Featured Friday - Molly Mutt

Being an avid DIY-er, I have spent many an hour brainstorming the best way to turn our pups' beds into chic, trendy decor.  A few months ago, I bought a curtain with a lovely pattern from the Crate and Barrel Outlet (there definitely are some perks of living near a big city like Chicago!) that had a white lining.  I was able to slip the egg-crate bed and a goose-down comforter (yes, our dogs are spoiled) between the white lining and the pretty fabric to create a pretty little duvet for them.  This lasted all of about two weeks until our two decided that the bed wasn't fluffy enough anymore, so they started digging and rooting around to "fluff" it.

Tired of the mess of blanket and curtain, I returned to an idea that has come to mind more than once in the three years we've had the dogs- baby mattress!  I thought we could streamline the whole process by purchasing a baby crib mattress (only $35 at Target!) and crib sheet.  Win-win, right?  The dogs get a real bed to sleep on, and we get a sleek and tidy dog nest next to our bed.  The only thing we didn't count on?  They don't like it.  We felt sure that they would appreciate sleeping on a real mattress since they love to sleep on ours and often fight over who gets to sleep on it at night (they don't like to sleep on it together..."he's touching me!!!").  Nope, neither of them liked it, so after three nights of trying to coerce them to sleep on it, I caved and added the goose down comforter to the top of it again.  Now, they will at least lay on it, though they both still want to be on our bed.  So, back to the drawing board.  As I started to reflect on my options, I remembered Molly Mutt, a trendy shop I saw online created and run by an equally trendy girl named, well, Molly.

I can't remember exactly how I first stumbled upon the gem that is Molly Mutt, but perhaps it was during one of my marathon searches for the perfect dog bed.  I would venture to say that Molly has revolutionized the dog bed industry (or at least is well on her way to doing so!) with her DIY Dog Bed Duvet Kits.  The concept is genius and is made up of two parts: the dog duvet and the stuff sack.

With the Molly Mutt dog duvet, you can cover any existing dog bed or fill it with pretty much anything soft that you have laying around your house- old clothes, sheets, blankets, stuffed animals, etc.  For example, this adorably awesome little number called Mr. Roboto:

But Molly takes things one step further.  If you decide to stuff your dog duvet with household items (or a couple of old beds too flat to be of use on their own), it would be a pain if you had to take everything out just to wash the duvet, right?  Well, Molly introduces us to the concept of the "stuff sack".

Essentially, it's a mesh sack that makes it easy to take all the old soft stuffing materials, toss them into the stuff sack, and use the dog duvet to cover it up.  It makes upcycling items that normally would sit in the back of a closet, get put in the attic, or get thrown away so simple!  On the Molly Mutt site, Molly points out that as the dog duvet wears out, you can even use it to stuff your next Molly Mutt bed!

The cost of the "huge" duvet is $45, and the stuff sack is priced at $15 (really, deals on their own!).  Molly recommends that you have at least two duvets so you can wash one and have another available to put on the bed immediately (or, let's be honest with ourselves, there are too many fantastic patterns to be able to narrow it down to just one!).  She makes it easy, and cost effective, by offering the DIY Kit- 2 duvets and one stuff sack for only $95 (that's a savings of $10, not to mention she offers FREE SHIPPING on orders of $75+).

I love that Molly took a concept that solved an everyday problem for her and turned it into a solution for every dog owner- check out her shop online, or stop by her blog to find out more about Molly at Molly Mutts!

*Note: All images are from Molly Mutt's website and are the sole ownership of Molly Mutt.