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Chad Falkenberg is principal designer on the ultra-talented design observe Falken Reynolds Interiors. In case you’re a human, getting Falken Reynolds to design your residential or industrial house is a really good factor, but it surely will get higher — they know the right way to design for pets too.

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Postmedia sat down with Falkenberg to listen to his scorching recommendations on designing for pets at house.

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Get their wash and sleep stations proper

At Falken Reynolds, they’ve designed fairly a couple of canine wash stations, says Falkenberg. The trick with these is making a spot the place the canine will get moist, however individuals keep dry. They’ve achieved this by elevating the ground for the canine and utilizing a glass door that’s straightforward to achieve over and tailored for the canine’s dimension.

They’ve additionally designed a concrete canine wash station that catered for a giant canine and a small canine — including a step so the smaller canine may climb in too. Accessibility is the whole lot.

Taking it to the following stage

In a single apartment design, they created a bathe that labored each for his or her shopper and someplace he may wash his 4 beagles:

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“The bench is giant sufficient for the canine to take a seat on, and the hand bathe is shut at hand. The sliding glass door permits it to remain open and provides the shopper a bit extra elbow room when giving the canine a shower,” he says.

“We’ve additionally designed locations for canine beds and even built-in feeding stations which have a faucet proper above the canine’s water bowl,” he says.

Most vital challenges when designing for pets?

“One of many greatest challenges is attempting to make issues useful, adaptable, and fade into the background, so the options don’t overtake an area,” he says.

To attain this, they be sure that the areas they design for pets are multi-functional. They just lately created a key drop station in a shopper’s kitchen huge sufficient for the standard canine mattress to suit beneath it. This station options device drawers, a magnetic pin-up college calendar, and a counter for keys and mail. They selected to make the entire station out of Corian as a result of it’s a fabric that’s tremendous straightforward to scrub and helps hold the canine mattress in place, says Falkenberg.

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“However once they have friends, they’ll transfer the canine mattress to a different a part of the home, and the millwork appears completely regular, built-in into the remainder of the design of the kitchen,” he says.

How is it totally different than designing for individuals?

They select extra strong supplies when designing pet sleeping and consuming areas — realizing how a lot cleansing is required, he says:

“Corian, concrete, porcelain tile will all be straightforward to scrub, they usually’ll take plenty of put on and tear and nonetheless look nice. We’re discovering shoppers see the advantages of designing for the pets from the start of the design course of, similar to we design for everybody else within the household,” he says.

Learn how to get it proper

In case you’re constructing or renovating, you wish to begin interested by the place and the way your pet will characteristic in your house as quickly as doable, says Falkenberg.

Ask your self: the place do we wish a hook for a leash? The place will the canine eat and sleep? What about bathing?

“It’s undoubtedly extra sophisticated to combine these issues into current millwork, plumbing and electrical, so incorporating them into the design from the start makes a lot sense,” he says.