STYLE: INTERIORS : Room to Groom

Isabel Dutra isn’t the first person to open a pet wash, but she very likely operates the most eye-catching one. My Beautiful Dog-O-Mat, her 6-month-old, do-it-yourself dog- and cat-washing shop a few blocks north of the San Diego Zoo, won an Orchid Award last year for handsome interior design. (Seven San Diego County design organizations give out Orchid and Onion awards for the best and worst of the county’s constructed environment.)

Dutra, an artist by training, started her business after growing weary of bathing her own two dogs at home. On a shoestring budget of $20 a square foot, she asked up-and-coming San Diego architects Jim Gates and James Brown to transform a dark, 1,000-square-foot flower shop into a bright space for grooming animals. Reworking junkyard finds, they had three metal storage bins cleaned, galvanized and reshaped into bathtubs. Four large multi-pane windows were reconfigured as room dividers, separating the boutique at the front, the area for bathing ($8) and drying ($3) in the middle and the pet photo studio at the rear.

Dutra and friends did all the painting. Inside, walls were sponged high-style shades of ochre and tomato, strictly for the enjoyment of pet owners, of course, since dogs and cats are colorblind. Outside, split-pea-colored columns topped by golden Pharaoh heads flank the picture window.

The response so far to San Diego’s first pet bathhouse? “Most people are delighted that they don’t have to clean up the mess,” says manager Sandra Castro. “The only drawback is that while the dogs and cats look great when they leave, sometimes the owners look a little wet.”