How to: Dog Slobber Splash Blocker.

Monday, January 25, 2016

A what now?  A dog slobber splash blocker.

wood cutout as cityscape for splash blocker
Ah, teaser!  Keep reading!
Ok, I'm freaking out less about the whole first floor bathroom ordeal now.

I mean, I'm still a little freaked as wow, I've created a towering workload for myself.  How the heck is little ol' me gonna pull off this massive bathroom miracle?

state of the first floor bathroom wall tear-out
Yep.  Here we are.  (But isn't the brick awesome?!?!)
Or maybe I should be really freaking out now, I dunno.

At one point or two or ok several I got worried, like omg Mike is totally going to file for divorce and/or toss me in a loony bin and/or kill me.

Although.

If he hasn't after ten and a half years of togetherness, and he has not, I should be in the clear.  Love is...succumbing to your wife's house destroying tendencies?  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Next step is tub removal in order to keep going, a step I suspect I might be unable to accomplish solo.  Cough, cough, ahem...Mike....

And I don't have enough of the Antares copper tile to use on both walls.  Unless I find some filler to mix in as the Antares is out of stock well, everywhere.  Of course.  Hm.  Regardless, 20x20's on a three foot wide span will require a keen, thoughtful layout.  Filler might help, hm....

Buuuuuut in the mean time, yeah, heh, back to averting, diverting, other projects!

So say you've got this ginormous beast of a dog with a proportionally large drinking apparatus.  And say said hound drinks oodles of water to tank up that oversized body of his.  And then say when he does drink water, he slobbers and splashes and sprays it all over the damn place.

Ya know, like all in slow motion, water spewing everywhere (click it, seriously) hitting the walls, the floor, his face, anything within a ten foot radius.

And then say you just repainted the kitchen wall.  Only to discover that when water gets on it, it's extra streaky.  Boo.

I should have put up some form of wall protection a long time ago but never did.  The whole area, amazingly, is not ruined but now that the wall is repainted a leaning-more-permanent shade, it was time.  Time indeed.

We begin tonight, folks, with a water bowl stand.  Humble and messy and drenched.

wood water bowl stand in kitchen
Bowl.
Rummaging in the basement I came across pieces of quarter inch thick particle board that were once shelves to a crummy metal shelving unit that did not survive a move.  But.  Me.  I am a materials hoarder.  I kept the shelves.  Of course.  As I do.  "I'm sure I can use these for something later, yeah, totally...."

Upon dragging one upstairs and propping it between the bowl and the wall, with furrowed brow, I harrumph'ed.  UNattractive.  Walked away.

contemplating how to protect wall with wood
Lame and unattractive.
Circling it the next day like a shark, or I guess technically maybe half-circling at best, I was chin-scratching for ideas.

How can I make this.....ah ha!  A city skyline!  That's way way better!

After some quick measurements of key items on the wall, I scurried to the basement and began drawing it up.

Nothing complicated really.  Just random shapes, trying to keep the center area practical yet stylish.

drawing up city scape on piece of wood
Little hard to see the pencil lines there, apologies.
Once it was drawn up, it was time to cut.  Using the little 3" saw I cut a handful of the straight lines and trimmed off larger excess.

cutting out the design with a compact saw
Cuttin' them there straight lines.
For finer work, I turned to my jigsaw, yes the one I'm not fond of but it does still cut things.  Of course it's challenging to keep straight lines with it but, perfectionism be damned.

cleaning up the corners and details
Cuttin' them there more finer details and corners.
Mmk!  The whole thing is cut and ready for paint!

finished cut out of city scape splash blocker in wood panel
Mmk!  Paint 'er up time!
What can I use that's fast drying, water repellent...ah, a can of white spray paint.  I may later on down the line pick up some more Plasti Dip* for this as well as a refresher can for the water bowl stand.

Which has worked stunningly well by the way, that Plasti Dip stuff.  Considering how drenched the stand gets.  Cha-ching!

Anywhoo....

Right, so spray painting indoors in winter?  Bad idea.  Of course.  Don't do it.  I set up shop in the basement bathroom with the exhaust running and a fan.  Stinky and not advised.  Don't.

spray painting the wood
If I had little baby cans of spray paint, mini graffiti would have been fab!
A few dustings and it was time to figure out wall mounting.

