I am the owner of an Oriental Rug Gallery and also a very loving "dog mom".
My lovely rescue, a purebred German Shepherd Dog by the name of Prince is the light of my life.
We have been enjoying life together for 4 years now and once in a great while, I will bring him to my shop. Normally this only occurs when I know it will be a
short day for me and he has been well exercised earlier. He mostly stays
in the crate for a couple of hours or gets a brief walk outside and then back
into the crate.
Having a dog crate in an Oriental rug store is a bit strange so a while
back I decided to ensure it fit in with the theme of my shop! Step by step, this is how I evloved decorating the crate which basically camouflaged it. I then thought that if anyone had a crate in their home that really needed to be in a certain room and they would like to impove the look of it, I would share this. Obviously, this look is not for everyone BUT for people that collect rugs or textiles and find they have more than they can dispay, it may be of use.
The crate, as you can see is black metal. It is large. My dog weights 93 lbs! It is tucked into a corner of the gallery but right by the front door when you are walking in. Keep in mind, whatever I chose had to work with all the rugs that were on the walls and in the front window display so this factor guided my choices. Also, what was floppy and the correct size?
I started with an old Sofreh (flat woven eating cloth) and covered the top of the crate.
My next step was to drape and old Qashqai rug along the side that faces the door. I then grabbed a very colorful saddlebag that you can see on the left. The saddlebag is Kurdish from Iraq and has a very old design called the Memling Gul. On the right are two very pretty vintage tribal rugs, folded in a way that clearly shows their colors.
Now if Prince were in the shop, I would leave the front open so he could watch all, as you see here.
But for most of the time, when he would not be in the shop, I also wanted to cover the front door of the crate. Well, well, what did I find? I had recently purchased some very pretty Senna kilims (Persian flat woven rugs) so I chose one for the front and it was a perfect fit. I just tucked the kilim under the other rugs on the top of the crate and their weight easily held it in place. Here is my end result which I was pretty happy with and so took photos and decided to share:)
From another angle. And yes, every rug you see here is for sale.
Please share this blog post on any social media or anywhere if you have enjoyed this article. Penny, the undercoverruglover! Paradise Oriental Rugs, Sebastopol, CA
