A LETTER FROM A READER
At 59, My Dog Groomer Asked Who Painted Brooky's Portrait
I've never written anything like this before, and I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing it now. So many people have asked me the same question this month that it seemed easier to just write it all down once.
Is that a painting of her on your basket?
That's what the girl at the dog groomer's asked when I went to pick Brooky up on Saturday. I'd brought her towels along in the basket because she'd had a bath, and she wasn't looking at Brooky at all. She was looking at the basket on my arm.
I did not choose that, not really. Nobody decides to buy something ugly. You buy the cheap plastic one meaning to replace it, and then ten years go by.
HOW IT HAPPENS
You don't set out to have a "dog corner." It just happens. The leash by the door. The half-chewed toys nobody puts away. The towel from the last walk in the rain, still slightly damp, draped over whatever's nearest.
So you buy a bin. Any bin. The plastic one from the hardware shop, because it was there and it was cheap, and you tell yourself you'll sort it out properly one day.
Ten years later, "one day" still hasn't come.
WHAT I HAD WRONG
Here's where I got it wrong, in two ways.
The first was assuming it had to be one or the other: something pretty that you display, or something sturdy you actually use for the mess. Not both. It turns out that's not true. It's quilted fabric, properly structured, not the flimsy sort that collapses the second it's not stuffed full. Sturdy handles for carrying it through to wherever it's going. And it holds its shape. Pop a towel or a couple of toys inside and it stands there, crisp and straight, not sagging the way the old one always did.
The second was a bit sillier, if I'm honest. I worried a basket covered in dogs would look like the sort of thing that says "slightly unhinged about her dog" rather than "nice front hallway." It doesn't. It's properly illustrated, not novelty-shop cartoonish. It's the kind of thing you'd choose for the room anyway, and it just happens to have dogs on it.
See The Dog CollectionMine Is Colorful Dogs
It's from Olivia Bennett Melbourne, a small Australian shop that's spent thirteen years making the everyday things in our homes a little less forgettable. Mine has a whole row of dogs across it, with different breeds, different colours and ears every which way. One of them, right in the middle, is a cream-coloured one with the same broad head and soft eyes as Brooky. That's the one everyone stops on.
It's properly made. The quilting is soft but structured, so it stands up by itself whether it's full or empty. The design wraps the whole way round, so it looks finished from every angle, not just the front.
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN PEOPLE CAME ROUND
It lives in the open now, by the back door where Brooky's things always end up anyway.
Four different people have asked about it this month alone. The girl at the groomer's. Two women from my walking group. One of them has a golden too, and now we half-joke about starting a club for it. And my daughter, who has started checking whenever she visits.
Nobody has ever asked about the plastic bin. Not once, in ten years.
THREE THINGS I HAVE LEARNED SINCE
One. It's not just for one thing. I use mine for Brooky's toys most days, but it's swallowed wet towels after a beach walk, spare leads, even a bag of dog food for a week when the pantry was being repainted.
Two. It arrives a little flat, and that's normal. Mine looked slightly squashed straight out of the box. It's soft fabric, not a rigid shell, so it travels compressed. A minute of gently shaping it by hand and it stood right up. Once I had a couple of towels in there, it held its shape perfectly, crisp and straight, no help needed after that.
Three. It's printed, not embroidered. I'll admit I assumed otherwise at first glance. It's a proper high-detail print, not stitched thread, which is exactly why it wipes clean so easily.
ABOUT THE PRICE
I'll be straightforward about this, because that was the thing that made me suspicious too.
Colorful Dogs is $64.95 AUD. It was $219.95 AUD.
My first thought was that it was a lot for a laundry basket. Then I thought about what it was actually replacing: the same tired plastic bin every dog owner seems to end up with somewhere, the kind that goes scratched and cloudy within a year, the kind you don't really want to put your hand into to dig out the ball Brooky's after. I'd have kept replacing that same ugly bin every couple of years regardless, and never once liked it.
It's from Olivia Bennett Melbourne, a small Australian shop that's been going for thirteen years. They're having a Moving Sale at the moment, and some of the prints are being retired, so once they're gone, they're gone.
See The Dog CollectionWHAT I WOULD TELL YOU IF WE WERE FRIENDS
If you and I were sitting in my kitchen and you asked me about this, here's what I'd say.
Have a look at whatever's currently holding your dog's things. If it's a bin you didn't really choose because it was just there, it was cheap and it did the job, this is worth a look.
It's a small thing. But the small things you look at every day add up to how the whole room feels.
A dog groomer thought my laundry basket was a portrait of my dog. I still laugh about that.
— Allison
COLORFUL DOGS | QUILTED STORAGE BASKET
$219.95 AUD $64.95 AUD
- Soft quilted fabric with a colorful dog print, all round
- Printed design that wipes clean easily
- Stands upright once shaped and holds its form beautifully once filled
- Folds flat to store or take with you
- Three sizes, from dog toys to a family's worth of towels
- Free Australia Delivery
Moving Sale on now. Some prints are being retired, so once they're gone, they're gone.