In February, 2014 my friend Eliza and her partner Tiffany bought their first house together. After seeing a few photos she posted on Facebook, I knew I wanted to help catify their incredible new home for their seven cats. This would be the first time Eliza’s cats Kirby, Agnes, Monkey, Judd and Naked would meet Tiffany’s cats Encore and Pluto and having perches, walkways and cat trees would be an important part of an easier transition into their new home. In addition to the cats, three dogs would call this home as well, making it all the more important that the cats have their “cat only” space.
The house was beautiful, not only on its own, but the potential for catification was amazing! Vaulted ceilings and open concept design was ideal for creating vertical spaces for cats. A beautiful stone central fireplace was a major focal point with long beams running the entire length of the house.
After discussing some ideas about the design with Eliza and Tiffany we all agreed that it would be best to create a kitty “super highway” so that the cats could travel all the way from one end of the house to the other without setting foot on the floor. Multiple points of access would be important to allow the cats to get up and down so they never felt stuck or cornered. About the transition for the cats Eliza said that the cats are doing great. They are all integrated and there is no way it would have gone this smoothly without the cat shelves, perches, and walkway.
From beginning to end, the whole project took about three months. Most of what was installed was custom which added a lot of time but in the end I was extremely happy with the result as were Eliza, Tiffany and the cats.
This is how one of the walls in my friends’ house looked before we decided to turn them into cats’ paradise
And this was the result
In February, 2014 my friend Eliza and her partner Tiffany bought their first house together
I knew I wanted to help catify their incredible new home for their 7 cats
After discussing some ideas we agreed that it would be best to create “super highway” so that the cats could travel from one end of the house to the other without setting foot on the floor
Beginning at the southeast end of the house, I installed a 12” x 6’ window perch
It’s perfect spot for the cats to soak up some sun while watching the wildlife. From here, Mountain Cat Climber shelves were installed 24” apart leading up to the southeast corner of the room.
The window perch was made extra large to all the cats could enjoy
I had to create custom shelves to allow access over the sliding glass door
Because of the embedded decorative beams along the walls, the shelves had to be mounted straight down onto these beams and shimmed as the beams were not flat on top. This worked perfectly and now the cats could travel over the door.
Upon reaching the other side of the sliding glass door, the cats would arrive at a custom 6-feet cat tree
The custom cat tree with hammock provides access to the catwalk and shelves. The cat tree provided a way down to the floor and also access to the first catwalk. Extra-large platforms as well as a roomy hammock made the cat tree perfect for this multi cat home.
Back up the cat tree the cats can easily step onto the catwalk which extends approximately 16 feet towards the West to the central post
Above you can see Agnes (the star of the photo shoot) traveling down the catwalk, surveying her kingdom.
Multiple points of access are important to allow the cats to get up and down so they never felt stuck or cornered
When the cats reach the central post they can choose to take the steps down to the floor, or continue around the post to the second catwalk on the other side. At the bottom of the post, I used over 200 feet of manila rope to wrap the first two feet of the post giving the cats a very convenient place to scratch.
I added more shelves to allow the cats to travel north along the west wall and access the second floor
I also wanted to create something special and a little different for the wall just below the second-floor railing
I wanted to create a wall of cat shelves that look something like leaves growing off branches
The result is a “leaf wall”
This space gives the cats multiple perching spots and they can even access the staircase from here.
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