I vis­it­ed a client San­dra last week­end who was faced with two re­al­ly huge d&ea­cute;cor prob­lems – a pom­pek and a cat. I gave her a few tips for suc­cess­ful dec­o­rat­ing in a home with ac­tive pets.Hav­ing pets does not mean that your home should not have style. You just need to be a bit more cre­ative and se­lec­tive about where to fo­cus your dec­o­rat­ing ef­forts. The key is choos­ing the right ma­te­ri­als and ac­com­mo­dat­ing your pet's needs.

Win­dow Treat­ments. If you love lux­u­ri­ous­ly pud­dling drap­ery, chances are, so will your pets. San­dra's cat climbed the drap­ery and her dog slept in them. If you must use drap­ery, pre­fer lengths just about" to 1" above the floor. Bet­ter yet for­get the drap­ery. Use shades and blinds topped with valances or cor­nices. En­sure the cords from the shades and blinds are se­cured with a cleat or ten­sion pul­leys and do not dan­gle as tan­ta­lis­ing temp­ta­tions.

Up­hol­stery. Please do not fall in love with black, navy or any very dark colour. If your pet fur is light coloured, bold and bright colours al­so show up pet hair eas­i­ly. Match the up­hol­stery to your pet colour if pos­si­ble. Al­ter­nate­ly, use mul­ti-coloured fab­rics to help hide soil and wear. Avoid cot­tons, silks, linens, vel­vets, loose-wo­ven fab­rics; they will not stand up to an ac­tive pet. Con­sid­er us­ing out­door fab­rics for your up­hol­stery, and even your drap­ery. Out­door fab­ric has out­stand­ing pro­tec­tion and is wash­able. A mir­a­cle syn­thet­ic fab­ric, Cryp­ton, is near­ly in­de­struc­tible, is re­sis­tant to stains, smells, bac­te­ria and mud­dy paws. I do not know of any lo­cal source, but it can be your best friend (www.cryp­ton­fab­ric.com). Some pets feel the need to stake out their ter­ri­to­ry in the pres­ence of nat­ur­al hide or fab­rics. Some even uri­nate on the so­fas and drap­ery. While leathers are durable and will wipe off eas­i­ly, leathers are vul­ner­a­ble to claws. This can add char­ac­ter to the ag­ing process, if you like that look. Con­sid­er syn­thet­ic leathers. Mi­cro suede or faux suede, while they trap pet hair, are wash­able and stay cool in trop­i­cal cli­mates. Con­sid­er pro­tect­ing your up­hol­stery with wash­able slip­cov­ers and throws. This is cheap­er than hav­ing to have them pro­fes­sion­al­ly cleaned reg­u­lar­ly.

Bed­ding. If your pet sleeps on your bed, pro­tect your mat­tress. No 'Dry-clean on­ly' op­tions for you. Se­lect high qual­i­ty, wash­able, tight weave fab­rics in medi­um colours or pat­terned. White bed­ding – yes – white bed­ding is al­so an op­tion. White can be eas­i­ly bleached with­out dam­ag­ing its dec­o­ra­tive val­ue. Use cov­er­lets and throws to pro­tect bed­ding. Du­vet cov­ers and shams can al­so be used be­cause they can be re­moved and washed fre­quent­ly.

Floor­ing. Avoid vinyl tiles and sheet­ing that can be eas­i­ly dam­aged by the claws of your pets. A hard eas­i­ly cleaned sur­face such as ce­ram­ic tile or ter­raz­zo is best. Nat­ur­al stone must be sealed and can read­i­ly ab­sorb pet urine. I al­so do not rec­om­mend car­pet­ing in homes with pets. Car­pets trap soil, urine, dan­der and smells. But if you must, pre­fer ny­lon cut pile. Ny­lon is durable and cleans eas­i­ly. The loops on loop-piled car­pet can be very en­ter­tain­ing for your pet and ex­pen­sive for you. Car­pet tiles will give you the flex­i­bil­i­ty of re­plac­ing dam­aged por­tions at min­i­mal cost. Rugs are eas­i­er to clean and re­place and of­fer some dec­o­ra­tive val­ue. Keep your pets nails trimmed, pur­chase a good vac­u­um and vac­u­um reg­u­lar­ly.

Ac­ces­sories. In­vest in mir­rors, wall hang­ings and wall mount­ed art­work to ta­ble top ac­ces­sories that may pose a temp­ta­tion for your pet. If you have cats, items on shelves and ledges may al­so be ac­ces­si­ble. If you must dis­play col­lectibles or frag­ile items, dis­play them be­hind doors in glass-front­ed cab­i­nets. Cre­ate dec­o­ra­tive in­ter­est by group­ing your art­work on your walls and the col­lectibles in your cab­i­nets. On ta­ble tops look for ma­te­r­i­al such as met­al or stone that would not be at­trac­tive chew­ing op­tions for your pet.

Cater to your pet's needs. If you have a pet in­side you will have to find cre­ative ways to in­cor­po­rate or hide the lit­ter box­es, the feed­ing bowls, wa­ter foun­tains and bed­ding. Train your pets and pro­vide al­ter­na­tive, but at­trac­tive, op­tions such as scratch­ing posts, toys, spe­cial beds, climb­ing gyms to dis­cour­age them from at­tack­ing your trea­sured things. Clean thor­ough­ly and reg­u­lar­ly. Bathe and groom your pet reg­u­lar­ly and your home will stay clean­er longer.