It’s been almost an entire year since we have been able to invite clients into our house. That’s crazy, isn’t it? We’ve got so used to doorstep drop offs and meet and greets outside that we’d almost forgotten about how we used to invite pups and their owners (old and new) into our home.
Like most businesses this year, we’ve adapted. But with these adaptations, we’re no longer able to show owners our home, and the environment their dog is staying in, which can obviously be quite daunting for people new to the pup-cation game. Not only that, our wonderful regulars don’t have the opportunity to see what we’ve been doing to make our home more pup friendly, it’s always positive to show people how we’re adapting and changing, especially when it means their favourite furry pal is going to have a good time!
To deal with this issue, we’ve been letting new pups into our home for a little sniff around and recording it for their owners to see, so we don’t put anyone at risk. But we thought it might be nice to do a little bit more, for clients old and new. So, we’ve decided to take you on a little blog based tour of our home, the favourite dog spots, the favourite human spots, and everything in between! We hope it’ll give you a little bit of insight into what we can offer on a pupcation, and also help you get to know us a little bit more. It also give me an excellent excuse to show off all my pandemic DIY hard work!
So,without further delay, welcome to our home!
We moved to our tall house 3 years ago. It’s hard to believe… It’s gone so quickly! As a new build it was like one big white box. Which I couldn’t complain about. We lived in a very quirky flat in Canton previously, and something shiny and new felt very appealing. But after a little bit (and lots of Farrow and ball based chats!) We were craving colour!
The Snug
This is a favourite with puppers and humans alike! We would often invite our pup pals (and their owners!) here during our pre-covid meet and greets. A lush little cosy room. Its got a very comfy sofa, and plenty of blankets, which doggos adore. They also love the company in it, who’s usually reading a book! People always ask if we use this room, as it’s separate from our main living room, but I love spending time in here — especially now its a super duper shade of blue to ramp up the cosy vibes! When we moved in, this little room was listed as a dining room (I don’t think any of our neighbours use theirs as a dining room!), but as soon as we saw it, we knew we wanted to create a little cosy snug room. It was white for a long time just because we weren’t sure what colour to paint it… Our ground floor compared to the other two floors is pretty dark so it makes picking colours a bit more tricky!
After countless samples we went for Farrow and Ball Hague Blue. I fell in love almost instantly! it was one of the first rooms we painted, and as soon as it was finished I’d been bitten by the colour bug…I wanted more! Now the room is super cosy, me and the pups tend to chill here after a long walk… I’ll have a cuppa and they cuddle up on the sofa or on the fluffy rugs. PERFECT!
Kitchen
Our Kitchen is pretty basic, but when we moved in I was so excited! Our last kitchen was TINY, and it was just off of our living room. I loved that we had enough space to have a proper separate kitchen, that was spacious enough to have a dinning space too.
We need to make a few changes in here, a lick of paint and some new lighting, but it’s fit for pupper purpose! Boring kitcheny stuff… we have a really good storage cupboard in the kitchen, which is GREAT for pupper storage. Furry guests have alot of luggage ya know! We spend alot of time in this room, and so do the dogs.
I particular enjoyed spending time in here this summer. We’ve always been really thankful for the french doors out to the garden, but the garden has not always been up to scratch! The garden has been a major project for us this year and so when we were finally allowed our furry guests back into the house we made the most of using this space and our fancy new outdoor space that came with it!
Garden
Our garden was an absolute mud-bath for approx 2 and a half years. We are not green fingered, or landscapers (that’s an understatement!) and the garden when we moved was a mud heap on a slope. it was ££££ to get it professionally landscaped, and armed with a pinterest board, I got the idea we could do it ourselves (HA!). As it turns out, we’re useless gardening idiots, but we have wonderful, knowledgeable friends who told us exactly what we needed and helped us along the way. LOTS of digging, lugging, lifting, and planting later and we had something SO much better than we began with. We have a usable garden!
There’s still work to be done (why didn’t anyone tell me fence painting is awful?!), but the heavy lifting is done, and it’s SO much better for the pups!
Halls (Yes, I am including them…There are 3 of them!)
It was all very bland in these halls at the beginning of lockdown, very white, a bit boring. I know halls and corridors aren’t meant to be anything but functional, but when you live over 3 floors, there’s a lot of hall to love! So we went deep diving into my paint charts again. I’d noticed something over the last couple of years about white halls… They aren’t very dog friendly! All the dirt and debris from a good long walk would end up splattered all over the walls, and zoomies up and down the stairs would leave lots of brown smears. We opted for Farrow and Ball Pavilion Grey in a modern emulsion finish. This sounds like the most boring information to pass on, but if you have pets, small children or you’re just a bit clumsy this paint is AMAZING. it wipes clean almost anything without leaving a mark… No more dog walk splatters!
After all that hall painting, (3 floors worth!) we decided it needed a bit of depth. It was all very grey and white and with so much of it I really wanted it to be something we‘d love. So we painted the banisters with another Farrow and Ball favourite, Off Black in modern eggshell. This paint meant I could avoid dreaded gloss and for that I will always be thankful! Lots of paint companies now do a modern eggshell alternative, and I’d highly recommend it for wood work. It’s quick drying, (and if you’ve got a curious pup that’s a godsend!) and its water based, so any stains you make are not forever stains. It also doesn’t discolour like gloss… A miracle!
Living room
Puppers favourite place to be! Comfy sofa? Check! Window seat? Check! Blankets for days? Check! fluffy rugs? Check!
