Keep Your Blinds & Furry Friends Safe
October is National Animal Safety and Protection Month, promoting responsible pet ownership across all species and breeds, and at Sonata Design, we want to do our part!
When it comes to home decor and window treatment selections, it’s important to consider everyone in the household, including animals. Whether you’re welcoming a new furry family member into your home or wanting to make your current living environment more pet-friendly, there are many things homeowners can do to ensure pet safety without compromising style.
As you might have heard, there are some types of blinds (or control types for blinds) that may pose a risk to your furry friends! Traditional cords locks, in particular, have been recognized as a health and safety risk. Due to the hazards associated with corded window coverings, these types of controls will no longer be available for purchase come May 1, 2022.
If you’re in the market for updating your window treatments, here are a few controls and styles we recommend that can assist with the safety of your blinds and lessen the temptation for your furry friends.
Invest in Cordless blind systems: Cats and Dogs can be very tempted to play with cords and strings. Investing in a cordless blind system can help ease the temptation. With the Regulation change taking place next spring, many suppliers have come up with different cordless options. For example, The LiteRise operating system by Hunter Douglas is designed to hold blinds and shades securely in any position. Simply push up to raise the window treatment and pull down to lower.
Try Motorized window coverings: This control style removes cords and is a convenient, easy to operate option! Smart shades are a very popular choice among homeowners and can be programmed to run on pre-set schedules, routines or with a simple voice command. Motorized window coverings are a perfect addition to any home with pets and children and can be paired with almost any style of window covering.
No horizontal blinds on easy to reach windows- Pets, particularly cats, love to play and swat at horizontal blinds. They can get tangled up in them and this can damage your blinds, or worse, hurt your pet! For easy to reach windows we recommend using vertical blinds, roller shades, roman shades, or even shutters!
Make sure your drapes don’t pool on the floor- Although long drapery looks great, it’s also an open invitation for your pets to play with, sleep on, or even scratch at. Instead, you can try to trim your draped, so they reach the floor, but don’t puddle. For homes that have cats that insist on climbing we recommend having plenty of toys and activities to keep your fur babies amused as well as using tiebacks, or any other curtain accessories, to keep your curtains tucked away and less tempting for your cats to climb.
If you have window treatments that need to be updated, we’d love to help! Schedule a FREE showroom, in-home, or virtual consultation with one of our product specialists.
