See how I created the best guinea pig setup to be aesthetic and functional.
I am constantly taking in new guinea pigs from Facebook rehoming situations or as rescues from our local animal shelter. It’s just so hard for me to say no. And when you already have a bunch of guinea pigs, adding a few more never seems like too much trouble.
However, we also have a lot of other animals – and they were all starting to take over the house! We decided it was time to set up a dedicated pet room where we could house the majority of our animals.
I’m so excited to walk you through the BEST guinea pig setup I’ve ever done and our total pet room makeover!
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My DREAM Pet Room Makeover
The planning for this pet room actually started at the beginning of 2022. We had been playing with the idea of turning part of our basement into a room dedicated to the pets and decided it was the time to go for it.
The main goal I had in mind for this room was to create a space that was both aesthetic and functional. I knew I’d be spending a lot of time in this room so I wanted it to look nice. Plus, I wanted it to be a nice space for filming my YouTube videos.
My ultimate life goal is to run my own small animal rescue, so I also used this as a bit of a trial run into some things I thought would be really convenient to one day build into my rescue.
With this room, I wanted plenty of space to grow our guinea pig herd, house two bunnies, store everything we needed, and be a nice place I wanted to hang out.
Planning the Guinea Pig Setup
Planning the guinea pig setups was probably the easiest part of this entire process. We already had a bedroom dedicated to the pets, so we really just had to adapt the tables we already had to fit in the new space.
We keep our guinea pigs up on tables for two reasons. One, it’s easier for me to reach and clean and interact with the pets. I’ve tried stacked and floor cages in the past and they just aren’t for me.
The second reason is we have a bunny (eventually two!) being housed in this room. Rabbits can pass an illness called Bordetella to guinea pigs so it’s important for them to never have direct contact and be careful about sharing items.
All of my current guinea pigs live in pairs and the smallest cage size we have is a 2×5 c&c cage. I always like to give my pigs more space than the minimum. I also wanted to arrange things in a way that left room to grow our guinea pig numbers in the future.
My Must-Have Features
When we began planning this room, I knew there were a few special features I knew I wanted the room to have.
We chose this space in our house because it was large, easy to keep the right temperature for the pets, had plenty of storage potential, already had a sink and plumbing, and it’s located in our basement. The only natural disasters we really have are tornados, so the pets are safer down here now.
Because we had the sink and plumbing ready to go, I wanted a deeper sink for giving piggy paths. I also really wanted a garbage disposal!
The room was also really dark when we started, so better lighting for the pets and for me to film videos was a must. Since the room doesn’t have windows I also really wanted an app and Alexa controlled lights so we never had to worry about the pets not knowing whether it was day or night.
We also already had a full-sized fridge in the room, which was a nice feature we didn’t even have to add!
How We Remodeled the Space
The actual remodel took us about a month to do once we got the ball rolling.
The first step was to build a wall and add a door to our utility room so bunnies would be contained. My dad helped us with this project and we actually finished this in May of 2022. Nothing much else happened until September.
All the new cabinets and flooring for the room came out of my brother’s house – he was remodeling as well which worked out fantastic for us! We brought all that back to our house (to Missouri all the way from North Carolina!) and set a date with my dad for him to come to help us finish up the room.
With about 3 weeks until he was arriving, we started cleaning out the room, painting the walls, and painting the cabinets. We repainted all the cabinets we got from my brother and used one we already had in the room. We also bought a new sink and countertop.
Our color scheme was white and gray. We had walls, doors, trim, and cabinets to get done. I spent an entire weekend painting to get it all ready for my dad to arrive.
We also pulled up all the carpets in the room to prepare for the new hardwood that was going down. This ended up being way easier than I thought it was going to be!
When my dad arrived, he and pig dad laid the floor, installed the new cabinets and countertop, put in the new sink and garbage disposal, changed out the faucets, put in all the trim, and installed new super bright LED panels. It came together so quickly! The final touch was two shelves I painted to match the cabinets hung above the counter space.
Moving the piggies down wasn’t terribly hard, just a lot of carrying of heavy tables downstairs. We popped the piggies in carriers, figured out our new table configuration, set up their c&c cages, and let the piggies back in!
Guinea Pig Organization
Storage space was a huge factor in our design of the remodel. Once everything was done and I did a good deep clean of the space I was ready to start moving all the pet supplies down from the old pet room.
I decluttered a lot during this process. When you’ve had pets for 7 years so tend to end up with a lot of things you’re holding on to but don’t actually use. I got rid of old toys and worn-out fleece.
With the rest of the organization, I tried to think about functionality. I made sure things I used a lot were easy to access and all our health kit supplies were super easy to find.
I mainly used storage baskets and clear totes to store everything. I wanted to be able to see what I was looking for quickly. I’m sure I will end up moving things around as we settle into a normal routine, but overall I am very happy with our final setu
This room is honestly a dream come true and I can’t believe I have a pet room with anything I could ever want. The pets and I have settled into our new routine really quickly and I’m excited to share more about the room and get to filming here!
Check out the video and let me know what you think!
Learn more about pet care:
- The BEST Cages for Guinea Pigs
- A Guide to Housing Indoor Rabbits
- Why I Want to Start an Animal Rescue
