How to Design a Pet Friendly Home

I love dogs. I joke that I like them more than people, but I mean, if I'm being honest...its not a joke. (sorry!)

I know that there is a stigma as to having a dog and making compromises, but I think they are totally worth it. Just because you have pets, doesn't mean that you can't have a nice home. There are so many ways to incorporate good design into your space, even if you have pets!

You just have to be more selective and conscious while picking out pieces. Do your research, make sure that the piece will work with our little furry loved ones.

I will have to say, Kona is great about not destroying things on our home. I've heard horror stories about puppies chewing on dining table legs, or tearing through the house when you're not home. Kona was potty trained within a day or two at being at our home, which really was such an amazing thing. We didn't have to worry about him just going on the rugs or floor in our home. I can definitely share more about how we train him, but long story short is we just use a bell on our back door. It looks like a Christmas bell, and it hangs down. When we would go bring Kona outside to go to the bathroom, we would take his hand, and put it on the bell and let it jingle. This then showed him that the sound of the bell meant that he was going outside. So now, instead of him going in the house, or scratching at the door, he just rings the bell to be let out.

I think the worst thing that Kona did when we weren't home was he ripped the corner of one of my vintage pillows. I mean, I can't blame him though, I was gone for 8 hours, and Mike had been away that hole week. If that was the worst thing that he was going to do, I'll take it. Other than that, we have been fortunate to not come home to a whirlwind of destruction.

Even still, there are things that we do in our home, and that I implement into my client's homes to make them more pet friendly. Even if your dog is trained, it's still good to take these things into consideration. It's not like your dog knows to wipe their feet when they get in the door. (That would actually be the best new trick to teach Kona!) So, follow along, as I share some of my favorite ways to make your home more pet friendly!

Ways to make your home more pet friendly

Performance fabrics

If you don't follow anything else in the blog (but I mean, why wouldn't you?!), listen up here. Performance fabrics are an absolute must when you are getting new furniture. Even if you don't have pets, you want to protect your furniture that you spent your hard-earned money on! If you accidentally spill that glass of wine on your brand new sofa, you can easily wipe it up without causing a stain. Even though Kona is chilling on the sofa in this photo, that was the day we got hime, so I wanted to take some cute photos of him. We don't actually let him on our sofa without a blanket being on there. If we do want to snuggle up at nighttime on the sofa, we will layer the sofa with a couple blankets and let him hop up. Even though we have a performance fabric sofa from West Elm, I still don't want dog hair on it!

Budget friendly rugs I for one love Persian and Moroccan rugs, but I just can't bring myself to spending good money on nice rugs. I've been loving Ruggable, which has rugs that you can wash in the washing machine! I mean, how cool is that? And, they look great! We just put one in our dining room/kitchen area where we have a lot of foot traffic and its been a game changer.

Eggshell finish on walls You want to be able to scrub your walls right? Use an eggshell finish so that you can get prints off easily without damaging the paint.

Use durable flooring We have really old floors, from the original home in 1870. But, if you are installing new floors, made sure that you are using the correct flooring! In my opinion, I don't like putting wall to wall carpet in a home. If your pet has an accident or get those dang muddy prints on all over, it can be a beast to clean. If you are looking for carpet, try area rugs or even carpet tile. They can be easily removed and switched out. I would opt for tile when you can, (in kitchens, mudrooms, bathrooms), and use a hard wood like oak for the remaining part of your home.

Select pieces that have variation If your dog is going to be up on your sofa, or other furniture, or even rugs, I would suggest getting pieces that have different color variation. We have these tan tiles in our kitchen (they are existing, not our choice!), and they show every single paw print known to man. It's quite frustrating when I just mopped the floors, and Kona comes tearing down from outside and whips over to his water bowl, only to leave a hurricane of muddy prints. Our plan for when we redo that room is to get a tile that is a medium tone, but has variation to, so it'll hide much more and I won't be having to mop the floors every day!

Use glass exterior doors

This is a big one. Kona doesn't scratch our doors, but I know a lot of other dogs do. Save your wood doors and opt for glass, so your pet can see whats going on outside! Fair warning, we do get lots of nose prints on our doors, but I for one think thats way better than the alternative.

-Han