This room is one of my favourites too! It’s always so bright and welcoming, it’s lovely throughout the day, and sometimes I just find myself sitting and watching the water outside. We’re very lucky to have such a wonderful view, and we really make the most of it where we can. Tom’s mum kindly made up the window seat that the pups love so much. I stacked it high with blankets and pillows. Ultimate comf!
Our DFS sofa is a popular one. Lots of people have this sofa, and I can see why. It looks fancy but is VERY comfy… My fave nap spot…The dogs quite like it too!
We’ve got some work to do on this room, but right now its a little sanctuary for us, and more and more for the puppers that come to stay too!
We eventually want to paint in here a light colour that compliments the light that floods in, and ties in with the rest of the house. We’re currently sampling some Lick pinks to get a feel for whether they could work…Watch this space!
The home office
I’m sitting in this room right now! This was a proper lockdown project for us, and I’m chuffed with how it’s turned out. Before we gave this room a makeover it just wasn’t really working, we’d crammed all the bits and bobs we didn’t know what to do with in here, and hastily bought a sofa bed for guests. As you can imagine, we then closed the door and never really used it. Once or twice when we had a full house we’d pull the sofa bed out (remember sleepovers?!), but we have a spare guest bedroom, so we only need the sofa bed when we have more than 2 guests.
Tom was made redundant in the summer. A huge blow to us after all the risks we’d taken the year before setting up Oh Doggo. It was a really difficult time for Tom, but for quite a sulky, moody individual, I’m secretly an optimist. Neither of our paths have been straight forward, but I always think there’s a great deal of beauty in that process. I also think really bad things bring lots of different opportunities. We’re bolder when we’re scared. For years (I mean YEARS) Tom had talked about doing a degree. He wasn’t as lucky as I was when he was 18, and he didn’t get the chance to go to uni. I feel like uni really shaped me as a person, it made me want to explore, gave me the confidence I craved and began a lifelong love of learning. What did Tom have to lose now? He may not be coming out of the pandemic with his job that he adored, but he was finally afforded the gift of time. So, in September, Tom signed up for a full time economics degree. I was so excited for him, and proud of him. Then the fun really started. We had to learn how to work in the same space together… HA! This has obviously been an issue for lots of families over lockdown, but now it was really beginning to affect us!
Oh Doggo had also changed. I’d always had a plan to create cute products but the lockdown process really sped that up, and with the gift of time, I also got busy, and I also needed a proper, dedicated workspace. Bed admin was no longer cutting it!
This room took TIME. Mainly because we needed stuff that everyone needed…a bit like garden furniture, office equipment was in such high demand. We cleared everything out, moved big bits of furniture to new homes and worked out how the space could really work for us. I had some Setting Plaster paint (did I mention I love Farrow and Ball?!) left over from when we painted our bedroom, so I used it to create a feature wall behind our sofa. I also hung up so old photos I’d jazzed up for my FMP in uni a long time ago. It was nice to take time with this room and use the things we had. The thing that took the most time in this room was getting our table. I was very specific, it had to have enough room to house us both comfortably. And after about 2 months of playing the waiting game, we finally got it. It’s nothing special, its Ikea, but my God…The queues, the sold out signs, the collection debacles. It was a mission!
After we got the basics nailed down the fun started! I had my eye on a pegboard for about a year, and while they aren’t cheap, I think it’s worth every penny! It’s practical but also, as I told someone on Instagram, ‘looks jazzy’ and I’m here for anything jazzy! I’d also saved some Hay crates on my shopping list for storing Oh Doggo merch (they work a treat!) and after months of umming and ahhing we finally invested in a Mustard Made locker. Possibly the most expensive thing in this room but I LOVE it, and now I want them all over the house!
We still need proper chairs (why are office chairs so gross?!), but I love that this room is now a flipping lush and practical room. The dogs like hanging out on the sofa while we’re working too, so that’s handy!
Our room
Obviously this is a favourite with the dogs! What dog doesn’t love their hoomans bed?! We always ask our clients to fill in a routines sheet before their dogs come to stay. We use it to create a ‘home from home’ environment for their dogs so they can have the best time possible. So many owners get embarrassed about sharing that their dog sleeps on their bed. Well, I’m here to tell you, loads of dogs sleep on their owners beds and we’re here for it!
We have three beds in this house and we can have 3 puppers stay over at a time. We have absolutely been known to allow pampered pooches who sleep on beds, to have their own bed at night, and if they’re sharing with us, we’ll always end up sleeping on the edges of the bed! Are we mad dog people yet?!
Our bedroom houses flipping tons of plants, (I’m also a mad house plant person) I have around 30 house plants in total knocking around the house, I’m on a buying ban for the foreseeable! Our bedroom is a good house plant home because of all the lovely sunlight this room gets. We often find dogs snoozing up on our bed during the day for that reason.
Another Setting Plaster room because I’m trying to slowly turn this house pink while Tom’s not looking. Pinks are so warm and lovely though aren’t they?!
Well guys, apart from the bathrooms… Do you need to see those? Here’s a picture of our downstairs loo just in case. It’s Farrow and Ball (AGAIN) Cooking Apple Green. The other bathrooms (we have an en suite and a big bathroom) are the same colour.
I don’t think there’s anything else to show you! we’ve still got some tinkering to do but, like lots of people, lockdown gave us a good excuse to get cracking on things we’d been putting off for a while.
I think I’m going to expand our home Pinterest boards to help with some inspiration for some projects coming up (expect lots of lighting and storage solutions). If you’re interested in what I’m looking for you can follow along here.
If you want more pics of dogs enjoying our home and sneak peaks, why not follow us on Instagram?
And if you have any questions about our dog boarding facilities or want to book your pupper for a pupcation, you can contact us here.
Speak soon gang!
Emma
