Dogs? S’cute. Dog decor? Not s’much.
And among the home’s worst offending, pet-induced eyesores? Dog gates, which, of course, you need for instances like puppy training, hosting allergic guests or keeping Fido’s mucky paws from trekking all over your neutral carpeting. But wouldn’t it be great if they weren’t so hideous?
Enter: This fabulous decor tip—which we uncovered while thumbing through Susanna Salk’s book At Home with Dogs and Their Designers (Rizzoli). Rather than succumbing to a fugly plastic gate, interior designer (and dog parent) Brooke Giannetti got her upcycle on. She found what appear to be salvaged antique cabinet doors, trimmed them to size, secured them to the wall with hinges and added a hook and eye lock to keep the gates closed. We mean, how chic is this setup?
Now, while Giannetti went the salvaged wood route for her gate, we loved the larger lesson that you can use pretty materials, like panels of shiplap, pieces of latticework or really any other aesthetically appealing yet sturdy material of choice, for this purpose. All you’d need to do is take the dimensions of your passageway and have your material cut to size.
Oh, and P.S. There’s an even bigger takeaway at play here. Let this serve as a reminder: You can totally use “people decor” as a better-looking substitute across many of your pet necessities. Think: Putting an actually-attractive floor pillow to use as a dog bed or using pretty ceramic bowls in lieu of dog bowls. (Bonus points: You probably won’t have to buy anything new.)
