5 Modern Cat Furniture Designs Both Pets and Owners Adore
These sleek cat accessories are so well-designed, they'll rival your own furniture.
Gone are the days of unsightly scratchers and subpar cat condos. Thanks to new designer collaborations, your favorite felines can perch on modern pieces that range from minimalist playpens to miniature sofas. Find some of our favorite options below.
1. A Custom Cat House From Indot
Indot, an interior design firm in Taiwan, designed this suspended enclosure for a client's four cats. The wood frame and interior elements of the cat house mesh with the rest of the home's interior finishes, while the glass ensures the installation doesn't convey too much visual weight. Even better, it gives the cats a space of their own while still letting the homeowners see and appreciate them.
Photo courtesy of Indot
"We started by asking ourselves if it might be possible to design recreational cat furniture to fit well to architectural modernism or art museums," Neko writes on their website. The company is based in Japan and produces a limited run of 22 cat trees a year, fabricated from Japanese hardwood by craftspeople in Hida.
Photo courtesy of NEKO
The marble base stabilizes the tree, and the choice of material was inspired by designers seeing a cat stretched out on a marble floor to cool itself. The post is wrapped in Japanese-made hemp cord, which is ideal for cats to sharpen their claws and can be replaced when it gets tattered.
Photo courtesy of NEKO
Cats can climb up and down inside the tree and rest on the various platforms. The wool pads are sourced from Kvadrat, a Danish textile company.
Photo courtesy of NEKO
Neko writes that carpenters use a "painstaking nail-less method in which small wooden rods known as 'dabo' are inserted one by one...The wooden bars are then treated with a thin layer of urethane, combining the feel of natural wood with the durability needed to resist cat scratches."
Photo courtesy of NEKO
Space between the wood dowels allows for connection between cat and owner, while still giving the cat a sense of enclosure.
Photo courtesy of NEKO
A series of miniature cat furniture is available via a campaign to boost the profile of legacy furniture makers in the Japanese city of Okawa. The petite "Raffine" bed is fashioned by Tateyama Wood Crafts in walnut or black cherry. A matching nightstand is also available.
Photo courtesy of Okawa City Okawa Sales Division
The "Feline Sofa" from Hiromatsu Furniture can be purchased directly from the company and seen on display at the tourism center in Okawa.
Photo courtesy of Okawa City Okawa Sales Division
According to Michael Yarinsky, the idea to design a line of attractive cat furniture came about while he and friend Aelfie Oudghiri were "drinking a bit too much" and questioning why mainstream cat accessories were so ugly. Then and there, Yarinsky—an interdisciplinary designer who works in architecture, interiors, and furniture, and runs Brooklyn's Cooler Gallery—and Oudghiri, founder of the Aelfie rug and home goods company, decided to collaborate on their own cat furniture. "The idea with the series was to fall somewhere between cat furniture and sculpture," writes Yarinsky.
Photo courtesy of Michael Yarinsky
The pair found inspiration for their line "from designers that fell on the cusp of art and design— people like Ettore Sottsass, Isamu Noguchi, and Peter Shire," writes Yarinsky.
Photo courtesy of Michael Yarinsky
Pieces are composed of CNC-milled ash plywood and flat weave rug material.
Photo courtesy of Michael Yarinsky
The modular cat tree from KATRIS includes a set of five blocks (each a different shape) and 10 clips for securing the blocks together. The beauty of the KATRIS approach is the flexibility of the design: you combine the blocks to create whatever formation you can imagine, which keeps the cat from getting bored.
Photo courtesy of KATRIS
Each block is composed of over 200 sheets of heavy-duty paperboard and can endure over 300 pounds of weight, making it quite durable.
Photo courtesy of KATRIS
With a wall mount kit and select blocks, the pieces can be attached to the wall.
Photo courtesy of KATRIS
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