Our team at Once Over comprises of four members. One Designer-Caroline, one Maker- Mark and two puppy muses -Maybel & Luna. You might wonder why we are called Once Over. Well, we know it’s a strange name for a dog bed biz however the name is tied to our product in that what was once flooring in a house, siding on a fascade or panelling in a much loved home has now been made over into our signature reclaimed timber dog beds you see before you.
We made our first bed back in 2018 for our pup Maybel, a seriously, sassy miniature schnauzer with a fondness for napping. At this stage Maybel was both an indoor and outdoor pup but was pushing boundaries when it came to time spent indoors. Although we loved having her inside “relaxing” alongside us in the evening, this would most often turn into her doing zoomies across all the furniture and throwing her toys in our face whilst we were trying to relax on the couch. The most frustrating for Mark in particular was her habit of wedging herself in between us on the couch and intentionally pushing against him with all four legs as if to stake claim on HER mum.
This was starting to cause some serious tension between us all. We frequently discussed how we were going to get her to respect our space indoors but how we also wanted to enjoy her company at the same time. This is when we decided to build her a bed of her own that she could relax on and was as close to being on the couch with us as possible.
We were inspired by our love of mid-century furniture and set out designing and making a simple yet functional raised bed frame with cigar legs and the very first Once Over dog bed was formed.
Fast-forward to now and we have refined this initial idea to what you see today. We are constantly striving to improve each build and learn new skills and techniques along the way. Mark takes the lead when it comes to making our bed frames, utilising his love for making and knowledge picked up on job sites as a sparky and the occasional tip courtesy of his chippy father. Caroline focuses on the design side of things utilising her experience designing clothing to select fabrics, colours and materials and is responsible for sewing every cushion cover for our custom cushion inserts. Last but not least Maybel and Luna our faithful pooches play a major role in vigorously testing our products and modelling new designs.
Since building our first bed in 2018 our mission has become clear. Our aim is to create quality dog beds that will last your dog a lifetime. We were sick of seeing and hearing about mass produced dog beds that were affordable and started out looking great but quickly fell apart or were unable to be cleaned effectively due to poor design. In contrast our dog beds are designed with life cycle at the forefront paired with aesthetics to deliver a piece of furniture that will stand the test of time. We source our materials locally, use reclaimed timber, work to minimize wastage in both wood and fabric during production, and ensure our packaging is as sustainable and earth friendly as possible, even using recycled poly-fil for our cushion inserts.
Our vision for Once Over is to continue to be inspired by our dogs, our home and our lifestyle and share our creations and what we’ve learnt with you along the way. Having recently completed an epic renovation and extension of our home we are now so keen to turn our attention to living in the spaces we purpose designed and built for our growing family especially with the addition of our daughter Esme who we welcomed in November of 2021. We also made sure to design spaces for our new and improved workshop and studio space so we can keep making and creating from the comfort of our home with the bub and dogs at our feet.
