Founder Michael Kiel is rethinking the everyday pet essential with design-forward beds made to belong in your home.&nbsp;

There are designer sofas, handwoven rugs, and carefully sourced antiques—so why should the dog bed be the thing you want to hide when guests come over?
That question sits at the heart of Raja Doggo, a new luxury pet brand founded by Michael Kiel that approaches a typically utilitarian object with the consideration of an interiors piece. Born from a shared love of dogs, block printing, and India's rich design history, the brand creates dog beds meant to feel just as considered as the homes they live in.
Raja Doggo's identity is deeply tied to traditional Indian craftsmanship. Each piece is hand-block-printed in India using natural dyes before being thoughtfully constructed in Brooklyn. Rather than relying on mass production, the brand emphasizes the variations and human touch inherent to the process, allowing each pattern and stitch to carry a sense of history.
That history also informs the brand's visual language. Its patterns reference India's royal lineage and architectural beauty, while the names behind the prints make the collection decidedly personal. Each is named for someone—or some dog—held dear to the brand. Romy, Cole, Bunny, and Dolly appear through soft, dewy florals, while Noor, Peggy, and Duke take on deeper, bolder shades.

Other designs look to India more directly. Ponyo de Bed-stuy and Miss Honey channel the energy of Teej, the centuries-old monsoon festival celebrated with vibrant processions, while Maharani Gayatri Devi, the famed former Maharani of Jaipur, is among the figures honored throughout the collection.
The result is a meeting of old and new: centuries of textile tradition translated into an object designed for the modern home. Sustainability is part of that philosophy, too. Raja Doggo positions its beds as pieces made with care and intended to grow old beautifully rather than disposable pet accessories destined to be replaced.
It's a playful premise with a decidedly luxurious execution: If your dog already rules the house, their throne might as well look the part.
L'OFFICIEL spoke with Raja Doggo founder Michael Kiel about the brand's ethos, its celebration of Indian craftsmanship, and the inspiration behind its playful designs.&nbsp;

L'OFFICIEL:&nbsp;What inspired you to start Raja Doggo, and why did you decide to focus on luxury dog beds?
MICHAEL KIEL: My dog is my everything. He’s the glue in my family, and I want the best for him the same way I’d want the best for anyone I love. My own bed is my sanctuary, so why shouldn’t his be? Dogs take ownership of things, from stuffies to their humans, and a dog bed is a haven to them the same way.
We went through dog beds fast and furious. Either my dog Captain could care less about what I bought, or I got tired of looking at it. Every time we had guests over, whatever bed we owned got shoved in a closet.&nbsp;Nothing I found bridged the gap between real comfort and support for him and something I wasn’t embarrassed to leave out in my living room. That’s what sent me looking for, and eventually building, a luxury dog bed that actually belonged in a home.
There is nowhere else on the planet quite like India. It is so sensorially overwhelming—in the best possible way: color pulling your eyes in every direction, scent hitting your nose, texture and material moving together in this symphonic energy.&nbsp;Once I saw the country’s textile tradition up close, I knew it belonged on a dog bed as much as anywhere else in a home.
LO: You say dog beds don’t have to be ugly. Why do you think pet products have been overlooked from a design perspective for so long?
MK: I think it comes down to how the way we see dogs has changed. For my generation, a dog isn’t an accessory. He or she is a member of the household. Pet products seemed to never have been given much thought as interior design. They'd traditionally been designed as either something cutesy, dumbed down for a dog, or a little soulless and mass.
In the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira refuses to enter heaven without the dog who walked beside him the whole way. That idea, that a dog is a companion worthy of real love and loyalty, is exactly how I feel about my guy. That reverence never fully made it into how the pet industry designs, and closing that gap is the whole point of what we do. We’re unabashed animal people, and our beds are our way of bringing the same thought and care to our four-legged family members that we’d bring to anything else in our homes.

