Catifying your home is vital to keeping indoor cats happy and living in harmony.
I live in a small apartment with two cats. So my challenge is how can I maximize the space, give me cats as much enrichment as possible, places to perch and climb but still care about the design and esthetics of my home.
I was inspired by the Metropolitan Cat Condo by The Refined Feline which retails for $299.
It is a beautiful minimal design. It comes in black, white and gold and you can chose between fluffy padding or scratching pads that velcro to the shelves.
So I began looking online for metal shelving units / bookshelves similar to this one. I was looking for:
- a tall shelf
- ideally made of metal
- sturdy
- varied shelving sizes and positions
Then I found this one posted on a second hand online website for about $50.
My goal was to make this a multi-purpose piece. Something I could use for the cats, storage, display items and plants. If I had a bigger apartment I could leave the whole unit to them and catify every surface. But I need the storage too. So we compromised.
I put heavy books on the bottom to help stabilize it. I left two upper shelves free for the cats to “claim as their own.” I cut cork placemats from Ikea to size for the two shelves and attached them with bluetac. This helps with grip when they jump onto the shelves. A slippery metal surface is not attractive to cats. On a lower shelf I put a cardboard scratcher from the Bergan Turbo toy. I always keep extra of these replacement packs on hand. They work great to put them in cat beds, caves or on shelves.
The beautiful Mona Lisa next to the shelf is our new cat scratcher. Yes it truly the most beautiful cat scratcher I have ever seen.
Here are a few other examples similar to mine that I found which would work well as a multi-purpose cat tower.
Faux marble and Glass for $290
I would prefer metal, wood or MDF wood. I saw many glasses shelves which I would not recommend as glass is not as cat friendly and would be difficult to attach the scratchers to. However, when I used the Ikea shelf hack below I removed the glass and made platforms by weaving sisal cord.
I encourage you to look around, see what you have and how can you make your shelving units more cat-friendly.
OMG! That’s a bit too pricy for something that my cats will destroy very quickly!!!! :O
Author
It is an investment. But it is very heavy and sturdy. This will not be destroyed quickly. It’s more a piece of art for your home your cats can enjoy and add character too. Very cheeky ;-)
You don’t know my cats!!!! Most of our scratchers are being used in a serious and aggressive manner by my two young boys and never last longer than a few months, and this would be ruined within a short time too, I’m sure. It depends on what your cats are like I guess. My girl, for example, isn’t as vigorous as the boys when she uses the scratchers.
Wow, that is a really great idea. Looks fantastic, and the Mona Lisa…. where did you find that? :)
Author
The Mona Lisa scratcher is from a German company Die Moderne Katze