Designing For Dogs
As I write this, Ella is asleep next to me on my sofa, and Fred is on guard (he thinks he’s a watchdog) on my upholstered ottoman. Our kids are all adults, scattered around the state, and so our dogs get far too much, well, everything. You? Do your dogs sleep on the sofa and the bed, and eat ice cream with you? Yea…same.
The biggest issue I find most of my clients have is what to do about rugs. If I am going to guess, I’d say 75% of my clients have dogs. 100 % of them have rugs. My suggestion if you have dogs is a somewhat busy patterned rug in wool or at least a highly cleanable polyester or nylon. Absolutely no viscose. Viscose stains from water, so there is no cleaning it. A hide rug (as in cowhide) is also very easy to clean in case of an accident.
I have a genius client (she knows who she is) who has little white flags around her rugs. When questioned, she explained she has an invisible fence inside the house! See? Genius! Her giant Labs are not allowed on the rugs or the sofas, and the invisible fence enforces that.
My Frenchie, Fred, is untrainable and destructive. He gets anxious and rips pillows, sofas, rugs, and chairs apart. So now I, too, have an invisible fence for Fred, but mine is different. I have a disk under the furniture pieces on which he is not allowed, and he has free run of the rest of the house. He has also learned that even though the sofa is off-limits, if I want to cuddle, I simply take his collar off, and he comes up on the sofa. I am a bad dog owner. I admit it. Don’t go by me. This is not a dog training article. It’s a dog decorating article.
If your dog is allowed upstairs (yup) please get a runner for your stairs. You should have one anyway for yourself. I encourage all my clients to have one. Dogs are often chest-heavy, and coming down is a slippery experience for them without a runner. If you don’t want to vacuum fur out of the crevices, just carpet the treads. I have sisal (similar to jute) mini rugs on each tread of my stairs. It makes vacuuming easy, and it’s safer for Frella (that would be Fred and Ella) and for me.
Design: @houseofjadeinteriors
Want to bathe your dog at home but can’t pick her up and put her in the sink? (Do you really want a muddy dog in your sink?). I often design dog baths in mudrooms and laundry rooms. They are raised up off the floor to whatever height you like, usually 30 inches or so above the floor. We have even built steps up to them because who can lift a Great Dane (or Fred….he’s a husky Frenchie). Always install a hand shower with multiple spray settings so you can get all of Fido, even his underside. Hang towel hooks nearby, and have a ledge or cubby for shampoos. If it’s in the laundry room, you can throw his towel in the dryer for a few minutes so that when the bath is done, he is toasty warm. Jake the Chihuahua got toasty towels from Barbara for every bath he ever had. Lucky dog!