Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)
A while back some friends of mine got a new puppy and were having all the normal troubles people have with puppies and sleeping. They managed to crate train the pup, but really didn't like the aesthetics of a wire crate. They also lived in an apartment at the time where space is at a premium. Tying up useful real estate with an ugly crate just wasn't functional for them for the long haul. While talking to them about this situation I decided I could probably come up a solution that pulled double duty as a side table of sorts and worked as a crate, and I was reasonably confident that I could create something that looked at least as good as a spartan wire crate. I figured, at least in the looks department, the bar was set pretty low with the wire crate.To be perfectly honest, this was a bigger challenge than I thought it was going to be. I sketched up a design that I thought was a nice blend of arts and crafts and mission style to match their headboard and was ready to start. Almost as an afterthought, I decided I had better ask them how big this puppy was going to get when it was full grown before I started the milling process. As it turns out, my original plan was far too small for their pup to grow into. Because this was supposed to function as a table of sorts, simply scaling up my original plan didn't really work all that well because it violated too many of the space constraints for where they envisioned putting this. Because of these adjustments, the end result is a piece of furniture that looks a lot more like a dog crate than I had originally planned.Thankfully, my initial assessment about the aesthetic bar being so low with a wire crate that it would be hard to not make something that was an improvement proved correct just not not by the margin I thought. It certainly wasn't as easy as I thought it would be either.The whole table/crate is made of flat sawn white oak except for the legs and table top banding, which are quarter sawn. Its entirely constructed with mortise and tenon joinery with a floating table top.The owners were happy with it and apparently so was pup. Below is a picture of him on the inaugural sleep trial. The dogs is full sized now, but I'm told he still goes in here when he wants his own space or to take naps, though I don't think he spends the nights in there any more.