How to Design a Pet-Friendly Home

Pets are a big part of the family. In fact, there are more households with pets than ever before. According to a NZCAC report, 65% of U.S. households have pets. Owning a pet might be common, but it’s important to make sure your house can accommodate your pet in the best way possible. From the flooring to the ways you arrange your home, it all makes a difference for whatever type of pet you have. Here’s how to design a pet-friendly home.

Floors

There is a high chance that your pet will have claws of some kind. In this case, you will want to avoid hardwood flooring that can scratch or stain easily. For common pets like cats or dogs, laminate or ceramic tile flooring is ideal. Non-slip surfaces for safety is particularly important for puppies learning to walk. In that case, carpets could be a better choice to create a pet-friendly home. It’s important to choose carpets that can stand the wear and tear from pets, as well as hiding stains.

Furniture

Any pet owner can tell you about the trouble of excited kittens or overly curious dogs tearing apart the furniture. If you’re going to have a pet, you have to make sure that your furniture doesn’t provoke their destructive playfulness. The material of your furniture is essential to keeping it safe. Avoid soft fabrics with tassels or strands that are easy to tear and rip apart. Exposed furniture like wicker or rattan is a sure invitation to teething animals to cut their teeth on. Tough leather or even metals are best to keep your furniture as protected as possible.

Storage

You can’t have a messy house if you have pets. Leaving things around on the floor or on bench tops is an invitation for mischief. Even the most well-behaved pets get curious. Consider having extra storage to keep your living space free from clutter. To keep your home feeling open and spacious, storage like tubs, boxes, shelves, and cabinets are best. Storage bins or cabinet drawers are also a great place to store pet toys, leashes, important items for grooming, and/or medicine.

Pet Friendly-Home Use of Space

Home design is as much about your pets as it is about you. Consider the fact that your pet will spend most of its life indoors. It needs a reasonable amount of space to play. It also needs to be safe. You need to have designated ‘play spaces’ for your pet, and keep busier parts of the house, like the kitchen, off-limits. This is especially important outdoors. There may be parts of your outdoor space that need locking off to protect your pet, like your garden or pool, for example.

Cleanliness

Prepare your home for the inevitable mess that comes with having a pet. Outdoor taps are a life-saver for helping wash away the dirt and mud that a pet collects while outdoors. Many homes with dogs or outdoor cats also have mud-rooms – a secondary entrance where you can clean off your pet before they enter the house proper. Having these parts of the home available means keeping both your pet and house cleaner.

Having a pet-friendly home is as much about your pet as it is about the home itself. Keeping your pet safe, comfortable and content is good for the animal’s welfare and your peace of mind. Designing your house in this way also means you can enjoy the comfort of your home without having to change everything about it.

Author bio:

NZ-based content writer Harper Reid has penned articles for various sites and blogs on a diverse range of topics, from travel and lifestyle to business and technology. You can find more of her work on her Tumblr page.