Which indoor plants are safe for pets in Colorado homes?

The most popular houseplants are not always the safest for pets. Several favorites — pothos, snake plant, philodendron, and ZZ plant — are mildly to moderately toxic to cats and dogs if chewed. The good news is that plenty of beautiful, design-worthy plants are non-toxic, so you rarely have to choose between a styled space and a safe one. In a Boulder or Denver home with a curious dog or a counter-surfing cat, the smarter approach is to pick pet-safe species for reachable spots and reserve anything questionable for places a pet genuinely cannot get to.

"Toxic" also does not usually mean life-threatening. For most common houseplants, a nibble causes mouth irritation, drooling, or an upset stomach rather than an emergency. Still, when you are designing a space you actually live in, it is easier to remove the worry entirely than to manage it plant by plant.

Common plants to skip around pets

A few of the plants people reach for first are the ones worth avoiding in a pet household, or keeping well out of reach:

• Pothos and philodendron contain insoluble calcium oxalates that irritate the mouth and throat.
• Snake plant (sansevieria) can cause nausea and drooling if chewed.
• ZZ plant is a common, hardy pick that is also mildly toxic.
• Fiddle leaf fig, dracaena, aloe, and lilies round out the list — and lilies deserve special caution, since true lilies are especially dangerous to cats.

None of this means these plants are banned from your home. It means they belong on a high shelf, in a hanging planter, or in a room your pet does not access — not on the floor next to the dog bed.

Pet-safe plants that still look intentional

Plenty of non-toxic plants carry a room on their own. For Front Range homes, these are reliable, widely available, and forgiving:

• Parlor palm and areca palm — soft, upright greenery that reads like a statement plant without the toxicity of a fiddle leaf fig.
• Calathea and prayer plant — patterned leaves that bring color and movement, ideal for the low-to-medium light many Colorado interiors have.
• Spider plant — nearly indestructible and safe, great for shelves and hanging planters.
• Boston fern and bird's nest fern — lush texture for brighter, more humid corners.
• Money tree and peperomia — sculptural, compact, and easy to place on tables and consoles.

These plants let you keep a layered, design-forward look while removing the guesswork. In many of our residential projects, a pet-safe palette does not feel like a compromise at all — it just shifts which species do the heavy lifting.

Design around pets, not just around plants

Choosing safe species is only half of it. How and where a plant lives matters just as much. Trailing plants belong in wall-mounted or hanging planters where leaves stay out of reach. Heavy, wide-based planters resist a wagging tail or a determined cat far better than a top-heavy pot on a slim stand. Floor plants in busy walkways invite digging and chewing, so we tend to place greenery along edges, on furniture, or in dedicated corners instead.

High-quality faux plants are also a genuinely useful tool here. In a spot where a pet will not leave a living plant alone, a well-made faux specimen gives you the same visual moment with none of the risk — one reason we often recommend a hybrid living-and-faux approach in homes with pets. Done well, the faux pieces are hard to distinguish from the real ones, and they carry the design where living plants would struggle.

Colorado's dry air and strong window light already narrow the list of plants that thrive indoors here; adding pet safety to that filter is very manageable once you know which species to favor. We build all of this into the plan from the start when we scope residential plant design, so light, maintenance, traffic, and pets are considered together rather than as afterthoughts.

If your pet chews a plant

Even in a careful home, a pet may sample a leaf. Move the plant out of reach, clear away any dropped pieces, and watch for drooling, vomiting, or lethargy. Keep a leaf or a clear photo so you can identify the plant, and call your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center if you are unsure. For most common houseplants the outcome is mild, but it is always worth a quick check rather than a guess.

Designing a home you share with animals is really about matching the plant to the whole household — light, lifestyle, and the pets who live there too. If you would like help choosing a pet-safe palette for your space, you can learn more about how projects work on our Contact & FAQs page.