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Chad Falkenberg is principal designer on the ultra-talented design apply Falken Reynolds Interiors. In the event you’re a human, getting Falken Reynolds to design your residential or industrial house is a really good factor, however it will get higher — they know the best way to design for pets too.
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Postmedia sat down with Falkenberg to listen to his sizzling 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 number of canine wash stations, says Falkenberg. The trick with these is making a spot the place the canine will get moist, however folks keep dry. They’ve achieved this by elevating the ground for the canine and utilizing a glass door that’s straightforward to succeed in over and tailored for the canine’s measurement.
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 every part.
Taking it to the subsequent degree
In a single apartment 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 vital challenges when designing for pets?
“One of many greatest challenges is attempting to make issues practical, adaptable, and fade into the background, so the options don’t overtake an area,” he says.
To attain this, they ensure the areas they design for pets are multi-functional. They not too long ago created a key drop station in a consumer’s kitchen huge sufficient for the standard canine mattress to suit beneath it. This station options software 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 straightforward to scrub and helps hold the canine mattress in place, says Falkenberg.
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“However once they have visitors, they will 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 folks?
They select extra strong supplies when designing pet sleeping and consuming areas — figuring out how a lot cleansing is required, he says:
“Corian, concrete, porcelain tile will all be straightforward to scrub, and so they’ll take lots 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, similar to we design for everybody else within the household,” he says.
How one can get it proper
In the event you’re constructing or renovating, you wish to begin fascinated with 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 difficult to combine these issues into present millwork, plumbing and electrical, so incorporating them into the design from the start makes a lot sense,” he says.
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