How to Make Your Interior Pet-Friendly
Pets some at a price
Having a pet is a great joy. But also a great liability. Cleaning stains, paw marks and tons of hair off every surface in the house, endlessly fighting vile odors and seeing your favorite chair turn into a scratching post for your cat can drive anyone mad. Don’t worry, we have a cure for that! These useful tips will help you come up with a room design that’s both nice-looking and pet-friendly.
5 home furnishing tips for pet lovers
1. Minimum carpets, hard surface floors
Carpets and rugs quickly get dirty and are a headache to restore, so hard surface floors seem to be the best solution for pet lovers. If you absolutely can’t live without carpets, pick low-pile rugs that are easier to clean from fur and stains. Using continuous-loop carpets is a bad idea for a dog or cat owner as they can be unraveled even simply by catching on a pet’s toenail. And since sometimes it’s easier to replace a rug than have it cleaned, try modular carpet tiles rather than placing a single wall-to-wall carpet.
2. Match upholstery and carpets to fur color
Tufts of hair left all over the house by your Persian or Golden Retriever won’t be as visible if you choose a carpet that matches your beloved pet or cover your sofa in a microfiber with a dog print.
3. Choose semi-gloss wall paint
Walls, too, suffer from our pets. Smudges and paw marks, drool and dirt - all that doesn’t do your place any good. How can your work your way around this? Wallpaper looks like a perfect claw sharpener for your cat while flat-finish paint is extremely hard to clean without scratching some off the wall. Try semigloss, satin or eggshell finishes instead - they are the easiest to wipe down.
4. Switch fabrics to pet-resistant
Silk, velvet, chintz and other fabrics or the kind are a magnet to your pet’s hair, stains and smells. You’ll spend an immense amount of funds (and nerves) keeping them presentable with your pet constantly hanging around. Time to switch to contemporary options like Crypton and Ultrasuede that are nearly indestructible, extremely stain-resistant and very easy to clean. Leather is also a nice solution, although there is no guarantee against scratch marks.
5. No breakable decorations
Even if you put great effort into training your dog, most often you’ll have to choose between your love for animals and your passion for china and porcelain. A single swish of a paw will instantly put an end to your collection of fragile knickknacks. Instead, switch to collecting something that’s not so easy to break - say, wood art or paintings hanging out of your pet’s reach. You can even decorate your walls with pet-inspired art - hang a few cute cat portraits or a dog print, why not?