A DIY dog bed is a great way to exercise your inner home improvement fiend. It is also the perfect opportunity to customize your pet’s bed to their individual needs.

Choosing a DIY Pet bed Design

A basic wooden framed bed is the ideal place to start. Whether you are constructing a bed for a large breed dog, a senior dog, a litter of kittens, or an adult cat, this bed can be customized with numerous personalized touches.

Supplies

To recreate the DIY dog bed pictured above, you will need the following supplies from your local DIY store and pet store.

• 34” x 44” x 5” dog bed pillow (You can make this yourself out of fabric and a cushion insert from your local craft store if you are handy)

• 48” x 38” x ?” plywood

• 1” x 4” x 8’ Furring strips (10 pieces)

• 1” x 2” x 8’ Furring strips (4 pieces)

• 4 x “Magic Sliders” (If unavailable, felt furniture foot pads can be substituted)

• 3” Self-tapping deck screws (28 pieces)

• 1 ?” Self-tapping deck screws (110 pieces)

• Pet safe wood stain

Tools

To complete this DIY dog bed, you will need the following tools:

• A circular saw (A hand saw can be used, but it is much more labor intensive and less accurate.)
• A drill
• A sander
• A pencil
• A speed square
• A tape measure
• Wood glue
• A wood stain brush

To Construct Your Bed

The plywood is going to serve as the base of your dog bed. The front, back, and sides are going to be constructed from the 1” x 4” x 8’ furring strips and trimmed with the 1” x 2” x 8’ furring strips.

To begin your DIY dog bed construction per the specs of the bed pictured, begin by cutting your furring strips to size.

For the Back of Your Dog bed…

The back panel of your dog bed is going to be constructed using two of the 1” x 4” x 8’ furring strips.

Using your circular saw, cut two of these strips in half to create four 1” x 4” x 4’ long pieces.

Now, by laying the four furring strips on top of each other to create a 4’ x 16” panel.

For the Sides of Your Dog bed…

The sides of your dog bed are going to be constructed using another four of the 1” x 4” x 8’ furring strips.

Using your circular saw, cut these four furring strips into eight pieces that measure 35” long.

Now, take four of these cut pieces and lay them on top of each other to create a 35” x 16” panel.

Arrange the remaining four cut pieces of furring to create the second side panel.

For the Front of Your Dog bed…

The front of your DIY dog bed is going to be a little more complicated.

Begin by taking two of the remaining 1” x 4” x 8’ furring strips and cutting them in half as you did for the back panel.

Lay these four sections of wood together to replicate the 4’ x 16” panel that makes up the back panel of the bed.

Now, take your measuring tape and pencil and on the top furring slat mark 8 ?” from each end.

Using your speed square, draw a straight line at a 45-degree angle from one of your pencil marks down through the top three furring slats. (Not drawing at all on the bottom slat.) Repeat this process on the other side for your other pencil mark.

The front section of your dog bed will now have two diagonal lines that run through the top three slats.

Using your circular saw, cut the top three slats of your furring strips along these lines you have drawn.

You should now have seven sections that come together to replicate the front panel of the bed.

Gluing Together Your DIY Dog bed Panels

Now that you have the four panels of your bed laid out, use your wood glue to glue together the furring strips of each segment.

When you have done this, you will still have four individual panels, but the slats of each will be held together with wood glue.

Framing Your DIY Dog bed

Before screwing anything together, you need to create the frame for each panel of the bed.

Framing the Back Panel of the Bed

For the back panel of the bed, you will need to cut two sections of 1” x 4” x 8’ furring strips to 1” x 4” x 16”. (You will be able to cut six of these pieces from a single 1” x 4” x 8’ furring strip.)

You will also need to cut two sections of the 1” x 2” x 8’ furring strips to 1” x 2” x 40”.

Now, create a rectangle using the four sections of furring with the two thicker pieces as the sides and the two thinner pieces as the top and bottom. This will frame the back panel of the bed.

Framing the Side Panels of the Bed

For the side panels of the bed, you will again, cut four more sections of 1” x 4” x 8’ furring strips to 1” x 4” x 16”.

You will also need to cut four sections of the 1” x 2” x 8’ furring strips to 1” x 2” x 27”.

Now, create two rectangles using these wood pieces just as you did for the back panel with the thinner furring strips on the top and bottom and the thicker furring strips on the sides. These rectangles will frame the side panels of the bed.

Framing the Front Panel of the Bed

To frame the front panel of the bed, begin by cutting two sections of the 1” x 4” x 8’ furring strips to 1” x 4” x 16”.

To create the bottom of the frame for the front panel, you will need to cut a single section of 1” x 2” x 8’ furring strip to 1” x 2” x 40”.

Now, the remaining segments of the frame for the front panel will be cut from the 1” x 2” x 8’ furring strips. You will need to cut four individual pieces with the desired angles.

Two of these pieces will run the length of the 45-degree angle front the top of the front panel, along the angle, and down to meet the bottom section of the frame.

The remaining two pieces will be smaller sections that will complete your frame by filling in the gap between the sides of the front panel frame and the angular sections of the frame.

Attaching the Frame of Your Dog bed

Once again, take your wood glue, and glue the frames that you cut to their respective panels of the bed.

This is only a temporary solution, but it will hold the panel pieces together so that you can screw them together accurately after the glue has dried.

Assembling Your DIY Dog bed

One the wood glue has dried on each of the panels, screw the back, side, and front panels together using your deck screws. Make sure to use the larger screws in the thicker adjoining areas.

Staining Your DIY Dog bed

After screwing together the four panels of your DIY dog bed, take your paintbrush and wood stain and coat the wood.

You will want to add a couple of coats of stain, allowing each coat to dry completely and sanding the wood gently (if desired), before adding the next coat.

Once you have achieved a color you like from your stain and it has fully dried, you are ready to finish putting the bed together.

While you are doing your staining, make sure to put a lick of paint on the plywood bottom if you want to color it. Doing this now will ensure that it is dry when you are ready for assembly.

The Final Assembly!

When the stain and paint of the base and four sides of your dog bed have dried, it’s time to do your final assembly.

Use the remaining deck screws to attach the base to the bottom of the bed.

Once the base is firmly attached, adhere the four “Magic Sliders” to the four corners of the bed so that you can freely move the bed and prevent scratched floors.

The last step is to add your dog bed pillow to the bed and hand it over to your pet to enjoy!