Buying Pet Friendly Furniture
Some people say there really may not be such thing as completely pet friendly furniture – just like there is no absolutely child proof house. There are bound to be mishaps, hopefully with not much damage done. A puppy may have to be confined to a restricted area and house trained, but as he or she grows, access to the whole house becomes inevitable. The decor of a home and its furnishing can however be easily altered to make it replete with pet friendly furniture. The home can become one where the pet cannot do the kind of harm that makes things difficult to tolerate. Think about buying pet friendly furniture and you can save yourself some headaches.
Pets and Carpets
Wall to wall carpeting is not a great idea when there are pets in the house. A hard floor with tiles or special flooring is most pet resistant and attractive too. Small rugs can add color to the floor, though expensive Persian rugs are better off and safer displayed on walls. A clever idea is a floor cover to place pet friendly furniture: vinyl-coated wallpaper and three coats of polyurethane will last a couple of years.
Dogs and cats tend to rub themselves against walls leaving stains. Semi–gloss paint that is easy to clean is a good choice. Washable vinyl-backed wallpaper is preferable to the traditional paper-backed wallpaper. Do not use vertical blinds, pooling drapery, ornate tassels and long cords or anything that can strangulate a pet. The animal could panic and bring anything around it crashing down.
Cats have a habit of exercising their claws on all surfaces. Provide them with a scratch pole that is covered with sisal and your furniture will be safe from scratches. A corrugated cardboard sheet is also suitable. In addition to pet friendly furniture, one could make the house pet proof by removing fragile things out of the range of a tail sweep
Upholstery to Go with Pet Friendly Furniture
The need of most pet friendly furniture is to see that it can be easily cleaned to remove hair and stains. It makes sense to have two sets of washable linen or denim slips to cover the upholstery of your sofas. It is now possible to buy stain resistant odor repellent fabric, which withstands normal stains and smells. One can also choose dark or patterned fabric that will not show stains easily. Unfortunately, one may not realize how dirty it is and hence may not wash it as frequently.
A very good alternative for upholstery fabric for pet friendly furniture is ultra suede. This can be used either to make slipcovers or as upholstery. The material is very dense and dog hairs cannot penetrate through. Ultra suede also resists odors and can be washed in the washing machine and dried. Ultra suede upholstery can be easily sponge washed. The best part is it does not smell like leather. This prevents your pet from being tempted to chew it, the way it would chew on the real thing.