How to Build a Dog Bowl Stand | Raised Feeder Plans

Building a raised dog bowl stand is one afternoon of woodworking that saves your dog from hunching over every meal and keeps water from sloshing across your floor. The process is straightforward: measure your dog and bowls first, cut the top board to fit, jigsaw openings slightly smaller than each bowl rim, then attach the base and finish it safely. Here is the complete process with measurements you can adapt to your own bowls and dog.

How to Size the Height and Top Board

Size the top board after you have the bowls, not before. Lay the bowls on the board and trace around each one, leaving a couple inches of clearance between them and the edges. The top needs to comfortably hold both bowls with room to spare. Kreg Tool’s plan starts with a 1×12 top, while This Old House also uses 1×12 pine for the top surface.

Mark the bowl positions, then draw a circle slightly smaller than the bowl rim so the bowl lip catches on the wood and cannot fall through. DAP’s guide recommends tracing the bowl and drawing a second circle about 1/4 inch inside the traced line, adjusted to the size of the bowl lip if the lip is wider.

Cutting the Bowl Openings

Drill a starter hole inside each marked circle before reaching for the jigsaw. Either works, as long as the jigsaw blade fits through and the hole stays inside the marked line.

Cut each circle with the jigsaw, following the inner line. Sand the openings smooth afterward, because raw jigsaw edges are sharp enough to catch a dog’s chin during meals. This Old House notes that pocket holes on the inside surfaces of the legs make assembly cleaner, and you can use pocket screws to join everything together.

Assembling the Base and Legs

Build the base so the stand sits flat and square—the most common complaint with DIY feeding stations is wobble, and it traces back to assembly that was not clamped and squared before the screws went in.

Fit the bowls into their openings before final assembly. Anika’s DIY Life plan explicitly says to rough fit the bowls both before and after building the top, because you can still adjust the opening if the bowl does not sit correctly. If a bowl drops through, the opening is too large, and you will need to remake that part of the top.

Finishing With a Pet-Safe Coating

Finish the stand with a food-safe, water-resistant coating. Dogs dribble water across the top constantly, and a finish that swells or flakes from moisture ruins the build. Kreg Tool’s plan suggests paint or stain; DAP recommends taping off the top and painting the legs so the food-contact surface stays clear.

Wood glue and screws hold the stand together, but a quality finish is what keeps it stable and easy to wipe down after every meal.

Once the finish cures, the stand is ready for daily use. If you would rather buy a proven model than spend the afternoon building, our tested roundup of the best dog bowl stands covers the options that earned top marks for stability and easy cleaning.