How to Make Your House Cat Friendly and Still Designed Well
This post is packed with tips on cat friendly home design. Basically how to NOT look like you have cats. I did a whole room makeover FOR my cats, which sounds over the top, but I got a piece of furniture for the Litter Robot and basically built a room around it.
I do have a Litter Robot coupon code for $25 off your order, just in case you’re in the market for a Litter Robot or like the looks of the litter box furniture I will be sharing.
Click here for the litter robot site discount.
The video I created is super fun, so check it out below, if you would rather watch than read!
I’m a designer, so I like things to be visually appealing in my home. I have 2 cats, so for my home, the ultimate goal is to make my cats happy, but not have my home design revolve around them.
// let’s talk about furniture
There’s cat furniture and your own furniture. Let’s start with cat furniture.
Cat furniture typically looks something like this. I don’t have a problem with many things, but I do have a problem with the looks of these things.
I have avoided bringing these types of carpeted cat items into my home because I just don’t like the look. Very cat-ty.
If your cats have claws, they need a place to scratch. It’s in their DNA to groom those claws. I know some people declaw their cats, but I just trim my cats claws about once a month or when I start to notice them catching on the rugs.
I feel like the ugly cat furniture stuff is meant to look inconspicuous. Like since they’re made out of carpet, if you put it on your carpet, it will suddenly become invisible? But…it doesn’t. So, let’s talk about some options.
There are lots of well-designed cat trees out there. I think ones like this kinda blend in a little better and come in shapes where the cats can lay on them and scratch on them too.
A lot of the nicer options I’ve seen have a Swiss design and it works because it’s minimalistic and won’t take away from your personal home decor style.
The storage cabinet I got actually has holes in the shelves, so your cat can jump and play on it! Mine are old and kinda lazy, so I don’t see them exploring up there much, but if you have young active cats, they would love this!
litter robot
Perfect fit for the Litter Robot!
When it comes to your furniture, I make a decision on any kind of new fabric coming into my house with the cats in mind.
The last thing you want to do is spend money on something as big as a new piece of furniture and have it torn up by those claws.
I would recommend getting a smooth, thick fabric or velour because that actually holds up really well. We got these grey tufted chesterfield couches on Amazon. I’ve also had microfiber in the past and those held up to the cats for a really long time.
// keeping things clean
If you have pets, you know things can get dirty and furry. The only place we really share a space, at the same time, is on the couches. I keep the bedroom doors closed because Bentley is restless and would keep us up all night, jumping up and down off the bed. Keeping the bedroom doors closed also helps to have a few less rooms with cat fur to clean. And I’m ok with that.
For the couches, I use my vacuum a couple times a week to keep them tidy. I keep a blanket out for Bugatti’s favorite spot to lay. This help separate his area from my area on the couch. And all the cat fur can collect on the blanket. I do a special load of laundry specifically for cat furry items.
These stairs are my only obvious cat item out in full view. Bugatti has arthritis, so I broke down and got these for him. I got it in grey and it matches the couch perfectly, so I don’t think they look too bad. Plus, you can remove the cover and wash it as needed.
I’ve found a damp paper towel works better than even those sticky rollers meant to pick up fur on fabric. A damp paper towel will do double duty by picking up the fur AND cleaning up any little paw prints. I use a paper towel on the couches and also on any paw print spots that show up on the floor.
For floors, I don’t really have much of an issue and probably clean them as often as someone without pets. A few times a week I will vacuum the hardwood and maybe once a week, use the mop.
For the basement where the Litter Robot is, I vacuum maybe around once a week down there. I did do a review on the Litter Robot, if you are interested click here for that review and video.
// store cat items in one place
I used to do this before my cats got ultra spoiled. I had their cat food and litter box in the same room and just would go down to the basement and make sure they had clean food and water every day.
But Bentley had a health issue and during that time, he got spoiled with fresh, filtered water from the refrigerator because it seemed he would drink more water that way. He did recover from his illness, but now cat food and water has migrated up to the kitchen. If you don’t have a spoiled cat like me, then I would recommend keeping everything in one area of the house.