LO: Every Raja Doggo bed is hand-block-printed in India and finished in Brooklyn. Why was it important to make each piece by hand instead of mass producing them?
MK: Because the handicraft is the whole point. Every Raja Doggo piece is a handmade dog bed—stamped by hand, block by block, by an artisan whose family has likely done this work for generations, the knowledge passed down along with the skill. There’s something powerful about experiencing the minds, hands, and hearts of makers on a piece of fabric.
Finishing each piece in Brooklyn matters too. Every bed passes through human hands twice, once in Rajasthan and once again in New York, before it reaches a home. Behind each set of those hands is real pride in what’s being made, a palpable joy that carries from the artisan into the fabric and from the upholsterer into the bed. There’s a place for mass production, and real benefits to it, but it doesn’t carry the same energy as a small team of people bringing their own expertise to something with their hands. We make everything in small runs, on purpose.&nbsp;The best feedback we get is from the dogs themselves. Ones who usually couldn’t care less about beds walk straight up to a Raja Doggo bed, sniff it, circle it, sniff it again, genuinely curious, like they can tell something was made special, made for them. Then they sink in and claim it. Those are the best reviews.
LO: India’s history and craftsmanship are at the heart of the brand. How did you want to bring that heritage into your designs?
MK: My mother was a quilter, a seamstress, an avid collector of vintage linens and fabrics. Her love of textiles took her all over the world, and I was lucky enough to tag along. That’s where the bug started. I’ve collected fabric wherever I’ve traveled ever since, always drawn to the stories and history held inside it.&nbsp;I’ve spent twenty years inside luxury houses, learning to appreciate the power of real savoir faire, and that is the eye I try to bring into every choice we make here.
Spending time with block printers in Bagru, India felt like being let into something extraordinary. It’s a process passed down for roughly 450 years, deeply connected to the earth, from the natural dyes to the knowledge of how ingredients interact. Indigo and turmeric can become this brilliant parakeet green. That, to me, is magic.&nbsp;Watching artisans print by hand is almost hypnotic. So much precision in every movement, yet what you’re watching feels like a controlled dance, the steady rhythm of blocks meeting fabric, the movement between dye vats and printing tables. So much skill lives inside something that looks effortless.&nbsp;I want our designs to honor that. Every print nods to Rajasthan’s architecture and pattern-making, and to the people who have kept this tradition alive for generations.

LO: Many of your prints are named after pets and people who are meaningful to you. Is there one design that has a special story behind it?
MK: Each print in the collection is a tribute to an animal, or a person, or sometimes history itself.&nbsp;Gayatri is named for Gayatri Devi, one of the chicest women of our time, Indian royalty, and a devoted lover of dogs.&nbsp;Roshanara and Bobby come from an old story of a dog who belonged to Muhammad Mahabat Khanji III, the last Nawab of Junagadh, who staged an actual wedding for his beloved Roshanara to a golden retriever named Bobby. He spent over 200,000 dollars on the event, and people traveled from across the country to attend and witness one of the most decadent royal events of its time. Bobby also happens to be the nickname of someone very special in my life, someone who is pure fun-loving spirit.
Dolly is named for Dolly Parton, my country queen. An American treasure.&nbsp;The print that means the most to me is Anita, named for my mother. She found so much joy, comfort, and presence in working with textiles. Anita has become our best seller. I like to think she has something to do with that.
LO: When creating a new dog bed, how do you balance making something beautiful for the home while also making sure it’s comfortable for dogs?
MK: Comfort has to come first, or none of the beauty matters. Every bed starts with the fill and support a dog actually needs, tested by Captain and his neighborhood friends before anyone else’s dog gets near it. Pick one up and you feel it immediately: dense but soft, structured for real support, holding its shape on a hardwood floor, upholstered like a real piece of furniture because that’s exactly what it’s meant to be. Once that foundation is right, the print and construction follow. It’s a sequence: solve for the dog first, then make sure it fits beautifully in the home.
Sustainability plays into the process too. We work with a local fabric co-op in South Brooklyn that upcycles scraps from NYC designers into a dense, soft filler. An unexpected bonus: our customers tell us their dogs are especially drawn to it, noses working overtime on all those layered, repurposed scents.

LO: What’s been the most rewarding part of building Raja Doggo so far?
MK: Honestly, a few things:&nbsp;Sitting with artisans and hearing how they talk about their own work. It’s never just a skill to them. It’s history, it’s family, it’s meaning. Getting a window into that is a real privilege.&nbsp;Watching a dog claim a bed as theirs, and watching their owner light up right alongside them. That mix of joy on both ends of the leash is honestly the whole point.&nbsp;Watching the brand open doors I never could have mapped out on day one, partnerships, bringing people together from completely different worlds, and having a lot of fun in the process.
LO: Looking ahead, where do you hope to take the brand next? Are there any new products or categories you’d love to explore?
MK: There’s still a lot to learn as we keep developing and perfecting what we already make, and yes, there’s more coming. We’re just getting started. We’re introducing new pieces for humans, designed for dog lovers and the impeccably tasteful few who somehow still don’t have a dog yet. For holiday, we’ll be launching pillows and quilts, made for snuggling and for protecting your furniture. There’s a lot percolating: new pieces for pets and their people, built on the same instinct for merging beauty, old traditions, comfort, and things we love from around the globe. Go find the print that’s speaking to you. There’s probably a story behind it too.

Raja Doggo Is Bringing High Design to the Dog Bed

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