Where to find a stylish dog bed

Luke answers readers’ questions on design and stylish living every week. Email him at lukeedward.hall@ft.com and follow him on Instagram @lukeedwardhall

Is there any such thing as a stylish dog bed?

One would hope so. I am still without a canine sidekick, much to my chagrin. My partner Duncan, you see, is not a natural dog lover, having grown up with three yappy (but in my opinion extremely loveable) toy poodles. My parents got Labradors after I moved to London, which meant I missed out.

Duncan’s uncertainty is not the real problem. We both travel a lot and it would not be fair to continually foist a dog on friends while I swan about in New York or Paris, paintbrush in hand. Since we moved to the country last June, however, things have changed. We have a big garden and endless fields surrounding us.

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We have decided on a breed: a whippet (and a name: Merlin). Why a whippet? Medium size. Small enough to curl up in my lap, large enough to race full-speed through summer fields during all those country runs I am imagining. A sleek, velvety coat, like a mouse’s.

Sensitive, not particularly social. Reminds me of . . . me. And such elegance, with that slender head held high and those delicately crossed paws. Just like an Art Deco bookend.

I started research a few months ago and have made a few plans. Ideally I would like to rescue, so I am checking websites for updates. In the meantime, I ponder accessories.

First and foremost, a kelly-green leather lead. As for a dog bed, there are myriad options: beds made from memory foam and faux fur and Liberty fabric; beds that resemble miniature antique iron human beds or snug little caves; even heated beds.

The Conran Shop’s Hogla dog basket is made using knotted jute thread by a Fair Trade organisation working with artisans in Bangladesh. The natural jute is smart and, as it could be mistaken for a chic basket for logs or magazines, it would look as good in a sitting room as it would by the Aga.

I would probably want to pair roughish jute with a blanket for my shivering whippet to tuck himself beneath. I like Labour and Wait’s checked and plaid blankets, made in Scotland and in limited editions of 100 per design.

London’s Howe makes the most stylish dog beds I have come across. Inspired by a 19th-century spindle-turned chair, its Great Bear dog bed’s frame is made in beech, with any finish. The accompanying down cushion is customisable too, meaning options are endless.

I am imagining a plump cushion in corduroy with a Greek-key border and oversized tassels, but that’s just me.

Howe also does a very comfortable-looking multi-layered dog bed, made with machine-washable cushions held together with hessian straps.

For ultimate inspiration, I am looking to the 18th-century French furniture maker Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené’s niche de chien, or dog kennel, created for Marie Antoinette and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Constructed from gilded beech and pine and upholstered in pale-blue velvet, it is a sumptuous masterpiece in miniature.

Even more outrageous is a kennel I saw on 1stdibs.com (currently unavailable). Made in the late 19th or early 20th century, this grandiose cream-and-green house is modelled on a neoclassical temple and embellished with pineapple finials, Corinthian columns and a raised plinth mounted with plaster masks of Pan.

With its Robert Adam-esque frills and spun-sugar swags, it reminds me of Kenwood House in London.

All of this has got me thinking: when we do eventually get a dog, how fun would it be to commission a bed? I will take my cue from the Amalienburg, the elaborate Rococo hunting lodge in the Nymphenburg Palace Park in Munich.

If he is anything like his owners, I know little Merlin will go mad for his own pint-sized, pink stucco pavilion.

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