Reclaimed leather sofa gets a second life for four-legged friends

Last year I was contacted by a fabulous couple who loved their German Short Haired Pointers. One of dogs particularly loved to relax on one of their old leather sofa in the Summer room. Sadly he passed away. They wondered if I could make 2 new leather dog beds, from the old sofa, for their other dogs. It would be a lovely and fitting ‘Memory Make’ and also be super useful.

II accepted the challenge of course. They sent me pictures of the current dog beds and asked if I could replicate them. They then harvested the leather from the sofa and couriered it all to me - with an outline of their current bed to help with sizing.

When the leather arrived - well it had seen better days. So I set to, cleaning and moisturising it. I then spent hours watching YouTube tutorials and patchworking the sections of leather into the appropriate sized pieces. It became apparent very quickly that there would not be enough leather to complete two dog beds, so I confirmed that could add leather from my stash that was the best match in colour and thickness.

I made a couple of big rubber ring shaped outer leather sections and stuff them with the wadding from previously upcycled sofas. I then attached a waterproof canvas base to each. I then realised I would need a firm foam inside the round inner cushions so the dog beds kept a nice shape. I looked online at the various foam available and soon realised it would be an expensive thing to buy new, so I jumped in my car and headed off to my local Scrap Store in the hope they would have some upholstery foam available. Fabulously they did. So in as little and 30 minutes I was back home with 2 large, firm sheets of upholstery foam. With a Sharpie I marked them to the appropriate shape and then cut them to size using an old 1970s style electric knife.

A few weeks later the customers arrived to collect the dog beds and were amazed that the old leather had cleaned up so beautifully….with a lot of elbow grease of course.

And the next day they emailed me the lovely picture of Merlin and Swift relaxing happily in their new, comfy beds. Happy faces all around….including mine.