5 Lessons My Pet Bunny Taught Me About Home Decor
About a month ago, I adopted a 7-month-old white and black rabbit that I promptly named Pillow. She’s adorable and enthusiastic, and loves grooming (read: licking) me and giving snugs — she’s everything I’d hoped a pet bunny would be.
But it wasn’t until I actually brought home that jumpy little nugget that I realized just how much my new roommate would help me redecorate my apartment too.
People really aren’t kidding when they say that owning a rabbit is a major commitment: They need a ton of space to hop around in and exert energy, and if you don’t take the proper precautions, they’ll pretty much tear apart your home. In that sense, adopting Pillow has made me think a bit differently about my decor decisions — and to consider choices that work well both for me and her.
Below, five useful lessons my bunny has taught me about home decor — so far.
Clean bunny living! (Photo: Nora Crotty)
Pick up after yourself … or suffer the consequences.
When you live alone, it’s easy to let cleaning fall to the wayside. No one’s there to bug you about the magazines spread out under the coffee table, the bath towel you may have changed out of in the middle of your living room and left on the floor to dry for a few days, or the sneakers that have been sitting by the doorway for far too long. No one, that is, until you bring home a bunny — that would enjoy nothing more than to tear up your mags, nest/dig in your towel, and chew on your shoelaces. And if you’re not feelin’ that scenario, you’d best be cleaning up your stuff on a regular basis. In other words: Owning a rabbit might be the key to discovering your inner Marie Kondo.
That’s Pillow’s chewable woven mini-hut thingy in the background. (Photo: Nora Crotty)
Wicker has no place in a living room.
I went a little nutso buying things when I first brought my rabbit home. Two things I bought were a woven hamper from The Container Store, in which I figured I’d keep all of Pillow’s food and accessories, and a smallish jute rug from World Market to put under her hutch so that she wouldn’t slip on my wooden floors every time she hopped out. Big mistake. While the pieces looked terrific and subdued in my living room, it didn’t occur to me that they were both basically made of straw. And what’s the main component of a rabbit’s diet? Yep — straw. The second I put them down on the floor, Pillow bounced right up and began attempting to pull pieces out. I wrapped the hamper in cellophane, and she started pulling at that, too. The next morning, I returned it all and snatched up one of these straw “Tee-Pee” situations at Petco, made especially to be destroyed by small pets. I’ll miss you, wicker. You’ll remain forever woven into my dreams. Hopefully someday I’ll have a porch, and you’ll be the star of the show.
Pillow chilling out by the jungle. (Photo: Nora Crotty)
Every plant deserves a stand.
I enjoy keeping plants so, so much. My apartment verges on mini-jungle territory. But I had no idea that, after adopting Pillow, I’d have to alter my ways. As any outdoor gardener will tell you, bunnies love snacking on leafy greens — and they don’t come any fresher than the ones still growing in dirt. Unfortunately, most houseplants are also super poisonous to rabbits. So, since Pillow joined me in my apartment, I’ve had to rearrange my succulents, moving everything but one extremely prickly cactus off the lower rungs of my great-grandmother’s Lucite ladder and purchasing several plant stands to keep P from reaching them. Did switching up my setup annoy me at first? Obvi. But I’m realizing now that my plant life actually looks richer on stands. Staggering heights make my room more interesting — and, of course, less toxic for bunnies.
My TV cords before and after Pillow-proofing. (Photo: Nora Crotty)
Wires and cords should remain hidden at all costs.
Rabbits love chewing — this we know. One of their favorite things to chew is cords and wires, supposedly because they remind bunnies of plant roots (in the wild, bunnies often chew through roots to make their burrows). The problem is that pretty much every electrical item in a home requires at least one cord to function. So what’s a human to do? Hide them! Not only does hiding cords deter a rabbit from gnawing through them, but it also makes a room look a trillion times neater and more polished — even if you don’t have a pet bunny. There are a ton of creative ways online to tackle messy and unsightly wires, or you can go simple with a classic cord cover. Whatever option you choose, you’ll be glad you did.
Pillow overseeing her kingdom of hay. (Photo: Nora Crotty)
Every floor looks better with a little hay on it.
OK, so this might not be a decor lesson so much as a decor reality when you’re living with a bunny: There will be hay everywhere. And the more you try to (unsuccessfully) contain it, the more frustrated you’ll become. There’s hay on the floor around the rabbit hutch, in my shag carpet (which Pillow also loves to chew, and will eventually be replaced by something a little less tempting to her), and around other various parts of my apartment where I’ve unwittingly dragged my bunny’s food. No, it’s not the prettiest home accoutrement — but what’s a little dried grass compared to bunny snugs? Exactly.
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