Creature Comforts

According to the Pet Food Manufacturing Association (PFMA), 24% of households own a dog and 17% own cats, that’s eight and half million dogs and over seven million cats! With this many furry friends running around there’s bound to be a few households that have a constant battle between keeping the place looking nice whilst keeping it comfortable for a pet, there is always a slight conflict if you love your home as much as your faithful companion, nothing is more troubling then the sight of a newly upholstered sofa covered in fluff, mud and scratches!

Maintaining a beautiful home and having a pet seems like an unlikely combination but nowadays there are some absolutely fantastic and surprisingly stylish pet accessories and furniture that will completely kit out your home and take it from shabby to chic! Whatever your style, be it traditional or contemporary there are some wonderful products that you’ll want to buy even if you don’t have a little terror running around.

Edison Orange Harris Tweed Dog Bed from Love My Dog

Love My Dog is a fantastic company full of adorable ways to spoil your dog rotten, I absolutely love this Harris Tweed dog bed especially in this vibrant orange, but there are plenty of other colours if you’re looking for something to complement the rest of your home. This dog bed would look perfect placed in the corner of a kitchen and is the ideal style to go with a traditional looking interior.

Igloo Dog Bed in Grey from Mungo and Maud

For something a bit more contemporary and versatile this igloo style bed from Mungo and Maud is just right, it’s relaxed design means it’ll work anywhere and with any style and it’s a great little cosy spot for a small pooch!

If you get the impression that your feline companion is a bit of a fashionista the place you need to head to is Style Tails, a fantastic company with products for both cats and dogs. They stock some amazing contemporary designs that will make the perfect hangout for a cool cat.

Geobed Cat Cave by Catissa from Style Tails

This geometric cat basket is a design marvel, its stylish nature means that instead of a cat basket being a nuance and taking up space it can actually become a rather interesting feature of the house, it also comes in white and a natural wood too to suit a whole range of interiors.

If you want something to go above ground-level this fancy basket will look great in any location of the house and will allow your cat to watch over you from their stylish boudoir.

Anello Cat Basket by Mia Cara from Style Tails

Pet accessories aren’t all about their beds, there are some lovely bowls around that might just make their food look a little more appetising! This lovely ceramic set of bowls from The Stylish Dog Company are stunning, they come in various colours and a few spotted designs. Plus they are specially designed for spaniels and other floppy eared dogs to avoid an ears in the food fiasco.

British Blue Spaniel Bowl from The Stylish Dog Company

For a modern design, these bowls in a wooden structure from Mungo and Maud are brilliant, they’re perfect minimalist chic and will help avoid that awful sound of a metal bowl being scrapped around the floor as the dog tries to get every last bit of their dinner!

Double Wooden Dog Bowl from Mungo and Maud

If you want to keep your dog’s food safely hidden away, so that you don’t have to see garish packaging and so the dog can’t weasel its way into it, keep it in a stylish container like this one from Mungo and Maud, it’ll look good especially if your short on space and need to keep your dog’s food in the kitchen.

Dog Food Storage Container from Mungo and Maud

If you want to spoil your pet and maintain a beautiful home in the process there is a whole market out there for keeping your pet (and your home) stylish. With so many styles and ranges to choose from you’ll be wanting to update your dog’s style as much as your own!

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Five top tips to a stylish home

Cate was recently interviewed by Cambridge Magazine and she was asked for five top tips to creating great interiors. Here are some of her tricks of the trade.

Be bold with your style

Statement chairs in a contemporary home

This is advice that I give in my classes and that I always try to apply to my design work and what I mean is to know your own personal taste and be confident in it. If your interior style is say neutral, calm, quiet, shabby chic, then don’t be afraid to boldly execute this in your design work. We can sometimes get confused by thinking that there are things we must or must not do in our homes, or that there is good or bad taste in interior design, and when we deviate from our personal style, this is when blandness can set in. Trust your own taste and try to apply it to all elements of your home.

 

Accessories change everything

Flowers, lamps, books and pictures all help to personalise your space

 

Whether you are undertaking a full renovation project or simply freshening up your home, good accessorising makes a huge difference to the final result. Try to bear your own personal style in mind when selecting your finishing touches as it is easy to make a mistake when the purchase is not expensive, and make sure you think about what accessories you need before you shop. If in doubt, add your accessories slowly and see what looks good and the old saying of ‘only have what you know to be beautiful or useful’ is just as true with accessories as with other areas of the home.

 

 

Don’t forget your lighting

Concealed lighting adds glamour to this display

You can create a beautiful interior space but without good lighting, it will never shine. Plan your lighting with the uses of the space in mind – activities like working, reading, putting on make-up need task lighting whilst artwork, favourite spaces and beautiful pieces of furniture need feature lighting and so on. Having some contrasts with lighting will make your home seem larger and more interesting and using separate switching for different lighting types will enable you to change the feel of your home depending on whether you are entertaining, watching TV, working or even cleaning!          

 

Colour is king

Warm blue and cream makes a lovely space of this boot room

 

Colour is an interior designer’s best friend. A coat of paint can add character and personalise a space, create light and dark contrasts, highlight features and create a warm or cool, calm or stimulating, comforting or inspiring impression depending on what you want to achieve. Although the paint on our walls makes up a large part of the colour palette of a room, the flooring, fabrics, furnishings and accessories of a room all play their part in creating a look so consider your colour choices as a whole before selecting your paint or wallpaper colours.        

 

 

Think differently

We are bombarded in the media by images of what the modern home should look like, and we can sometimes lose our own imagination. If you go back to basics and think about how you want to use your home and what you want it to look like, you will start to create a picture of how your home can work for you. Only then will you start to select images, products and ideas from outside sources that will work for you. By using this approach you will be able to create a unique home that truly reflects your personality.

 

A collection of sporting trophies creates a lovely personal feel

 Let us know what you think?

Did you see the article, or do you have some design tips of your own? We’d love to hear from you!

 

 

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