The Ultimate Guide To Cat Shelves

Cat shelves can be a great way to add extra spots for your kitty to hang out and really catify your space.

If you don’t have a lot of room in your home for something larger, like a cat tree, cat shelves might be the answer!  Yup, I said cat shelves.  When we lived in a smaller space we went looking for something that could give our cat a fun thing to really play on that wouldn’t eat up all of our living space.  So, we ended up turning to cat shelving. What are cat shelves, exactly?

They are this really cool form of cat furniture that you can, like a hanging bookshelf, attach to your walls for your cats to climb on. They come in a variety of forms too! From cute platforms to hammocks and scratchers that all attach to the studs in your walls.

Table of Contents

If you’re in a hurry, before we jump into the nitty gritty of this post, here are three of our favorite cat shelves.

Cat shelves of any kind give your cats a lot of coveted “up high” space to play and hang out on. And the sky, or in this case the ceiling, is the limit on what you can do for your cat.

Whether you start small with one platform or get a larger kit, like some you’ll see below, you’re sure to be addicted to creating new play spaces for your feline friends once you get started building with cat shelves!

Cat Shelves

Two cats happily lounging on some CatastrophiCreations cat shelves.

So, we know that cat shelves are these pretty cool pieces of cat wall furniture that attach to the studs in your walls. They can also come in a variety of styles.

An escape hole cat perch for that crazy kitty fun our cats are searching for.

It’s easier than ever to really go ham and create a cat room or wall that even the craziest of cat ladies would envy. Especially since you can mix and match to get the most out of your space.

You’re almost certain to find one at your price point and in the style of your home decor. There are so many cool designs out there, you guys!

If you are looking for cheap cat shelves, we have compiled a list of them over here!

Just take this one to the left from CatastrophiCreations for example, there is no end to the unique and sleek designs out there.

A sleek, modern floating cat shelf for with your contemporary decor.

You’ve got curved cat shelves which you get for when your cat loves a good hammock or bowl shape to snuggle into. Floating cat shelves for when you have a specific aesthetic in mind, in particular the modern sleek one.

Single cat shelves if you just wanna see if your cat likes them. Or if you’re slowly adding onto an already existing kitty creation. And shelves that are basically a big kit that you can set up so that you can turn your wall into a big kitty jungle gym.

And then the not often talked about member of the cat shelf family, the window mounted cat perches! They really are great too. And can be just as stylish in your home while often being at a very reasonable price.

Below are a few examples of the variety you can see in cat shelves. There really is a little bit of everything out there. You have ones with silk leaves to make your kitty feel like they are in a jungle. Entire kits with sisal scratching posts attached and space-age looking mini-tunnels that attach to your walls.

Floating Cat Shelves

A cat climbing on some sisal floating cat shelves

Here we move on to floating cat shelves!  A pretty fun subset of the cat shelf category! Floating cat shelves are attached to your walls via a “hidden brackets” system. These hidden brackets are as obscured and hidden from view by the shelf itself as possible while still being safe so that it can create that floating look.

Floating cat shelves really are great since you have so many options to choose from!

It opens up quite a few possibilities in terms of configuration and creativity.  You can also really easily find single cat shelves. So you can test the waters if you are worried your cat might be a bit more picky or scared of the shelves.

Or jump all in if you know your cat will love these. For instance using CatastrophiCreations you can mix and match all sorts of their cat shelves! Lots of which have a floating design to them, or just get one of their big kits and do up your whole wall.

If you want to learn more about CatastrophiCreations, they are featured over here, because they make some of the best cat wall shelves.

But, they aren’t the only people making floating cat furniture shelves, obviously. There are a lot options out there.

Floating cat shelves tend to go splendidly with modern or minimalist decor. They have a sleek look and clean lines that lend well to those styles. So, if you are on the hunt for modern cat wall shelves, then these are probably high on your list of possible shelves.

Curved Cat Shelves

A cat sitting on a curved cat shelf

If you are on the lookout for what could be considered a sightly more elegant feel, you might want to consider some curved cat shelves!

What are curved cat shelves? Curved cat shelves are… Well, cat shelves with a curve to them. Their wood has been shaped into gentle (or sometimes more extreme) curves that give your cat a great place to curl up that also looks lovely.

From my experience they can blend in a little better with classic or modern home decor. So if you are wanting something that isn’t OBVIOUSLY cat furniture, but more of an interesting and pretty conversation piece you might think about these!

