DO set up an animal room near an entry.
"It's important to consider your pet's lifestyle when you establish the layout of your house," Ruvel says. "If your dog goes outside, make sure he can come back in through an area that's super–impervious." She just finished a project in which she converted a breakfast room into a mudroom for a client's two dogs. "She wanted a place where she could get dirt off them before they came in the house," Ruvel says. To do this, Ruvel put porcelain tile on the walls and floor of the breakfast room, which opened onto the backyard. She replaced the table with a banquette upholstered in stain-resistant fabric and equipped with under–the–seat storage for leashes and food. Ruvel installed built–in shelves on the walls where the client could keep towels used to wipe the dirt off the dogs when they came inside from the yard.
Read on for more pointers on making your home a showplace fit for a pet.
