The feeding station

Hello from the tundra! It’s SO fun to wake up to icicles forming on the inside of your windows. Good times.

I’m planning to get a ton done on the mud room today – I don’t think I’ve ever progressed so fast on a room before. I know three months (so far) wouldn’t seem fast to most but it’s like light years for me.

When I added the bench in that room we lost space for something important in this house – the animal food. :) We have four animals and their food containers and bowls take up a lot of space. Originally I was planning on adding a feeding station in the mud room but there just wasn’t room.

So now I’m trying to figure out the perfect spot for all of it. We want it where we’ll see it all the time (to remember to keep them alive) but where we don’t have to step over it constantly.

For now we’ve moved the food and water next to this sofa table:

This is an old pic but you get the idea of where it is.

But because I’ve had an animal every day of my life and I don’t see that changing in the future, I LOVE the idea of something built in. I gathered a few fun food storage and feeding ideas to share with you today. Some of them are ideas for down the line when we redo our kitchen, others could be done sooner than later.

I found a ton of ideas with the food bowls built in to a kitchen island. I like this one with the jars handy for food and treats:

Big SWEETIE.

And THIS one, with the bowls and the drawers with the bone cut outs…I die:

I know with bigger dogs especially it’s important to have their food bowls up a bit higher to avoid bloat – I don’t know if it’s as big of an issue for little dogs but we have an elevated bowl for ours. I like how these are all built up a bit.

This one ties in the pretty design from over the oven:

Sorry for the small pic – by the way if you don’t see a source it’s because I couldn’t find one. If you know where these came from please let me know and I’ll add it!

I love this idea because it shows that you can make a small area super useful:

I love that these include some storage too – it would be great to have all the animal stuff in one spot, near the food.

This isn’t a feeding area but I loved it – I just wonder if the food would smell if you had it in a kitchen:

In a mud room or laundry room it would be perfect. And we’d need two, one for the dog food and one for cat food. :)

OK, this isn’t a feeding area either but I couldn't’ resist it:

Dog and people storage/comfort all in one! (By the way, do you see the sisal rugs at the bottom of the shoe cubbies? Brilliant.)

This one knocked my socks off. I do believe that is a WORKING sink under there people:

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Oh my goodness, our cats would be in HEAVEN.

This one combines two of my favorite things in one – a window seat and smart storage:

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I would just worry about having their water in there since we like them to have access to that all the time.

This one is just adorable and a lot less involved – no built ins needed:

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SO cute. Too tall for our cats and Peanut but perfect for a bigger dog.

So until I have my dream kitchen with the perfect spot, I thought this was pretty brilliant and I could totally install it myself:

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Anyone have one of these? It looks like the bowls can be pushed back up into the wall when not in use, yes? THIS is smart. Why don’t I think of these things?? They come in a few different colors too.

Do you have a great spot for the animal food? Any fun storage ideas? And where to put that cat litter…well that’s a whole other post. :)