Building a custom home grants you the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to incorporate special features that are specific to your family and its needs. And for many folks, pets are just as much a part of the family as people are. Are you looking for ways to ensure your home is a castle for your canine, your spouse, AND your kids? Look no further: we’ve got five tips and features listed below that will help you craft the dog (or pet) friendly home of your dreams.
Scratch-Resistant Flooring
Dog owners know the hair-raising sound well–nails scraping along the hard floors as their furry friend excitedly darts back into the house after a trip outside, resulting in scratches on their flooring. Scratch-resistant flooring can prevent this issue. Check out some options for scratch-resistant flooring.
Pet Door or Dutch Door
Installing a pet door is definitely a feature you’ll thank yourself for later. If you have a dog that freely roams from inside to outside, a pet door is exactly what you need. Nowadays, pet doors are sleek and can even be custom-made to fit your build–some even come with cameras to monitor your pet while they’re outside.
More: Shop Pet Doors
If you’re less keen to let your dog roam freely or just don’t like the look and feel of the traditional pet door, you might consider installing Dutch doors, also known as double-hung or half doors. These doors remain are divided in half horizontally so the bottom half can remain shut while the top half opens. Dutch doors are also great in more temperate climates where you might keep the windows (or doors) open at parts of the year.
Sleeping Nook
As far as trends are concerned, sleeping “nooks” or suites have been top of the list as of late. If you’d like to create a special space for your furry friend to rest their head, consider incorporating a built-in sleeping nook into your blueprints. Sleeping nooks can be added in empty spaces under staircases, desks, bookshelves, and more.
More inspiration: Beautiful Dog Nooks
Dog-Friendly Shower
Dogs are wonderful companions–but they are also often dirty companions. And just like you and your family, they deserve a special place to get clean, too–though with some additional reinforcements to tackle mud, dirt, grass, and whatever else they might get themselves into. Consider outfitting one of your showers to accommodate your pet or installing a free-standing dog shower station in your mudroom, laundry room, or spare bathroom to provide yourself with a designated place to wash your dog–and other things, too. With the right cleaning, dog showers can be multi-purpose and provide a place to tend to plants and or rinse off muddy kids.
Read more: Dog-Friendly Shower Ideas
Invisible Fence
Want a way to let your dog into your front yard without having to install an eyesore of a free-standing fence? Invisible fences are buried underground around the perimeter of your lawn and are synced with a receiver collar. As an animal with a receiver collar approaches the buried wire, it will first hear a warning sound. If the animal continues to approach or crosses the buried wire boundary, it will receive a tiny, harmless static shock.
Read more: How Does an Invisible Fence Work?
You can trust our family at LaFollette Custom Homes to make your custom canine-friendly home a reality. Give us a call at 979-589-8343 or contact us at Info@LFcustomhomes.com for a consultation!