she writes, "my dog tweed is a butthead after dark, so he can’t sleep in my apartment with the other dogs. however, my studio apartment is really small, and i don’t like having a big ugly dog crate sitting around. so i made a dog crate out of an ikea hol storage bench. it was beyond easy – i simply put the bench together but left one 'end' off, and attached that end with a pair of small, simple hinges to create a door. the door is secured with an inexpensive hook-and-eye mechanism. when the 'door' is closed, it just looks like a coffee table bench.
the only cautions are:a) it would not suit a dog much larger than about 40lbs / 20” at the shoulder
b) if your dog is an escape artist from his crate, this isn’t sturdy enough to keep him confined – it’s for well crate trained dogs only and
c) you need to reinforce the ‘floor’ and the top sidewalls of the unit with a 1x1 cut to fit across and nailed or screwed (or glued!) into place. otherwise the sides of the unit bend around and the floor might sink.
it was incredibly inexpensive, the bench can be stained to match your décor (i haven’t done that yet) and it doesn’t look like a dog crate!"