Our cats like to hang out in the living room with us when we watch TV in the evenings. So, I have their beds underneath this side table. Those beds are probably the things covered with the most fur in the whole house, so it’s best to keep them out of view. when you’re placing pet items, look for a spot that’s nice and close so they can be part of the family, but also out of direct view so you don’t see their beds and toys unless you’re really looking for them.
If your cats are more active or younger than mine, they may enjoy just a basket as a bed, which is an even better look than traditional pet beds. Something like a blanket basket would not only look good in the home, but also be fun for the cat to jump in and out of by providing a cute little hiding place.
// really? a whole cat room!?
So, let’s get to the good stuff. How my cats are fancy, and yes, I built a whole room for my cats. But you don’t have to do this – I’ll share some cool cat room decorating ideas and other options in the rest of this post.
A little backstory on this cat room. About a year and a half ago, we moved from Texas to Colorado. In our last home we had a large laundry room and that’s where the Litter Robot was stored, because there was plenty of space for it and lots of storage to put their litter and cat food.
When we moved to our Colorado home, the laundry room is much smaller here and there’s really no place for the Litter Robot to go. I love my Litter Robot (no more scooping!), so I wasn’t going to give that Litter Robot up, just to get something that would fit in the laundry room.
The basement had a large unfinished storage area. And we don’t have that much to store – just a few seasonal decor bins.
We thought finishing the mechanical room out as a finished room would not only give a nice spot for the cats, but also could increase the value of the home just by having an extra room. If we ever move, this could be advertised as finished storage space, or if someone has dogs it could be a great spot for them. It could even be a little playroom for kids or if you made the basement into a media room, you could store all the electronics in here and maybe all your board games on some shelves. It could even be a second laundry room if you add the plumbing in. It’s just a great all around extra area that could work for any family.
There was a sump pump we had to work around, so we created a floor plan adding a few doors, so we still had some storage space and sump pump access, but also had a fully finished room.
We were basically our own general contractor because we had to work with a lot of different trades to coordinate it all, but this did save some money and we got it done in about a week.
We started with framers coming in and they put up wood to separate where the room would be.
You can see here, we will still have access through this doorway to our mechanical area and also have storage for seasonal bins and other items under the stairs.
Then the dry wall finishers came in and we could really see how the shape of the room would look.
Next, was flooring and then trim. We made sure it was the same trim and flooring that was in the rest of the house. All the bathrooms in the basement have this flooring, and the builder had leftovers in our basement, so we used that in here and that saved some money.
Then the electrician came to finish the outlets in the room. And finally we did the painting ourselves and that was another savings.
It was a lot of work and coordination to get this room done, but I’m so happy we have it because it gives the Litter Robot its own space. I think the cats appreciate their own area, and I actually like having the laundry room just for laundry and I don’t have to share it with the cats!
// decorate with litter robot furniture
As you can probably guess, my favorite part was decorating the space!
We’ll start by hiding the litter box. I saw that Litter Robot has furniture specifically made for their litter boxes.
click here for $25 off litter robot
I was pleasantly surprised at the high quality of the furniture. The instructions were actually really decent and made sense, all the parts were included, no missing screws or mislabeled pieces. It took about an hour and a half for my husband and I to put this together, but I did get the hutch and the cabinet, so it was basically like putting 2 separate pieces of furniture together and then connecting them. If you just get the base cabinet for the Litter Robot, it would go much faster. Bentley even tried to help put it together!
Here’s a reminder of the cat room before its makeover.
And here’s the after!
I hope you enjoyed this post and if you are interested in the $25 coupon code click right here!
FTC: Not Sponsored. All opinions are always 100% honest and my own. Some links may be affiliate links. If you click a link and buy something, I receive a small commission for the sale. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you are free to use the link or not as you choose. If you do use my links, I appreciate your support.
How about some Target Dollar Spot crafts and Dollar Tree coastal transformations. We’ll be putting together tiered tray miniatures to decorate our little coastal vignette.