Creator and entrepreneur Lindy Goodson has two uninspired dog bowls to thank for her latest creative endeavor. Day after day, they sat on the kitchen floor of her Collinsville, Illinois, home—perfectly functional, quietly beige, but utterly out of step with the color and ornate design flourishes that filled the rest of her space. Then, she had an idea: What if the bowls looked less like pet clutter and more like a sophisticated storefront inside her home?
For Albert, Goodson’s beloved Shih Tzu, that translated into a charming entrance to a tiny Parisian café.
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That daydream eventually became House of Albert, Goodson’s line of made-to-order fabric awnings designed to hang above pets’ food and water bowls. The brand sits at the intersection of her two great obsessions: “traditional with a twist” interiors and a decade-long love affair with social media. Working from home in the Metro East, she designs, prints, and hand-assembles custom cotton-canvas awnings that turn a dog’s (or cat’s) corner into something that feels plucked from a European side street—and styled for Instagram.
Goodson has, as she puts it, “always been online in some way, shape, or form.” As a teenager, the now 27-year-old rushed home from school to have her mom photograph her daily outfits for an OOTD account, long before influencer was a job title. At the University of Mississippi, she majored in integrated marketing communications, posted “Day in the Life” vlogs on YouTube, and experimented with a more creative approach to Instagram. When TikTok arrived onto the scene, and many of her classmates dismissed it as “cringey,” she saw the possibility.
“If I can make long videos for YouTube, I could probably make short videos,” she recalls thinking at the time. Stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic her senior year at Ole Miss, she began posting quick fashion, makeup, and hair clips on TikTok. “I had way more success on there than I had in years on Instagram and YouTube,” she says.
Today, she jokes that she’s “part-time homemaker, part-time TikTok-er.” When she’s not filming social media partnerships for brands like Hill House or Tuckernuck, she’s wielding her panache elsewhere. “I always look around my house and daydream about what I could make more personalized, fanciful, or special,” she says.
Case in point are Albert’s bowls, reimagined with a café-style awning above them, the way you might spot one in a street-style photo snapped outside a Paris restaurant. Goodson mocked up a design on her computer, printed it at an office supply store, filmed the process, and shared it on TikTok.
The response was immediate. Commenters urged her to sell the awnings or at least offer a downloadable template on Etsy. But a shortcut felt wrong. She didn’t want to release something half-finished or leave customers to wrestle with cardboard and tape.
Instead, she sat with the idea for nearly a year. The sticking point was practical, not aesthetic: how to ensure the awnings would hang angled just right, with the front edge laying flat instead of jutting straight out from the wall. Goodson, her mom (a former interior designer) and her husband spent hours tossing around ideas until the bracket-and-Velcro system finally clicked.
From her home office, Goodson lays out each customer’s chosen phrase—a pet’s name or one playfully paired with “bistro” or “café.” She prints the design on thick cotton canvas, cuts it by hand, adds a hidden support panel for structure, and packages the awning with its custom bracket, hardware, written instructions, and a QR-code-linked tutorial video. Orders typically ship within four days.
House of Albert launched with four patterns—a classic stripe, a funkier stripe, gingham, and a toile print—each available as either a full-pattern option or with personalized lettering. “I focus a lot on making sure the awning looks elevated and not kitschy,” she says. “I think that’s what sets it apart—it looks like a miniature version of a real awning, and it complements the design elements people already have in their home, like custom drapes.”
House of Albert is for the “fashion lover who also happens to be a dog parent or cat parent,” Goodson says. It’s an audience that doesn’t take lightly what enters their home.
“To see that somebody else has them in their space, I am truly honored—not only that they want that, but that they trust me to make it for them,” she says. “That’s so special.”
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