How To Pet-Proof Your Dining Room

*Today’s post was made possible by Loloi, and features gifted product for the purposes of a candid review. All opinions are my own.

The journey of kitten-proofing our home continues—this time, we’re talking about our dining room. You may remember late last year when I put together what I thought was the perfect dining room design for our home. Take that tour here to see the introduction of new upholstered seating and a luxe glass table. As you can see in today’s update post, the glass table is still one of our favorite pieces of furniture in the house, and, thankfully, it holds up well to our pets. But the upholstered chairs? I suppose I should have known better…

Once our two rescue kittens, Joe and Marlo, had gotten comfortable in their new home, they decided it was time to start terrorizing it with their claws. It has been a struggle to keep the fabrics throughout our rooms free from their destructive path, so I quickly had to admit that our beautiful new upholstered chairs just weren’t going to last—at least not during this kitten phase we’re in. So into storage they went (they’ve actually since been passed along to a new home), and in came a new set of chairs that our kittens can’t sink their claws into.

I ordered this set of plastic dining chairs, and also brought in the bench that my dad made that we’ve had for years. I love how this mismatched set adds character to the room, and how the light stained wood of the new chair legs and the bench matches our beloved glass dining table. It feels practically meant to be, and so far the kittens haven’t been able to hurt the newly assembled dining set. Eureka!

That’s not the only change we made to the room, though, as you eagle-eyed readers might have noticed. Perhaps the most exciting change was the addition of a new area rug under the table. We picked the Heritage – HER-01 Area Rug from Loloi Rugs, which is part of a brand new collection that just launched earlier this month. We chose the 6’ x 9’ rectangular version of the rug in the color “Clay, Natural” to help brighten our dark dining space, and I love how the multi-level pile is designed to look like a true vintage rug without the high price tag. The polypropylene, polyester, and wool texture is super easy to clean, and has stood up so well against our kittens and their sharp claws.

I know I’ve said in the past that I didn’t want a rug in the dining room after we moved in here, but we’ve found that our special needs kitten moves so much better and more confidently over rugs as opposed to smooth hardwood floors. Joe was born with a mild version of cerebellar hypoplasia, which means that he’s a little unsteady on his feet, especially when he’s running around and playing with his big sister Marlo. This rug is the perfect compromise—our kittens love cozying up on it, the textured pile makes it easier for Joe to move around in the space, and I love how the vintage-inspired design looks in our formal mid-century dining room.

Just in case you, too, are dealing with troublemaking kittens (or if your kitten also has developmental special needs), then keep scrolling for a full list of my tips for creating a pet-proof zone that both you and your fur babes can enjoy.

How To Pet-Proof Your Dining Room:

1. Cover floor plant pots: We had some issues early on with our kittens thinking floor plants were bonus litter boxes, so we’ve since added these planter pot covers over the soil to deter them from this nasty habit.

2. Swap upholstered chairs for plastic ones: I love how these new plastic chairs are wipeable in case the kittens ever spill anything on them, and that they don’t have any fabric for them to claw or gnaw on. They’re also kind of stupidly cheap, so if Joe and Marlo do somehow mess them up, it’s not the end of the world.

3. Install louvered doors: Our retro home came with one set of original louvered doors to the entry into our dining room, and we’ve since closed up the second entry with a similar set of louvered doors. Being able to block off the room as needed (mainly when we’re not here to supervise the kittens) has been a game-changer.

4. Use museum putty on breakables: I was determined to find a way to incorporate some of my favorite breakable decorative items in our dining room, but I knew that was dangerous with kittens. I have since stuck each item firmly to its respective tabletop using this museum putty, and have had zero breakages so far.

5. Incorporate closed storage: For those items that are handled more often, I use a closed hutch that I purchased secondhand. The glass doors protect my favorite pieces from prying paws, but I still get to enjoy looking at them throughout the day. Just make sure you anchor large pieces like this to the wall so there’s no risk of them toppling over onto your pets!

6. Use an easy-to-clean rug that looks vintage but isn’t: I think this rug is the perfect way to add pet-proof style to a dining room. The antique-looking pattern hides stains caused by pets, and it’s also worth noting that stains don’t really even have a chance to set in because the polypropylene, polyester, and wool pile is easy to spot treat and steam clean.

What do you think of our updates? I miss our lovely designer upholstered chairs, but I know that the new hard surface seating we chose will stand up to our family for the long haul. I’ve learned over the years that having pets definitely requires a person to make sacrifices when it comes to the design of a home, but it’s well worth it. And the good news is that there are so many beautiful pet-proof alternatives out there to order so that you and your pets can be happy to live in the space. As always, feel free to leave your own pet-proofing tips in the comments, and click here to shop the new Heritage rug collection from Loloi.

P.S. Hop over to my Instagram to take a video tour of our dining room!

*I earn a small percentage from purchases made using the affiliate links above. Affiliate links are not sponsored. Rest assured that I never recommend products we wouldn’t use or don’t already love ourselves.