I'm currently engaged in commissioned work for a luxury hotel - at 28 pieces its the biggest commission I've ever know - and I'm not at liberty to share any images of it. However, as you may surmise, there is a lull in artwork proceedings at the moment, hence photoshop bonanza of step by steps pics following the making of Puppy's new couch step! Time wasting!

But really, this has needed making for ages, she's finding the couch a leap too far sometimes now so this is a boon...in a household where 'no pets on the furniture' was a no exceptions rule...until we got a pet...

Enjoy! I did!

Like this one, at a size appropriate to height of couch/bed/car door, cross referenced to size/age/agility of Beloved Pet. This is your step, the bottom of the box becomes the top of the step and happiness abounds.

Its an empty cardboard box. Not a particle accelerator machine. Which would be cooler.

Shore it up around the bottom edges & up the corners with timber cut to size, lashings of PVA glue and the old staple gun. Utilise those timber scraps stacked up in the corner because FINALLY, they're useful. Here I've pulled apart a crappy pine stretcher frame and some odd ends & cut them sort-of-the-right lengths, sometimes they even end up at the same sized lengths! Mostly eyeballed measurements obviously, I'm an (obviously slapdash) artist & I'm practically expected to be 'creative' with stuff, like, especially stuff with numbers. Sweet deal!

Allowing for upholstery fabric to wrap around to the inside under the edges. This here is the old mismeasurements masquerading as good thinking! Its totally a good idea though! I recommend it! People will think you're a clever thinker!

Looking FINE

MDF also preferably from scrap. I hate cutting into a full sheet just for some small thing, dont you? Bang in some nails at corner points as indicated. By red dots. 

onto the MDF. It wont fit that well, but thats ok, its an offcut! Really burning through the Useful Box today!

because that'll make it nice & smooth for the upholstery fabric to stretch over. Damage control!

this time

scrap from the last time the couches were recovered. So thrifty! This fabric from Mokum, its fancy in a beige way and really hard wearing; all this happenstance is really banging today!

Its fun-er than nails or tacks or hot glue. I dont have a hot glue gun so its heaps fun-er than that for sure.

Dab glue along the inside of folded edge & use pins to keep the edges together for now. Thats a bonafide tip right there. Boom!

those corners carefully so the stitching isnt visible & remove the pins. It takes a while but as an artist you dont think of this as time consuming, because your perception of 'time consuming' is adjusted to reflect the laborious, tedious reality of your practice. Just sit & whip stitch it up, bitchezzz

Had to sorry

And there you have it!

Did you enjoy reading that pet step adventure story? Got any better ideas? Do tell, comments below

* Her name, technically, is Peach, but she's 9 years old now & still as clever as a puppy so its "Puppy" and we love her.