16 Stylish Built-In Sleeping Areas for Dogs

by Julie Sheer

Give pets their own safe haven with these built-in
dogbeds for the kitchen, living areas and laundry room

Pet experts will tell you that dogs need a space of their own to snuggle up and sleep in. Canines curl up in a ball in the wild to retain warmth, an instinct that carries over to our suburban pets. So instead of just throwing a dog bed on the floor, why not carve out a space to satisfy your pet’s denning instinct? As den animals, dogs need a “sanctuary that is just large enough for them to fit inside and feel secure,” the American Humane Association says.

A built-in sleeping area in a home’s cabinetry fits that bill and makes a perfect hideaway for our domesticated canine friends. It can be adapted for any home’s style — traditional, sleekly modern or a bit blingy. An added bonus is that built-ins keep the house uncluttered by clunky dog beds. Here are some striking examples.

1. Lucky, a goldendoodle, enjoys his special spot in his family’s renovated kitchen and mudroom. “The small addition, tucked between existing spaces, gives Lucky his own hangout area in the mudroom, and allows the family to easily (and stylishly) gate him when need be,” Jean Rehkamp Larson of Rehkamp Larson Architects says. “The custom metal gate operates like a concealed pocket door, conveniently sliding in and out of the wall when needed.”

2. A dachshund gets a cozy nook in this modern kitchen-dining area in a country house near the appropriately named Petworth, in southern England. The cabinetry doors, drawer fronts and side panels are covered in ash veneer.

3. Talk about the best of both worlds. This dog gets to keep an eye on dinner prep while lounging in bed. A built-in dog bed was incorporated in the kitchen so the whole family could hang out together.

4. The dog cubby in this kitchen was part of a mid-century house in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. The peninsula is wrapped in strips of painted medium-density fiberboard.

5. Dog crates, or kennels, can be an excellent house training aid, and act as a temporary “special retreat” rather than an all-day cage, according to the American Humane Association. But their boxy, chain-link ugliness is a design challenge. Not for lucky rescue dogs Maxie and Scout, though, who get to hang out in a custom-designed pen in this Newton, Massachusetts, kitchen. The pups open the gate with their noses. The dog den can be replaced with a base cabinet later if desired. 

6. A cavalier King Charles spaniel peeks out from its bed in an English country kitchen in New Jersey. The niche is part of a handcrafted cabinetry unit in soft yellow with brown glazing and light distressing.

7. These pooches enjoy luxe sleeping digs in custom-made cabinets with a tufted backdrop in the living area of their Atlanta home. The space includes removable, washable bedding, and a laser-cut metal screen in the kennel door offers ventilation. Toys are also stashed inside.

8. This sleeping space under the stairs gets the chic treatment in a Cape Cod-style home in Huntington Beach, California. “Our dogs love it,” says homeowner Janine Roth, who put custom foam beds in the space and painted the walls a dark color, then hung photos of the dogs inside. “Our friends love to stick their heads in and look at all the photos,” she says. The space is bigger than it looks. An electrician fit inside to install can lights, a carpenter added baseboards and a painter finished the walls.

9. The canine of this house has a view of both upstairs and downstairs from its niche in a stairway landing. The arched opening matches other doorways in the Craftsman home in Seattle. The designers carved the recess from an adjacent closet with a dog in mind. The space came first, the dog came later.

10. Tasked with transforming a small space into a laundry room-pocket office-craft and wrapping area, complete with pet station and wall-hung sink, in this English-style fundraising showhouse in Charlotte, North Carolina. She wanted to get the enormous dog bed off the floor and tucked away, so she created custom cabinets to fit a bed insert. (The cover was sewn by a local seamstress.) Her Labs, Briar and Bramble, are shown enjoying the area. The wood cabinets to the left hold 40-pound bags of dog food.

11. This laundry-mudroom in an Akron, Ohio, house got a big upgrade with new cabinetry and the addition of a dog wash area and built-in resting spot — enjoyed by dogs Roxy, pictured here, and Bella. Vibrations from the stacked washer and dryer lull the pups to sleep.

12. This little dog has a cozy hideaway in the laundry room of a Tampa, Florida. In these custom cabinets, the bench on top of the cubby lifts up for easy cleaning of the bed.

13. This stylish built-in dog crate is in the mudroom-laundry room of an updated Colonial home in Roslyn, New York. The mudroom was renovated into a pet area with an integrated kennel. The cage is custom-made from a stainless steel grille of round bar stock welded in a flat C-channel frame. Two hinges allow the doors to be lifted off for cleaning.

14. The builders of this New Hampshire home designed and built the two dog crates to fit into the custom cabinetry in this traditional laundry room. The clients provided the builders with the size opening required for their dogs.

15. A doggie sleeping area is part of the pet station at this Cypress, Texas, showcase house. The dog crate door is a decorative metal screen. Food bowls swivel out from the station’s toe kick, and a dog wash faucet from Moen is in the dog shower area.

16. Yellow Labs Blais and Gino snuggle up in bed together in the mudroom of their Minnesota home.


Do you have your own special pooch that you would like to incorporate a built-in bed area into your home?  Give us a call!  We can help!  Cabinet-S-Top, 1977 Medina Road, Medina, OH 44256 ~ 330.239.360 ~ www.cabinet-s-top.com