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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 area is a really good factor, however it will get higher — they know the way to design for pets too.

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Postmedia sat down with Falkenberg to listen to his scorching tips about designing for pets at residence.

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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 simple to succeed in 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 might climb in too. Accessibility is the whole lot.

Taking it to the subsequent degree

In a single condominium design, they created a bathe that labored each for his or her consumer and someplace he might wash his 4 beagles:

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“The bench is giant sufficient for the canine to sit down on, and the hand bathe is shut at hand. The sliding glass door permits it to remain open and provides the consumer a bit extra elbow room when giving the canines 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 important challenges when designing for pets?

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

To realize this, they be sure the areas they design for pets are multi-functional. They just lately created a key drop station in a consumer’s kitchen huge sufficient for the standard canine mattress to suit beneath it. This station options instrument drawers, a magnetic pin-up faculty 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 cloth that’s tremendous simple to wash and helps maintain the canine mattress in place, says Falkenberg.

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“However after they have friends, they will transfer the canine mattress to a different a part of the home, and the millwork appears to be like 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 simple to wash, and so they’ll take a variety of put on and tear and nonetheless look nice. We’re discovering purchasers see the advantages of designing for the pets from the start of the design course of, identical to we design for everybody else within the household,” he says.

How one can get it proper

In case you’re constructing or renovating, you wish to begin eager about the place and the way your pet will function in your area as quickly as potential, says Falkenberg.

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

“It’s positively 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.