Whenever Nicole leaves the house (even if it’s back and forth to unload/load the car), our (incredibly needy) dog goes into a life-altering crisis mode - he has to watch the window like his life depends on it. I get it — he’s velcro’d to her (better her than me), but he exudes so much angst that it drives me bonkers (I’m usually in the kitchen, cooking). So we have a little rule: you wanna stare? That’s fine — you gotta lay down.

As is though, he’s too short to see over the window while laying down which then makes him more anxious and it’s a never ending cycle. So here, I’m going to make a raised platform for his bed so everyone wins: he can watch her in utter panic and he can lay down so his panic doesn’t bother me.

Goals and objectives

I wanted to make a slightly elevated platform for the dog bed so that pooch can still see out the window when he’s laying down. He just exudes way too much anxious energy if he’s not laying down - very much a “OMG! WHERE YOU GO? WAI YOU LEAVE” vibe. By having a bit of a raised platform, it solves two problems:

He can still see out the window
For the person who’s still in the house (usually me — cooking), I don’t have to watch his dumb ass be super anxious

There’s a bonus that I can use the elevated platform to store some of his less-used toys.

I had previously threw together a very quick prototype using scraps in about 5 minutes and while it works, it was an eyesore for me, so now that I have some time, I can knock out a prettier one. Coming off the tail off the Mega Planter build, this should be a super easy project to knock out with scrap wood in about an hour.

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Step 1 - Aaaaaand done

Not much to this:

Find some scrap plywood that fits the bed (with a bump-out so that we can clear the base-molding), glue, pin and screw it together
Make a simple drawer with glue and pocket holes
Attach drawer slides
Sand, stain and let dry

Original prototype

Here you can see the quick concept that I threw together. I opted to boost the height by about an inch to give him a better viewing angle (when laying down)

Obviously, you’d have to size this for whatever dog bed you want to do it for.

Off cuts

Here I’ve got some offcuts for the top (where the bed will rest), the two side panels giving me the height I need and a back panel. The back panel serves two purposes: it makes the entire structure a bit more rigid but also, since I’m keeping the base off the wall, it prevents stuff (toys) from rolling in behind.

Marking for glue

I attached the side pieces using glue and pocket holes and the back piece will be glued to the top-plate and the screwed to the side pieces.

Scraps for a drawer

Here, I’ve completed the main platform (upside down) and I’m finding some scraps I can use to make a drawer. Remember that the drawer is sized 1” narrower than the opening to account for drawer slides. So that it’s not a super tight squeeze, I actually sized it 1-1/16 smaller.

Marking for pins

For the drawer, I’m using glue and pins. The material is 3/8 plywood so there isn’t a whole lot of wiggle room to misfire so a quick line can help ensure the pins land where I want them to.

Drawer box made

For the back of the drawer, I marked the nailing line directly on the wood.

Installing drawer slides

I happened to have a bunch of extra 12” drawer slides so this was a good application for it. I used a piece of scrap to ensure that the slides were installed evenly.

Installing the mating piece

I installed the mating piece using the same piece of scrap to offset. Since the height of the drawer is shorter than the height of the sidewall, it won’t drag on the ground.

Making a drawer pull

I attached a front panel to the drawer using some more scraps. I didn’t want to use drawer fixture in case doggo decides to be extra dumb and run into it. I just used a hole saw to cut a finger pull