Leveling Up The Cat Game

There are times when you know that crazy-cat parenthood really has you in its grip. This happened to me last September when I knew the next step in the evolution of modifying the house to suit the comfort and interests of the resident cats needed to happen. What could be more obvious than needing to build a series of shelves that would allow the cats a high place that they could watch from?  Not only is near the ceiling the coziest place in the house in the winter among all that rising warm air, the shelves gave a great vantage of the room to feel safe. 

Yoru, ever the cat who refuses to be typical, didn't like the high place. This was Kassy's jam, as you can see. She struck the perfect stretching pose to show what a delight her new stairs were. The play corner became one of Nadia's favorite too, shortly after she joined the family. 

The shelves had been on my mind for a while, but what really unlocked the project for me was seeing a kitty stairway on Instagram. I found a high-quality version of them on Amazon and ordered two to fit my cat play corner.  The shelves themselves were walnut boards and some shelving brackets from the orange logoed, bigbox home improvement store.

 The finishing touch was affixing some Hello Kitty polar fleece fabric I had to make the shelves extra cozy.  In total, the construction probably took about three hours of cutting and stud finding and affixing and sewing.  It was well worth the effort and what had been a boring corner with a couple of pieces of art hanging in it now had become a refuge and a play space! 

I've been very happy with the two FUKUMARU step units that I purchased. They are made out of solid wood pieces that have a blonde, neutral finish that goes well with the walnut shelves and general decor. The steps are wrapped tightly in rope to allow kitties' claws to get a grip when going up or down.  While appearing to defy gravity when hanging from the wall, they are sturdy and solid.  Though both screws didn't find studs, I installed one in a stud and the large sheetrock anchor provided provided a good support for the second screw.

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