Back when we cast our net for dog-smart home-design ideas, I blogged about how replacing our solid front door with a glass door greatly enhanced my dogs’ street-watching pleasure. (Or, at least, the myriad nose prints suggest my pups enjoy the view.) Recently, I heard from Lizza Osborn of Spokane, Wash., who had a sort of reverse challenge for which she found a stylish, low-cost solution.
 
“My dog is very reactive to other dogs and would bark annoyingly at the sliding glass door when people walking dogs pass by,” she wrote us about Ivan. “I didn’t want to shut the blinds because I like the light that the glass door brings so I just installed that frosted/privacy contact paper on the bottom part of the glass door, just about his height so that when he is laying beside the sliding glass door he can relax because he won’t be surprised by a dog walking by. The light still comes through and the frosted contact paper is not an eyesore.”
 
► For more dog-friendly home design and housekeeping tips from readers and pros, pick up the September 2010 issue of Bark.