From a dedicated spot to stare out the window to no-mess feeding solutions, spaces meant for Spencer can blend right
Whether your dog is a Pomeranian compact enough to carry in a tote bag all over town or a towering golden retriever who commands a larger footprint, the pooch deserves their own space at your home—an indoor area where they have free domain.
There are numerous creative ways for dog owners to carve out a space that’s dedicated to their pets and still stylish, said SJ, an interior designer who is the founder of the Home Fix Boutique based home décor brand and design firm. What that means depends on what your home is like—apartment living, for example, means an approach that’s different from one in a single-family property.
My client, John, and his partner have four rescue pups, a Boston, two pugs and a puggle—George, Cecil, Weenie and Beau—and the dogs have the run of their 1930s-era North Carolina home, the ‘House of Bedlam,’” said Nixon. “Nothing is off limits, but we don’t want to constantly vacuum up dog hair and clean off dog spittle to keep our home looking great, so we’ve designated a room just for them.”
Consider Stationery Feeding Bowls
When designing a client’s kitchen in a small apartment, maximising the space was the most important objective. In doing so, we wanted to find a way to incorporate her dogs’ feeding and water bowls without constantly bumping into them and kicking them over because the footprint of the kitchen was small. We decided to remove one of the drawers on the end of her kitchen and instead, we built in a stationary dog bowl feeding station. This resolved all the issues of constantly kicking over water bowls and cleaning up water, and her dog felt extra loved having a place in the home that was only for him.
Repurpose Your Mudroom
When they renovated their mudroom, John put down a limestone floor that is easy to sweep and wipe down when the pups track in mud and pine needles. The feeling is very English country house, so the flooring ticks off both the form and function box. The mudroom houses a console with a cut-out in the middle of it, and that’s where we placed one of the dog beds, so the pups think of this space as their go-to ‘cave.’
They love the mix of the antique furniture paired with the dog bed and the idea that nothing in your home should be sacred but rather lived with. The dog beds are from Madcap Cottage and have frames that are upholstered in a hard-wearing performance fabric that cleans up easily. The cushion covers can be unzipped and thrown in the washer/dryer to keep them looking good.
Whenever we design a home with beautiful treetop views, we like to take pets into consideration. They always enjoy watching the outdoors and streetscape. For this gracious three-bedroom corner residence at the Solaire in Battery Park City [in Manhattan], we installed a feature lounge chair next to the floor-to-ceiling windows to make an ideal place for an owner and their pet to take in the scenery. In this building, it’s perfect for sunsets as well.
“When it comes to designing for homes outside of the city, a new world of indoor-outdoor living opens up for families and their pets. For a residence that we designed in the Hamptons, we took advantage of sliding doors that allowed the indoors and outdoors to seamlessly connect. We also added rich textured fabrics, including fluffy rugs that pets love to curl up on.”
A lounge chair beside floor-to-ceiling windows offers a pooch the perfect spot in an apartment watch the world go by outside.
Have a Bed or Other Lounger
“It’s always a good idea to give your dogs a dedicated bed or other