Designers Say "Cat Furniture" Is Having a Moment—Here’s What They'd Actually Put in Their Homes

For so long, dogs have been the center of attention when it comes to home design, while cats have seemingly been forgotten about. As the mother to two cats, however, even I can understand why—cats aren’t as easy to train, and they do their own thing, whether you like it or not. It even seems like they sometimes do things because you don’t want them to, like scratching the couch or pulling threads from the rug. They sleep wherever they want, from your bed to the kitchen counter (try as you might to get them to stop), with nowhere off limits in their precious little heads.

But times are changing, and cats are finally having their moment in mainstream interior design—we first noticed it with Carrie Bradshaw’s enviable cat tree featured in And Just Like That. Suddenly, it seemed like every retailer was carrying aesthetically pleasing towers, trees, scratchers, even litter box enclosures, finally moving away from that classic, gray carpet that used to cover every piece of cat decor.

Just because something looks nice, though, doesn’t mean it’s made well or will fit in your space. I reached out to a handful of designers and home experts to share the cat furniture and decor they use in their clients’ homes, as well as their own, to find out what’ll actually hold up to the constant scratching from our felines. Keep reading to find out what you should be looking for if you’re shopping around for a new scratching post, and find the specific products these experts actually use.

The Future of Cat Furniture Is Here

Built-in cat food and water station by JLW Interiors.

Adopting a cat means you’re accepting that your floors are constantly going to be covered in feathery toys and you’re going to have to make space for multiple scratching posts, trees, and towers. Over the years, many people’s solutions were to buy pieces that blended in or could easily be hidden behind couches and slid underneath shelves, but Vanessa Larsson, an interior designer at Planner 5D, says that this has changed.

“Homes in 2026 don't need to look like perfect magazine spaces; they need to look like our homes, with personality and functionality,” she explains. “The more you, the better, and what is more you than your pets?” It’s OK to have your cat furniture out in the open; you just have to know what will actually look good and age well.

When shopping for cat-centric pieces to add to your home, stick to familiar, good-quality materials. Larsson says the reason those multilevel cat trees made from sisal and plush fabric don’t work is that they’re assembled from unrelated parts. A single material for decor like this works better aesthetically.

Jessie Smart, co-owner of Home Carpet One, suggests leaning into natural materials specifically. “Find sisal scratching posts and linen-covered cat beds; look for wood-framed pieces in finishes that complement what’s already in the room,” she adds. “Furniture that follows the same color and material logic of everything else in the space will read as less of an intrusion. A sisal scratching post won’t look out of place in a room with a natural fiber rug; it will feel like a material echo.”

Your kitty is an extension of your family, so think about designing the rest of your home with them in mind, as well, outside of their own cat-centric decor. For designer Jennifer Weisberg Cohen of JLW Interiors, a favorite cat-friendly design solution of hers is a custom built-in feeding station for one of her client’s cats. The client didn’t want the food and water bowls just out on the floor, so “instead of concealing the area, I designed a custom cat-feeding station integrated directly into the kitchen millwork,” Cohen says.

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“I recessed the stainless steel bowls and raised the platform off the ground for comfortable feeding access.” The lilac marble slab she used as the backsplash complements the surrounding kitchen features, making it a design feature rather than an eyesore.

If a built-in isn’t in the budget or you don’t have space for something like that, you can still create a more elevated cat lounge simply by designing vertically. Alexis Pew of Kaminski + Pew needed to design a space for her client’s cats to lounge that wouldn’t look tacky, so she found these beautiful wall-mounted perches on Etsy that create visual interest even when the cats aren’t inside. Since the cats were going to be against the wall, she took it one step further and chose a vinyl wallcovering they wouldn’t want to sharpen their claws on.

Choose couches, chairs, curtains, and rugs they can’t ruin by going with performance textiles and avoiding loose weaves, open linens, and anything they can snag their claws on.

“Flatweave construction in synthetic or wool-blend fiber with tight low-pile weave will resist snagging like you simply cannot with high-pile or looped construction,” Smart adds. Don’t pick out rugs with fringe, and maybe even go with a washable option since those are built to be durable.

Where Designers Shop for Stylish Cat Furniture

There are a lot more ways to incorporate pretty cat-centric pieces into your decor today than there used to be.

“I gravitate toward sculptural scratching posts made from natural wood and sisal, or minimalist cat beds crafted from felt, oak, or woven materials that blend seamlessly into the overall design rather than competing with it,” designer Janie Hungerford of Hungerford Interior Design says.

These are the pieces designers and home editors are actually shopping that prove that cat furniture doesn’t have to be ugly.