Made in Tampa Bay: Custom doggy decor made in Sarasota

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Sarasota-based custom furniture company Artsy Reclaimed puts old wood and metal to new use, but a one-off project launched owners Carla and Mike French into a new world of home furnishings.

For two years, they've specialized in custom furniture but now, their main clientele is dog owners.

It started with a sketch from a furniture customer in St. Pete of a dog kennel. Being dog lovers themselves, the couple decided to go for it.

They put a picture of the kennel on their Facebook page and the orders haven’t stopped since.

“We kept saying we're in the doghouse, we're in the doghouse, cause we were always working in a doghouse all the time,” Carla said.

The dog kennels can double as a media stand or side table.

The kennels are made without screws or nails. They’re specially jointed with wooden pegs, which keeps it sturdy.  

Artsy Reclaimed now builds about 100 dog kennels a year, making up about half of their business.

"You know, we love our pets. We are a society that really loves our dogs. We're building one for a rabbit. We've built one for a turtle and a pig, so I think that's the family love. We treat our pets like family," Mike said.

Each kennel takes about 40 hours of work, and requires about three weeks to allow for curing the glue and paint. 

One of their standard size dog kennels is equivalent to standard size wire dog crate, but Artsy Reclaimed will create just about any size a customer requests.

Before they launched their custom furniture venture, Carla was working as a civil engineer and Mike was an executive in for-profit education.

"There comes a time when you have to your dream and pursue your love," Mike said.

For more information, visit https://artsyreclaimed.com/