Which turned out to be random leftover screws I had, some washers for a dressed up "industrial" effect, and some plain ol' wall anchors.

screws and washers holding the panel to the wall
Hey, a screw and a washer!
I drilled through the particle board into the wall, drilled out the wall holes larger, banged in the anchors (carefully mind you as now knowing we have paper thin drywall....), and zip zip!  We have slobber splash blocker!

finished dog slobber splash blocker attached to wall
Ha!  How funny! And ha, the outlet is not squared! Dammit!  That won't make me insane at all.....
Super cute, yeah?!  I'm such a dork sometimes, eh?

cityscape wood panel spray painted and attached to wall to prevent splashing water damage from dog
hahaha, totally cracking myself up!
And holy bananas, it worked!  Totally worked!  Check it out!  Ha!  So silly!

close up of detail of dog water wall splash protector
Peer in there real close, you'll see the droplets on the thingie and not the wall!  Yay!
Now Finny-boy can feel like he's on a big city adventure while tanking up!

Mike gave me a guffaw, a grin, and said it was cute.  Eeeeee, thumbs up!

*The Plasti Dip is an Amazon affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.

19 comments

  1. We have a similar challenge at my abode. And while that's a cool idea, in my house, all those beautiful skyline peaks and valleys would be filled with cat fur in a heart beat. Why can't pets learn to clean up after themselves?

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    1. Ah, I feel your fur pain too! Wouldn't it be great if they could clean up after themselves?! Aw that'd be awesome! Thanks!

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  2. Cool idea. It looks nice.I thought I was the only crazy materials hoarder. When I was getting rid of a bunch of stuff to move to a smaller house my son was helping me.
    "Mom, we don't need these old pieces of wood."
    "Yes, I want them."
    "Mom, it's old wood."
    "Exactly, its from a dresser that was at least 50 years old."
    He looks at me as if I might need to be committed. He nearly cries as I defiantly pack the wood. LOL. I have to binge watch Hoarders to keep myself in check.

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  3. Seriously though, that patina on your brick is to die for! It is gorgeous and you cannot buy that natural aged look. I can't wait to see how you finish it up.

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    1. Yeah, we're loving the brick! My eyes did that cartoon eye-pop thing once I started ripping down more drywall.

      Hopefully some day your son will understand the benefits of materials hoarding....in the mean time, I've got your back! :) Thanks!!

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  4. this is so smart and it looks good, too.

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  5. I like the name "Dog Slobber Blocker" Bwahahah! This is such a great idea. I'm featuring your project this week at You're Gonna Love! Thanks for sharing.. it cracks me up!

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    1. Seriously Kim, that's awesome! Thank you so much! Can't wait to check that out, thank you!

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  6. Looks Great! I totally know where your coming from - our sweet pooch, a choccy Labrador is the queen of slobber!

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    1. Oh yeah, I bet! Labs are super slobberers for sure! Thanks!

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  7. What a cute idea!! Definitely drinking in style!! :) Thanks for sharing at Table IT!

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  8. I think that if you loosen the screw on the outlet 'cover' that you can straighten it a bit.

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    1. Ah HA with the clever squaring up tactic! Nice! Thank you!

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  9. What a fantastic idea! I have 2 messy cats and am going to do this in their bathroom feeding area, which I cannot keep clean. WAY better and so much cuter than trying to keep washing down the wall and molding, which continuously get splattered with canned food. Am also going to do this in the kitchen for the dog bowl/bucket area. We have 3 canine rescued fur-babes, a Great Pyrs. mix, Shepherd mix, and a cray-cray loves to run until she can't breathe mix I'm convinced is an Australian Kelpie. They told us she was a Shep mix at the shelter, but I don't think so. She has the most glorious ears, though, and is a walking fart machine (sorry for you more sensitive ears, but you know, some dogs just DO!). They all slobber water and sometimes tail wagging gets into the water too. But I may alter the design to be a mountain scape, paint and seal with poly, as that's my heaven. Here come my X-acto knives to play with. Thanks for the inspiration, I too hoard wood in the basement, you never know when you're gonna need it! : D

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    1. Thank you for your fantastic comment! It sounds like you have an awesome zoo of fabulous fur kids! I am so thrilled you found inspiration in this project and I hope it works wondrously for you! Thank you!

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  10. LOVE this idea! My Germie Shep is HORRIBLE! I think she gets more water all over the place than in her mouth! I did notice though, doesn't your "city water" now roll right down over the baseboard & then pool on the floor?? That's a problem with my Daisy! Might have to tweak your idea!! Thanks! 😁

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    1. They are super slobberers, right?! Freakin’ amazing. Haha, city water! I did touch up the baseboard with some water tight paint so that helps too. Finn is more of a front-of-bowl mess maker but I imagine with some tweaking, this will help you! Good luck and happy pets to Daisy!

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