Specifically the Lotus Branch Cat Perch is what comes to mind for me when I think of curved cat shelves. It’s a really tasteful shelf with some very lovely curve to it! It has a sort of classic elegance to it! But it could still easily fit into a modern or minimalist decor style if you wanted it to.

With that said, there are plenty of options out there if the Lotus Branch doesn’t quite do it for you though. Curved shelves come in a lot of different styles, colors and configurations.

The Refined Feline has one other curved cat shelf that is smaller and takes up less space on your wall. But it still offers a great place for your kitty to snuggle up and chill in style.

Both the Branch and Lotus Leaf come in a few different colors, from the black featured above to white, mahogany, and grey.

If you want to learn a bit more about the Refined Feline and their Lotus cat shelves, we’ve featured them as one of our favorite cat shelf brands over here!

If you are looking for a truly modern look in your curved shelves, there are a few other options out there that are unambiguously modern and minimalist in their designs.

Tuft + Paw are also on my super awesome list of cat shelves, since they make high quality designer cat furniture, including curved shelves like The Freddo.

They are a little more pricey than some others, but they make up for it with the quality of their furniture, and the fact that almost all of it feels like it’s a piece of modern art for your cat.

And Akemi Tanaka makes these beautiful, curved bowl-like shelves. They are easy to install and made from either walnut or birch plywood.

The little cushions come in a few different colors and patterns, which you can see on their shop page on amazon! A few examples are the cream color above and then this lovely blue here.

Now, if none of these are quite what you are looking for, that’s fine. There’s still plenty of shelves in the sea. Maybe curved shelves aren’t quite your bag, or you just don’t like the ones you’ve seen so far. So, here is a small selection of a few more before we move onto our next section!

Modern Cat Shelves

Modern cat shelves are a wonderful thing. It’s a style that would fit in with most modern, minimalist or contemporary home decor, or just liven up your house if you are wanting to bring a more sleek, chic feeling to the place.

These shelves are really where form meets function. Because some modern shelves are just so out there yet still so snuggly it’s hard to believe, honestly. I think that they are some of my personal favorites, and I hope they are some of yours too.

Just take our featured image above for example! That is a shelf from My Zoo, a cat furniture brand that specializes in modern, often space themed cat products.

My Zoo offers a really cool suite of cat furniture that’s all designed to go together. And offer a cohesive aesthetic for your home, while still being useful and super cozy for your kitty. But they aren’t the only people offering a modern cat wall shelf.

Let’s go to the other end of the spectrum, where sleek and minimal reign supreme instead of futuristic whimsy.

Take for example this shelf from the Refined Feline, it’s called the Cat Cloud. It’s a modern twist on the traditional cat shelf. It’s a floating cat shelf, so you don’t see any brackets. It has two platforms that are offset from each other just enough to get your cat that little bit higher. It’s sleek, minimal and lovely.

Then there’s these beauties from Tuft + Paw, a designer cat furniture brand. They make everything from scratching posts to cat towers and… Cat shelves, like the ones you see above. Almost everything they make could be considered minimal, modern and contemporary. Some of it could practically fit into a modern art gallery if they really wanted to.

The Gatto Pertica is a wonderful bowl shaped shelf, curved just so your cat can find the optimal spot to cozy up and nap for the next few hours. And it’s about 16″ long. The Freddo is an S curved shelf and a bit longer than the other shelf, coming in at 35″ long. Both of them have solid wood platforms and a removable cotton blend cushion.

If you want to learn a bit more about these cat shelves and their brands, we’ve written about them over here!

Modern cat shelves are a great option and a wonderful way to stylishly catify your home. While making more fun spaces for your cat to explore.

Window Cat Shelves

Window cat shelves are another category of shelves that aren’t as often considered.  Despite the fact that they tend to be less expensive overall and give your cats a great spot to bask in the sun.

This type of shelf attaches directly to the glass of one of your windows, usually using industrial strength suction cups. They are designed so that they don’t take up a ton of space. While still giving your cat their own spot to hang out.

Usually, I recommend window cat perches if people don’t have a lot of room, say if you are in a small apartment, or if you need something functional and inexpensive.

Take this cat shelf from K&H Products. It’s almost like a cat condo that you can attach to your window.

It’s a wonderful private space where your cat can hang out in the window, bask, or watch the birds from up high.

