If you have a pet, you need to consider them when designing your home. Thinking about pet friendly decor as well as pet-friendly organisation, storage and furniture can make life a lot easier! It’s important that you create a safe space for them, and you also need to find ways to manage the mess. Dogs, in particular, leave a lot of furs behind, and if you don’t make the right choices where materials are concerned, you make life much harder for yourself. Pets can cause damage to the home, too, especially when they are young, so durability is a big factor.
So, when you are planning a home renovation, make sure that you follow these simple pet-friendly home decor tips.
Avoid Carpets And Soft Furnishings
Although carpets are great for keeping your home warm and they’re nice and comfortable, they collect a lot of fur and dirt from your pets. Once it’s set deep into the fibres, it’s difficult to get out, even with a good vacuum cleaner. The same goes for soft furnishings like sofas, so it’s best to avoid them, at least in rooms where your pets spend a lot of time. Using options like engineered wood flooring instead is much better because they’re way easier to clean. They’re also hard-wearing, so they’ll stand up to a lot of wear and tear from your pet. When it comes to choosing materials for a sofa, things like leather or tough synthetic materials are best. They won’t collect fur as easily, and they can also handle the claws.
Use Metal And Chrome Furniture
Wooden furniture might look great, but it’s not the best choice when you have pets in the house. To them, it looks like a chew toy, and even though you can train them not to chew on things, it’s a big problem if you have a puppy in the house. The legs on your wooden furniture will be completely ruined if your dog gets hold of them, so it’s best to go for metal and chrome, which you can replace with wooden furniture when they are a bit older.
Create Designated Play Areas
Keeping on top of the mess from your pets is hard if they are running all over the house playing. It makes things a lot easier if you consider your pet when designing the layout of your home and creating a designated play area for them. It allows you to keep all of their toys in one place and avoid clutter, and once they learn that this is their designated area for playing, you will find it easier to manage the mess too. This can be difficult when styling a smaller home, but you should always try to find room for your pet.
Use The Right Type Of Paint
People forget that fur can get on the walls as well as the floor, and this problem is much worse if you use paint that attracts fur. When picking the type of paint to use, it’s best to go for gloss or satin paint to repel fur. Avoid any textured wall coverings, too, because they attract a lot of furs.
If you keep these decor tips in mind during your next renovation, you can create a pet-friendly home.
Did you know we have an A Tidy Mind Organiser who is a specialist in organising home with pets? Craig from A Tidy Mind London has lots of experience in this area – read more about professional organiser Craig.
Also, see our blog post on ways to keep your garden safe for pets.