I put a wood top on my foster dog's crate and turned it inot a table. I used a table top that used to be an oak kitchen table that i got for free off of craigslist that was in great shape. I removed the base and put the top on his crate. you could do this idea as a table space in any room or for a smaller crate as a side table. If you wanted to you could even cover the sides and back with more wood or a cloth. I did this for my foster dog who has his crate in the kitchen. It has provided me with another great work space and place to keep appliances. I have a power strip near by so when ever i need the blender, food processor, toaster oven, etc, I just come over to his crate table/work station. plus he loves it because he ends up getting a lot of scraps when I am cooking. I have gotten several compliments from this idea.

hair/smell/drool... add to that an increasingly incontinent elderly dog. We wash the blankets for young dog weekly, for old dog sometimes daily, but old dog in particular needs something soft to lay on.

Fortunately both of our dogs are totally comfortable with their crates, including when we have them in a corner or covered with a blanket, and they don't see them at all as punishment. Crates just simply aren't optional in our house because young dog is a purebreed pug rescue who was probably abandoned because he is an obsessive marker, and old dog is, as I said, old and incontinent.

And honestly though, if a dog reacts negative to the crate (even if "boxed in", covered, in a corner, etc.) my experience with rescued dogs is that it's probably more about associating it with some specific traumatic experience, or from only being put in there when he was "bad" and being yelled at or swatted or worse. Most crate trained dogs love their crates because it's very much a canine instinct to seek out a small dark place - instinctually, it makes them feel safer.

I just wish the dogs were smart enough to do their own laundry and clean up their own hair and messes!!

Oh yes, we have the same problem. Another issue is that to be fair to the dog, you should have it out in the open, as opposed to in a corner. Being in a corner could make a dog feel like crating is punishment, and they will not know what they did wrong. Same goes for boxing it in. Some dogs have no trouble with this, but some others will react very badly to it. I know I wouldn't like to spend much time in a dark box hidden in a corner. :)

We have ours by our couch, but when we have a lot of company over, we simply remove it, put it on the porch. So, we have not found a permanent solution either. Only time our dog is in it is when we leave him alone. Still, they are too large to move each time. We eliminated the blankets because they would collect too much hair/smell/drool.  

Ok, well I found these but the price is waaaay out of my league.

Anyone know how to build something that will look decent but not require master cabinetmaker skills?