Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Cheetah Chair, Check!

Almost a year ago, we picked up a small arm chair that was in good condition for Niko. It became one of Niko's favorite spots to hang out at home. He uses it to prop himself up to look out the front window, take naps, even as a den/cave under the chair.



All this use took its toll on the chair, especially Niko's tender loving chews...


It was time to either let the chair go to crap or bring it back to life. We chose the second option. We went to the store to look for some fabric. I like the feel of flannel so we found a leopard print piece.  With zero upholstering experience, we bought a few yards of  the fabric and a staple gun.


I wasn't sure how Niko would react to such a drastic change to his beloved chair. So, I made it a slow transition. (I also didn't get enough fabric so we had to wait a few days to complete the project)


"hmm...you guys sure about this tacky print?"
I laid the cloth out on the floor for Niko to sniff it out. After a few moments, he chased it like any old toy. 


As you can see, i only had enough fabric for the top half of the chair. The thing was half complete for a week but I think it was a good way for Niko to ease into the change. Here he is, in his "cave." He's very territorial about this space; he growls if you try to invade his space when he wants to be left alone.


Here's the finished product:
Why, hello there. Want to join me?
We call it the "Cheetah Chair" and its very fitting because as most Shiba Inu owners know, these dogs have some feline qualities. In fact, Niko sometimes climbs on this chair very slowly and gracefully. It reminds me of a recent show I saw of tigers going up on their pedestals.

9 comments:

  1. That's wild!

    Leopard never goes out of style. Good pick!

    I love how he can curl underneath to sleep in his den and climb on top to rule his kingdom.

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  2. Good job! Love it! I really like the picture of him in his Den, but I think the best picture is the last one, love that expression!

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  3. We hope you don't mind that we added you to our "favorite places to visit" spot on our blog. =)

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  4. Thanks for the comments.
    Ting, ruling his kingdom is right! The den is sacred to him.

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  5. It's funny how Niko's den is under the chair. It's so cute how shiba find places under stuff to be their special spot. I can see Niko saying (In the 2nd picture) "why are you guys covering up my lovely art work?" lol

    I actually didn't find out about P&G buying Innova out until I googled Innova to get the link to send to a friend. After I saw posts about Innova being bought out, I decided to look into it a little more and ended up not giving the link to my friend. I told them to try Wellness or Orijen instead. It was a huge bummer on our end because Mika is allergic to poultry meal and finding grain free food without poultry limits our brands by a lot. Something about how they process their bird makes him itchy. I can give him chicken breast that I've grilled myself and he does fine on it.. it just gets pricey and time consuming after a while. =P

    Good luck with Wellness! I'm using up the last of our Evo and mixing it with the 6 fish formula from Orijen. I wasn't sure how Mika would do with fish because the Evo fish formula didn't agree with Mika's tummy. So far, I'm coming up on a month of half and half to make sure his tummy can handle it, so far so good. If the 6 fish doesn't work, Orijen has their red meat formula which I'm pretty sure his tummy can handle.

    (Sorry for the last post, I was signed into my work account. Yikes!)

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  6. Wow kudos to you for all the work you do because of the allergy. Mika
    Is very fortunate :)
    Yea shibas must like having a roof over their heads
    That's why they go to their safe zone under furniture.

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  7. Show a full picture of Niko & the chair. I want to see the bottom part covered, and see if you passed Reupholstering 101!!!

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  8. hmm our shiba has not found any place in the apartment to crawl in. he seems happy to be on top of things, but not under (yet). i'm going to look around tonight and see if there is any space that he may like and open it up for him...

    i love the last pic, also, by the way!

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  9. great pictures. Nothing spells classy like leopard-print. hehe jk. I wonder what it looks like now

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