And, it’s not very pricey either. Which is always a plus, no matter what. All you’ll have to do with a window mounted cat perch like this is make sure they have a way up to it.

There are even cat perches designed to hold large cats. Finding a cat tree or cat shelf that’s made with big cats in mind can be a tough order. And you’d think it would be harder with these!

But you have some window cat perches like this that’s rated to hold up to 80 lbs.

It comes pre-assembled, no tools required. It’s made in the U.S.A and relies on their patented strong acrylic rods to support the cat shelf from the bottom up. This eliminates any wires that some people might be concerned with, as some other window perches use wires.

Another great example is this window perch cat scratcher. It’s from K&H again! It’s made from durable cardboard (yup cardboard), the strong stuff you could stand on without it doing anything.

They made it so that you can sprinkle catnip into the corrugated sections and let your kitty go wild. Get out their need to scratch without using your furniture for it.

You can also purchase “refills”, so you can get just the cardboard instead of having to replace the whole shelf when your cat shreds through it.

Again, this is a really affordable option if you are needing to catify your space but don’t have the room or budget to invest in a large cat tree or shelving system right now. Cat shelves on a budget are certainly possible when things like this exist.

Lotus Cat Shelves

A kitty resting on some lotus cat shelves

Speaking of Lotus cat shelves!  We’ve actually had enough people ask us specifically about these so I thought I should include a section specifically on them.  As we have more information on what people want to know about, we’ll be sure to add on those requests as well!

Lotus cat furniture is, in general, wonderfully elegant in appearance.  They all seem to have a lovely curve and flow to them!  It doesn’t matter if we’re looking at their shelves or their cat towers, they all have that refined feel to them that I think most people would love in their homes!

The Lotus cat shelves are all curved cat shelves, like we talked about above. The Lotus Branch has a delightful almost S curve to it. And it’s quite long too, coming it at 61″ in length. So, it’s really designed to give your cat a great place to snuggle up and romp around. Or for multiple cats to enjoy at the same time.

The Lotus Leaf is the smaller sibling to the Branch! It might not be as long, but it has more of a bowl shape to it.

This really makes it the perfect place for your cat to snuggle up and enjoy their own space.

So, if you don’t have a ton to spend and really want something simple, small but cozy and elegant I’d go with the Lotus Leaf.

They can also be combined to make little runways along your walls, also affectionately known as “cat walls” when you decide to turn your entire wall into a kitty play gym.

Why Are Cat Shelves Important?

Okay, so, I want to talk a bit about why I think cat shelves (or any other piece of cat furniture really) is actually important for your cats.  It’s a fundamental part of having a cat in your life.

Whether you decide to buy an elegant cat shelf, a simple window cat perch or make some cat furniture out of boxes, giving your cats a place of their own where they can scratch and climb isn’t just to save your furniture (though I know that’s a priority too!) it’s for their own health and well being.

Cat’s have a base need to climb and scratch, it’s sort of what you sign up for when you get a cat.  It comes with the snuggles, aloofness nature and their dedication to making it seem like they knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they fell off that table…

Even cats who have been declawed (which should never be done, and here’s an article on why), still knead at your leg and will “scratch” at furniture, scratching posts and cat trees because it’s a base instinct, something integral to their mental and physical health.

They also need to climb.  Cat’s want to get high up so that they can see what’s happening around them.  They’d be doing this in the wild to get away from predators and hunt, scaling trees and other surfaces.

These instincts haven’t gone away when we bring them into our homes!  They still want to survey the world from the highest vantage point. Not only is it just fun for them (great environmental stimulation) but it can help them feel safer.  Timid cats especially benefit from having their own spaces up away from everything else.

Cat shelves can also help reduce kitty conflict in your home if you are having problems with your cats getting along.  By giving your cats more space to get away from each other and “claim” as their own, you are giving them more tools to deal with their disputes. That doesn’t end in a literal cat fight.

Please Note: That said, if you are having serious problems with your cats getting along and are concerned for them, please consult a trained behavior expert.

In short, that’s why cat shelves and other cat furniture can help you and your cat find more peace in your home.  You’re giving them a sanctuary to explore and use their natural instincts.

I hope you enjoyed these cat shelves and that this page was useful to you guys!  Cat shelves can really be a great way to give your cats someplace to jump and play if you don’t have a lot of space!  They can also just be a wonderful conversation starter for when you have friends of relatives over.  Have a good day guys and embrace your inner cat lady.

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