The other day when I was giving my houseplant a rinse in the dog shower, I thought I’d share this handy design with you!
A dog shower?
Yup, and a whole lot more…
Let me start from the beginning…
or nearly beginning…
As our mid century home was being re-modeled, (HERE you can read more about our mid century renovation). I was able to tweak just enough space in the mudroom/laundry room/back entry/pantry/bathroom floor plan design, (yes, it really is all those things in one space) to fit a small dog shower.
Here’s a picture I took during the re-do:
This is the wall that divides part of the mudroom area from the kitchen. As you can see, the sheetrock was up, but at this point there was still a lot to be done.
The window opening is framed out for the vintage window I’d been saving for a few years, and it’s just beyond that opening, before the next area that would be the home of the washer and dryer, that we’re focusing on today. It is this little spot that is the frequently used dog shower.
For the inside of the dog shower, (which is so much more than just a dog shower, but I’ll explain that a little further down) I designed it for tile on just the bottom half.
The contractor used GoBoard, a lightweight tile backer board, for the bottom section of walls where the tile was to be installed. The top part of the walls didn’t need the waterproof backer so were sheetrocked.
Both my contractor and I were novices with designing and installing a ‘dog shower’…. so it was a bit of trial and error.
We started with the base a little smaller, then when we started to think about it, we decided it needed to be a little bit larger to catch all the splashing etc. and it needed to have a curb to stop the water from spilling out onto the floor.
Fortunately, this was decided early on so that it was an easy fix to just add more floor and create the curb once that was cured.
From the kitchen, this is what you see:
I love using vintage windows this way. It allows a visual block but still allows light into an area, plus it adds character to what would be just a boring wall without it. (HERE are a few more examples of me using vintage windows)
This is now the completed dog shower:
I purposely didn’t want the tile all the way up because I didn’t want this to feel like a remodeled shower.
The wall tile I found is a thick pressed glass, vintage looking tile.
The floor tile is a classic black and white porcelain hex tile. I like how the small hex and the larger wall hex compliment each other, but are a little different.
Here are some simple things that make this space work super effeciently…
Just across the walkway from the dog shower is a galvanized stool. We just slide it over to sit on when giving the dog a shower or washing our feet.
Up above the dog shower is a pull out drying rack that works terrific for drip drying laundry on.
The hand held shower, with an extra long hose, works well for showering dogs, dirty feet, houseplants and filling buckets.
The small, but effective soap shelf we built into the tile wall means there is an easy place to set the soap without it having to be on the floor of the shower.
We have used this ‘dog shower for so many tasks. It’s a great place for snow covered boots to drip dry too!
Finding those couple of extra feet to squeeze in this small very handy ‘dog shower’ has made our house run much smoother.
So how about you? What small space have you ‘tweaked’ to add a smart addition to your household?
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Here are some more designs:
