i always imagine when people hear how many dogs we have the assumption is that our home is akin to a kennel in design so i thought a home tour series would be a good way to dispel that and offer a first peak into our earthdoglife. because i’m an introvert and an hsp my space has always been really important to me - i refer to myself as a maximalist because i crave being surrounded by things i love and that extends to inanimate objects as well as the living. i just realized i’m prepping you for the zaniness that is our house so let’s just jump right into my living room tour…
this is the first room you walk into upon entering the front door and it’s one of my favorites inside our house. with the stone fireplace and wood framing on the high ceiling it feels like a swiss chalet - it’s cozy, welcoming and warm and, as is the case with every room in our house, dog friendly.
the coffee table is one i made with an oak wood base and a concrete top and it’s become zig’s favorite resting place. normally table lounging would be frowned on but honestly zig is allowed wherever he’s able to feel comfortable. let’s face it, many dogs, regardless of their past experiences, have eccentricities and we always gravitate toward each dog feeling as comfortable as they can rather than strict rules being followed. everyone gets to let their freak flag fly (within reason) and our house likely has more “tweaks” than i realize because of this.
at no time did dave or i set out to purposefully design a dog-friendly house, it happened as naturally as the pack growth did. what we’ve naturally set out to do is create an environment where we are not yelling or disciplining constantly…life is too short to spend it trying to get dogs to conform to your ideals. zig likes to lay on the coffee table so i’m naturally not going to create an intricate tablescape that needs to constantly be cleaned up from the floor. my theory is that if we respect them, they in turn will respect us and the house and to date, with very few exceptions (i mean...puppies), this has turned out to be the case. the only place this really affects our design sense is with furniture choices, beyond that the dogs really don’t place any limitations on the design inside our house. microfiber is our upholstery fabric of choice and we tend to gravitate toward clean lines in our furniture, which gives space to the craziness that is every other surface. pretty much everything has legs a vacuum will fit under so we’re not constantly moving furniture (or letting dust rhinos build up).
the fireplace is one of the many beautiful stone features original to our house and the artwork hanging on it is an amazing piece by andy anh ha that we were lucky enough to find and fall in love with years ago. the wood burning fireplace is a dream in the winter…it’s like slipping a mickey to every dog in the house and a daytime fire always means a peaceful evening.
i like to think that in person the house doesn’t look as crazy as it does in pictures…to me the overwhelming feeling is love and comfort but that may just be me. when we moved into this house 12 years ago it was a bit of a disaster but the bones were here for an amazing compound and we’ve put a lot of work into making it our own. i consider us incredibly lucky to have found this place and had the opportunity to live our life here…it is our home, our workspace and truly a dream house. we would both be happy living out our lives here but sadly our future here is not the given it once was…we are hoping we can stay but right now that’s not a certainty.