The Right Window Treatments for Pet Owners in St. George
There’s a scenario St. George pet owners know all too well: leaving your house only to glance behind and see your furry friend’s face peeking through the window as you leave. For pet owners with certain window coverings, daily trips to the window may spell disaster, as dogs and cats can make for some of the worst and lasting harm to your window treatments.
So how can you protect against pet damage? The easiest way is to pick a pet-friendly window treatment that can handle even the most finicky pets. Let’s learn about some of the best (and worst) window coverings for pet owners throughout Utah.
Non Pet-Friendly Window Coverings
Let’s start by taking a look at which window treatments homeowners with pets shouldn’t have in the home.
Window Coverings With Cords
Just like with window safety for children, cords are a problem for pet owners. Pets–especially cats–are known to play with hanging cords, which might mean damage to your window covering or worse, injury to your pet.
Instead, choose a window treatment without cords, whether they’re shutters that fit in the window frame or other window treatments that have a bottom-up top-down configuration or are motorized.
Metal Blinds
Photo courtesy Carlos Castro via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Metal blinds are probably the absolute worst window treatment for pet owners. Not only do the blinds typically operate by cord, but they’re extremely vulnerable to damage from even the most well-behaved animals. Dogs or cats looking through aluminum blinds can warp, bend, and even snap the flimsy slats, which means you’ll need to replace the whole thing.
Fabric Window Coverings
Depending on your pet and the style of window covering, fabrics may or may not be something to avoid. Lengthy fabrics like drapes can “puddle” on the ground, which makes them easy for dirty paws to stain. Fabric window treatments also have a tendency to collect pet hair which nullifies any style value they can add. Finally, fabrics can tear, something cat owners know all too well.
Pet-Friendly Window Treatments
Now that you’ve seen which window coverings don’t get along with pets, we’ll dive into the more pet-friendly window coverings.
Wood and Faux-Wood Blinds
All of the issues aluminum blinds have, wood and faux-wood blinds fix for pet owners. No matter if your pet wants to poke its face through the window, durable wood blinds can stand up to more abuse than their aluminum counterparts. Plus, their typical wide slats make it less likely for pets to get tangled in between them.
However, be sure that if you go with wood or faux-wood blinds that you go with ones without cords.
Plantation Shutters - A Pet Owner’s Best Window Treatment
If you’re worried at all about damage to your window treatments or injury to your pet caused by window treatments, plantation shutters may minimize those worries. Because they mount directly into the window frame, there aren’t any dangling cords or fabric able to cause trouble. What’s more, even if your dog or cat is able to climb up, Polywood® plantation shutters are resistant to scratches and sturdy so damage is almost never an issue.
Plantation shutters keep your pets happy too. Does your dog want to look out the window as you leave? Shutters can make it easy without any chance of damage. Does the kitten like to have a patch of sunlight to nap in? Just tilt the louvers to let the light come through without losing any privacy.
In effect, plantation shutters are the best window covering for homes with pets.
