Once upon a time, pets had to make do with a kennel in the corner, a stringy old bed or a spot between your legs on the sofa. Luna’s litter box was an eyesore you learnt to live with. Cookie’s bed certainly didn’t influence your choice of upholstery. You’d plan a playroom for the kids, but the dog definitely wasn’t on the interior designer’s mood board.
In May, furniture company Ucuoro introduced pet furniture that would fit right into the pages of a design magazine. Leo has his own teakwood sofa. The cat has a bespoke climbing wall and play area. From Victorian-style loungers to solid pinewood platform beds, if there’s a piece of furniture humans can enjoy, someone’s making a pet-sized version. “My husband and I kept looking for pet products that would fit the aesthetic of our home. Everything available was two-colour and plasticky. They began designing home décor that worked both for the animal’s needs and the human’s need for a beautiful home. The Flamingo Life, which creates bespoke luxury furniture, has been inundated with requests for pets’ beds to match their home’s sleeping arrangements. They now have a pet-bed line, with rattan-weave beds and teakwood loungers. There were ’70s-inspired sculptural sofas, loungers and stools. Even Ikea has adapted its Klippan sofa – originally meant for humans – into a pet-sized version, and sells pet beds in minimalist colour palettes. There’s more to designing pet furniture than shrinking a human sofa and throwing in a cushion. “It’s important to use animals’ natural needs and behaviours, like how they sleep, eat or play, as starting points. Bunt seems to have cracked the code with its bestselling dog-furniture piece: The Couch. It’s a Victorian-style mini-sofa with a pinewood frame upholstered in heavy-duty leatherette. It looks just like a human couch, except it’s smaller, easier to clean and water-resistant. It’s designed with India’s popular breeds (Labradors, Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds and Cocker Spaniels) in mind. “You would never sit on their floor cushion with your dogs, and they know that.
Cut to 2026. Mehfooz Abbasi and Anam Taufik launched Furmaish in 2024, after adopting their indie kitty, Meowth. Because it’s something both humans and dogs can use, but it works.
“If someone has a complete teakwood bed with wooden coffee tables, they want their chihuahua’s bed to be the same,” says co-founder Shambhavi. “The biggest challenge is not to humanise pet products,” says Dr Barbara Schäfer, a veterinarian and product-risk assessment expert at Ikea. But this couch is something you both can chill on together,” says Kaur.
