How do you create a dream home for your cats? We made a trip down to Guerrand and En’s home in Punggol where their home is renovated with the idea of creating the best home for Boots and Dora, their two adopted cats.
It wasn’t difficult for them to do up their place as they had many exciting ideas to try out in their new home. Guerrand, with a background in architecture and product design, DIY-ed a couple of their home furniture and even 'catified' their friends' home at their requests! On top of that, they were both selling cat-related accessories which gave them more leeway to try out new ideas.
Read on for more tips and inspirations in creating a home for your kitty love.
Qanvast: Your house looks really interesting! Can you share the design behind your cat interior?
Guerrand and En (G,E): Our cat heaven is actually more for humans as an escapade into the world of cats, whereas their real heaven is practically the entire house! For us, we have the luxury of an entire room to play around with. Hence, the birth of our cat heaven with a playful cat playwall!
Our cat playwall in the room links to the overhead cat bridge in the living room through a cat-face shaped cutout in the wall.
Cat Playwall - in the room beside the living room
Cat bridge in the living room
Our TV console and cabinets also form part of the walkway from the cat bridge down onto the cat-spiral ladder steps, making it a combination of 'cat and human' furniture. Our cats love to be perched up high and get a view of what their humans are up to, and we do enjoy watching them above our heads during the commercial breaks.
Qanvast: There are quite a few ideas out there for cat-friendly homes. What are some ideas for cat decor?
G,E: For us, we think every piece of furniture that we use can be catified, be it sofa, TV console, and even the dining table. Knowing how your cat behaves will help a lot.
Some simple and practical ideas would be to make use of vertical spaces to create a fun playground for the kitties. Climbing shelves and boxes, high walkways and bridges are some common ideas to 'catify' homes.
Our own cat bridge is designed such that it provides enough space as a walkway for our kitties, and yet it hides itself in the existing décor of our living room. We did this by playing with colours as well as choosing the right hanging steel structure to hold the planks.
Qanvast: What kind of furniture or accessories do you recommend?
G,E: Litter boxes are quite the talk of the town (albeit only in the cat-lovers world) recently. From the more affordable and typical ‘open-air’ litter box to the enclosed ones (for cats to feel safe while doing their businesses!) which may not resemble a litter box, cat owners (or rather, kitties) nowadays are pampered with choices.
Also, in order to prolong the lifespan of other furniture around the house, some basic items are crucial to keep your kitties entertained. They can be as simple as a scratcher made of cardboard material or a fancy mat made of sisal rope for their scratching. If there are no surfaces to cater to their scratching needs, they may end up scratching your furniture.
Qanvast: Give us some tips to take note in creating a cat-heaven.
G,E: Carpets are mostly avoided in houses with pets, as pets fur and dust may lead to high carpet maintenance cost and effort. However, it can help reduce scratching on other household furniture. We do have a raised platform which is carpeted with a high-quality carpet and our cats love it!
In fact, it doesn’t take long to clean with a vacuum cleaner, and a pair of rubber gloves can be used to pick up finer fur stuck in-between the threads. We find that carpets actually last longer than normal cardboard scratchers, even after a year of scratching from Dora and Boots.
We used laminates for our cat playwall and boxes as they are easy to clean and it prevent stains left by cats marking territories, or kitties who refuse to use their litter boxes.
Cat safety is the main and primary concern when designing the interior of a cat-friendly home. Homeowners also need to be wary of items that may be dangerous to curious kitties such as ceiling fans and unmeshed windows. Avoid slippery surfaces too in order to prevent your kitties from slipping off walkways and bridges. They do not have nine lives as it is believed!
