Pet Spaces

People love custom homes because you have so much flexibility to design exactly what you want — even for your pets! Homes aren’t just for people, our furry friends share our living spaces with us. And with 70% of US homes having a pet, more people are in the pet-owner category than ever before.

According to the APPA 2021-2022 survey, that’s over 90.5 million homes with pets. The most common pets are dogs and cats. 45.3 million households are cat owners while 69 million households share their home with dogs.

Some ways to customize your home with your pets in mind include:

This feature might actually make YOUR life easier! Bathing your pet gets really messy, but if you add a pet shower outside or in a utility room, it will save you the extra cleanup. 

Forget about spilled water bowls! You can create built-in feeding areas in sliding drawers or anywhere there is an open cabinet space. You can also design a storage place for your pet’s food.

If you have a cat you can consider adding a built-in litter box. This is a good way to hide the litter box perhaps in a wall or cabinet.

And just like creating a child’s playroom you could make one of the rooms in your home a place for your pet which could include all of the things that we mentioned. Windows with deep sills are pur-fect for the Whiskers in our life. Does Fido feel safer in a crate? Crates can be built-in under cabinets. Under stairs can be a perfect place to add a pet room.

Pet doors have been around a long time and can be placed into almost any door. In fact, you can buy inserts for sliding glass doors to give your pet the freedom to come and go. However, they can be bulky and interfere with regular use. Since there’s no rule that says the doggie door needs to be in an actual door, it might make sense to install an opening directly into a wall for your pet. These openings can be trimmed to match both the interior and exterior of your home and dual flaps provide protection from the elements.