Designing Your Home Around Pets
I love pets and I always have at least one. Many people think that having pets means you need to sacrifice design elements in lieu of your pet’s needs. I don’t believe this is true. It just takes a little more consideration.
Firstly, you need to train your pets to not destroy the furniture. Get anti-biting and anti-scratching sprays to help aid in this and make sure to keep a spray bottle of water around to train them out of bad behavior. If you don’t want the sleeping on your beds you need to start training them early and don’t let up. Tall beds will help keep small dogs off of them but cats will get everywhere. Even sturdy bunk beds won’t be safe.
On the note of loft bunk beds, they are a good idea if you have one child that is allergic to dogs and you don’t train your dogs out of sleeping on the beds. Give the allergic child the top bunk and they will be a little ore safe from the dander.
Try to avoid white furniture if you have any cats or dogs. They will shed and the fur will get everywhere. Darker fabrics will show the fur less easily. I have a black and white cat. Any white furniture would be covered in a heartbeat. I designed my home around rich earth tones and that has worked out nicely.
Make sure that any house plants you plan on having are safe for your pets. You may be surprised as to what plants are poisonous to animals. Don’t ever assume that your pet won’t get curious and take a bite either. Putting them up high will protect dogs but not cats. In the same way that tall bunk beds aren’t safe from cats, neither is the top of an entertainment center.
These are just a few considerations that you should keep in mind when designing your home around pets. You don’t have to change everything and make huge sacrifices but there are some things that you just can’t do. Especially in regard to house plants.
  
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