Sham-pooch, Sir? Woman turns her garage into amazing dog shower for just £500
A woman has transformed her boring garage into an incredible dog shower, complete with a recessed bathroom shelf for all their puppy pampering products.
Zoe Marquis, 33, from Windsor, Berkshire, moved into her four bedroom house in October 2020 and has been busy renovating ever since, sharing the results on her home interior Instagram account @homestuffonly.
“We bought our house at the end of 2020 and knew it needed a full refurb before we could move in," she tells Drench of the renovation.
"When planning a project like that you have to think ahead, decide what you need from your home and imagine how you'd use each room.”
But having transformed her own bathroom into a beautiful sanctuary, Marquis decided she could no longer wash her pooches in the new freestanding bath, and hit upon an idea to give dogs Martell and Henny their own stylish shower space.
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“I love to take my two dogs on walks in the local fields whatever the weather and them coming home muddy is inevitable so showering them is a regular occurrence,” she said.
“Once we'd ordered a freestanding stone bath for the family bathroom, cleaning the dogs in that room became a no go, and so the dog shower idea was born."
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Having combed Instagram looking for home accounts for inspiration, she noticed a lot of American homes have dedicated dog washes.
"At first, it was just a wacky idea but I soon realised it was actually possible and not at all expensive to create,” she continues.
“Our garage was integral and we'd have never used it to store our cars, so once we decided to convert it into a utility room the idea was even more attainable – there was this huge void under the stairs that needed filling.
"Several people suggested making it a storage cupboard ,but we really didn't need another cupboard in the house and let's be honest, cupboards are boring. I thought to myself 'that's where the dog wash will go!'"
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The incredible shower came in at around £500, with Marquis able to keep costs low by buying her materials directly from builder's merchants to cut out the middle man.
“A close friend of mine is also a builder so his 'mates rates' for labour were a godsend,” she adds.
“Other ways we saved money were by finishing off the smaller jobs ourselves like grouting the tiles and silicone and sealing the dog shower, instead of hiring a mastic man.”
When coming up with the idea for the pet power shower, Marquis said she questioned whether it could put future buyers off.
“This isn't our 'forever home' so I did wonder if installing something so niche would be a hindrance when we do decide to sell up and move house but with something crazy like 33% of UK households including a dog I highly doubt that will be the case. In fact, it'll probably be a good selling feature!" she adds.
“Every tradesman laughed at the idea and it's still a running joke today, but now it's built and they've seen it in use, they all agree it's been a good and creative use of the redundant space."
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For anyone looking to do the same, Dominic Lees-Bell, bathroom expert at Drench.co.uk recommends purchasing a removable handset shower as it makes it a lot easier to get all of the shampoo out of your dog's fur.
