Our beloved pets are fantastic for countless reasons and we’d be lost without them. Nevertheless, we can’t help finding ourselves cursing the living daylights out of them, whenever the time comes to paint our homes.

The simple fact of the matter is that interior painting and pets don’t make for the best of bedfellows. Two things you need and want in your life, but are simply the chalk and cheese of domestic duties. If you have cats and dogs around the home and have ever attempted to decorate, you’ll know exactly what it is we’re getting at!

On the plus side, painting with pets doesn’t necessarily have to be an unmitigated nightmare. It’s always going to make things more difficult than they could be, but doesn’t have to be a disaster from start to finish. It’s simply a case of proceeding with both caution and strategy, rather than making things up as you go along and expecting to avoid disaster.

So from the expert painters and pet-lovers here at Homm CPS, here’s how to cope with pets when painting your interiors:

Paint One Room At A Time

First up, you might be tempted to tackle the whole building all at once, in order to get things done as quickly as physically possible. Logical in one sense, but also guaranteed to cause you quite a number of issues. Instead, it can be far easier and more practical to attempt to paint just one interior space at a time.  This way, you’ll have plenty of other areas to confine your pets to during the process. Things are made somewhat easier if your pets spend a lot of time outdoors, but in any case, they’re going to need to be excluded from the arena of combat for quite some time. Choose your plan of attack strategically.

Clean (Very) Thoroughly

Even when you think you’ve given the space a good clean, chances are there will still be plenty of pet hair flying all over the place. Exactly the kind of thing that stands to ruin the otherwise flawless finish you’re working on. As every pet owner will undoubtedly know, cleaning up comprehensively after pets treads a fine line between difficult and impossible. In this instance however, you need to do whatever it takes to get rid of as much stray hair and general debris as possible.

Allow Lots Of Drying Time

In a similar vein, the moment you allow your pets back into the painted space, they’ll begin shedding hair and spreading dust across all four corners of it. If the paint isn’t comprehensively dry, it’s inevitably going to succumb to their ‘attacks’. In addition, there’s a strong chance they’ll brush up against the painted surfaces, maybe even lick them if they’re curious. So it goes without saying that you need to keep your pets well and truly out of the way until everything is dry…fully dry.

Call In A Favor

If you have friends and family who simply love you and your pets, why not call in a favor? If it’s at all possible to get your pets completely off your premises for a full weekend, you’ll have ample time to get the whole job done from top to bottom. No stress, no worries and no unnecessary delays or complications. You’ll miss having them around the place, but you certainly won’t miss the mess they’d be making, if they were there to ‘help’ you decorate.

Use Safe Paints

Not just for the sake of pets, but for the health and wellbeing of everyone in the property. These days, the overwhelming majority of paints are designed to be as safe as possible for those using them and those in the general area.  Nevertheless, low-quality paints and certain types of paint naturally pose a greater threat than others. If unsure, speak to a professional or your local paint stockist, in order to determine which paints are suitable to use with pets on the premises.

Call In The Pros

Last but not least, you could always take the whole family out and about for a day or two, allowing the professionals to get the job done on your behalf. The bonus of professional painting being not only faster and better results, but the fact that you yourself don’t have to get down ‘n dirty in the process!

For more information on any of our services or to discuss any aspect of interior painting in more detail, contact a member of the Homm CPS team today.