Cat-Proofing Your House

As much as we all love our pets, it should come as no surprise to any cat owner that they can sometimes get a little bit too excited and knock something off a table or shelf. When this happens, we can only watch and wait to see if the items dropping to the floor will break or bounce!

One of the most common causes of wood or tile flooring damage is glass or ceramic, which many lamps and light fittings are made of, or fabrics and materials cats love to scratch.

Luckily, most of us have our main light fittings on the ceiling, far out of reach from our feline friends. Still, sometimes, we just have that perfect lamp that just needs to be placed in a particular place, perilously close to the edge of a table or shelf. If that’s the case, it’s always good practice to be prepared!

Protecting Fragile Furniture from Felines

When trying to protect certain pieces of furniture from your cats, it can be somewhat difficult to plan for if you are asking yourself the wrong question. Suppose a cat is actively destroying pieces of furniture. In that case, there can be different reasons. Still, obvious ones include either boredom or a particular piece of furniture being in the way of a daily goal.

An excellent example of such an instance is when a cat enjoys sitting on a window sill, watching the world pass by, including potential friends, prey, and checking to see when their owner may return. Suppose you have an incredibly fragile vase or lamp. In that case, it’s usually easier to simply move it away from a window sill, as this is a spot that cats are known to frequent, regardless of their owner or home. If you are also aware of any areas that the cat is specifically drawn to, you can try to deliberately keep the piece of furniture away from there.

Another option, specifically in terms of light fittings or lamps, is finding a piece of furniture that can weather a fall or knock; options include items that are mainly made with wood, which is far more durable than ceramic as it does not shatter. Good examples of such pieces can be found on the Royal Design UK website, a producer of light fittings and lamps.

An equally easy but slightly more costly and design-centric option is to place a carpet or rug near a piece of at-risk furniture to help cushion the fall. While this is undoubtedly an option, especially if you already have one spare, this can have a much more significant impact on the design of a room and may not be ideal for some layouts.