this photo, but that is only because she knows nothing and also she loves anything that smells a bit funky.
AFTER
And Nala loves it! She doesn’t mind getting kicked out of our bedroom during the day now that she has her little bed. At least, not as much. A little DIY/verge picking/hoarding success.
Do you have any favourite verge picking finds? Does your dog insist on sleeping on your bed? Maya x
All the best models know how to realistically fake-sleep.
