ENTERTAINING OUR FELINES WITH A KITTY CAT PLAYROOM & CATIO SPACE

Do you want to know what I’ve learned living with seven indoor, adorable, playful, and rumbunctious kitties?

It’s that I need a break sometimes.

Like when I am trying to cook dinner or doing a craft project at the dining room table, or even when I have company.

Not that I’d let the company decide if my cats can or can’t be in the room because this is their home first, but seven cats are a lot when you have a feast of deliciousness on the table or you want to get crafty.

This got me thinking that the kids, as I call them, needed their own space for when I needed these so-called breaks.

So, I built them their own kitty cat playroom and an outdoor catio.

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Exciting Update: The NEW Outdoor Catio Transformation is Coming in Spring 2025!

We’re making some big changes to our outdoor catio this Spring!

In May 2025, we’ll be upgrading the space.

We purchased two metal structures (10x20 feet each) for the farm, and one is going to be the farms flower greenhouse, and the other will be wrapped with the same wire used for the current catio, creating a much larger outdoor space for our feline friends.

Make sure to follow us on Pinterest or check back soon for the latest updates!

FIRST, THE KITTY PLAYROOM

The best spot I could come up with for the kitty playroom was in our basement.

This was perfect because we had already started doing a remodel of the basement to remove the drop ceiling.

Removing the ceiling tiles gave us an extra 14 inches of ceiling height and the space that the kitty playroom is in was supposed to be our home gym.

It’s ok, we just have to rearrange some plans, and the kitty room is AWESOME, so I have no regrets.

To divide the playroom area from the other half of our basement space, I used 1-inch x 2-inch boards to make the wood slat divider wall on each side of the room.

These walls also covered those basement poles.

Then I caged the area in the center with 1-inch x 3-inch boards and galvanized cage wire fencing with 1-inch x 2-inch openings.

The cage wire was attached to the wood boards with my staple gun, and the door was made into a slider with coaster wheels for easy opening and closing.

INSIDE THE KITTY PLAYROOM

You may have already noticed that I ended up painting the entire basement ceiling a dark navy blue after removing all those ceiling tiles I had mentioned, and all the walls in the basement were painted white.

So, to add some color to the playroom I made some DIY Cat Art with the cat's kitten photos.

They were so fun to make, and I do have a DIY post if you'd like to make a fun project with your pet's photo it's called MAKING DIY CAT ART FOR THE KITTY PLAYROOM.

Besides the cat art for color, I painted some paw prints on the walls and added trim color to all the wall shelves and ramp that leads to the outdoor catio space.

This giant rug was a hand-me-down from my parents, and the cats love to scratch their claws on it, along with their scratch pads and the DIY framed scratchers I made to hang on the walls.

If you want to make your own scratches, I have a post for you called DIY CAT SCRATCHER MADE FROM AN OLD FRAME.

Of course, the room gets filled with plenty of kitty toys!

A few favorites include Toy Springs, Toy Tubes and Smarty Kat Catnip Mice.

The kitty playroom has been such a hit.

The cats LOVE IT, and they spend A TON of time in the playroom, and I feel like they know it’s their space.

They get fed in the playroom as well, so it’s nice that I can come down into the playroom, feed the cats, shut the door, make dinner in peace, eat, and reopen the cage door so they have free range the entire house again.

What's also nice about the playroom is that ramp that leads out to the outdoor catio space.

THE CATIO

Now, if you’re not familiar with the term catio, it’s like a patio, but it’s caged, and for your cats, so they can enjoy the outdoors without getting themselves into much trouble.

Of course, like a lot of my projects, I kind of just wing them.

So, here’s how it went, and I plan to make a few changes when I get the chance, but for now, this catio space will do.

I used 2″x4″x8′ AC2 treated lumber and 8′ deck boards for the platform, which was the first step in the building process.

The platform measures 5 feet x 8 feet.

After the platform was built, I had to build and attach the metal shed.

The metal shed was a small, shed kit I purchased online.

I forgot to take a photo of the shed before adding the cage, but you can see from the photo’s it’s attached to one side of the platform and takes up a 3’x5′ section, leaving a 5’x5′ section for the open caged area.

It is approximately 6′ high.

You definitely do not need a shed on your catio, but my purpose for the shed is that I want to put cat boxes in there.

The caged section is constructed with 2-inch x 3-inch AC2 lumber and galvanized cage wire with a 2-inch opening.

Over the top of the cage, I’ve attached a heavy-duty- mesh tarp for shade.

I also use a small amount of chicken wire on the door because I ran out of galvanized wire.

Once the frame was all built, I added in some areas for the cats to lay and climb.

I used some AC2-treated plywood (AC2 wood that can be used outdoors without rotting) and outdoor carpeting to make lounging stations.

I cut the carpet larger than the plywood shape and stapled it to the underside of the wood with my staple gun.

Once I had the catio all setup, I needed the cats to be able to access it without me having to bring them in and out myself, so I made a tube out of a deck board and a steal panel and attached it from the shed to the basement window.

The basement window was replaced with a piece of AC2 plywood that had a whole cut to fit the tube. I also used spray foam to make sure the tube would be nice and airtight.

I also had to cut a hole in the side of the shed to fit the tube.

IS IT WORTH IT?

YES!! The cats love having the catio and 24/7 access to go outdoors, and it's nice that they can watch me do chores for the rest of the animals every morning.

It makes them more part of the farm.

I wish we could just let them run free outside, but unfortunately, we get pretty heavy traffic on our road and have lost two cats to cars over the years.

Tecinically one was a stray we were feeding, but it still counts.

We also have a lot more homes that have been built in our area, and even though we live on six acres, I feel it's still nice to be courteous to the neighbors who may not want wandering cats on their properties.

The kitty playroom and the catio have made life so much easier, and if you have the space to give your cats their own playroom, catio or both GO FOR IT!

As for the new outdoor catio space coming in May 2025, Amazon wouldn’t let me tag the greenhouse meal structure, but it did allow me to link to the ShelterLogic Carport Structure, which has the same design.

The only difference is that the greenhouse comes with a UV-resistant cover.

Just in case you want to get an idea of what we’ll be using for the new catio frame, it's going to be awesome!

We have one of these carports on the side of the pony barn for extra vehicle storage, and it has held up very well.

Hope you come back for that next catio post in May!

XOXO

Emily

P.S. If you're wondering how we ended up with all these cats in the first place, check out the post PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS: THE STORY OF OUR CAT COLONY.