Best Modern Cat Trees
A quality cat tree is one of the best investments cat owners can make. A cat tree provides your cats with a piece of furniture they can call their own. And that means your luxury sofa will get a reprieve from all the cat abuse. Cat scratchers have come a long way over the past decade. They’re no longer exclusively made of carpet. Modern cat trees are becoming more and more popular. Having a cat tree in your living room doesn’t have to be embarrassing. We’ve reviewed the top-selling modern cat trees on the market and found out which ones will make both you and your kitty happy.
Attractive Appearance
Our first measure was whether or not the cat tree could blend in with the average home decor. No self-respecting cat owner wants a carpeted monstrosity in their living room. In order for cat trees to get the most use, they should be placed in central, prominent locations in the home, like the living room. So giant carpeted cat trees are off our list. Cat Tree manufacturers like PetFusion and Vesper have made a conscious effort to modernize the appearance of their cat trees. Their products still resemble cat furniture, but they look much more tasteful and they do a decent job of blending in with their surroundings. Then we have the cat tree manufacturers that completely abandoned traditional cat tree designs, and instead created artistic, modern furniture that was secretly made for your cat. The Refined Feline, Catswall, ContempoCat, KATRIS, and Designer Pet Products all fall into this category.
Ease of Assembly
Next, we looked at the assembly process. The CurvyNest is the only cat tree we reviewed that doesn’t require any assembly. For everyone else, the assembly effort varied greatly depending on the number of pieces, the quality of the instructions, and the quality of workmanship. The PetFusion Modern Cat Activity Tree & Scratching Post was probably the easiest to assemble. Whereas the The Sebastian Modern Cat Tree proved to be a huge hassle due to poorly aligned holes. Overall, most of the cat trees could be assembled in under an hour with a standard screwdriver.
Cat-Friendliness
Now we evaluated the cat trees for the most important criteria of them all – Cat-Friendliness. We looked at overall size, height, stability, and functionality. The top-rated cat trees had areas for climbing, lounging, and scratching. As expected, there was a slight tradeoff between appearance and cat-functionality. For example, the CurvyNest, Sebastian Modern Cat Tree, and Contoure Modern Cat Tree all got high marks for appearance, but they weren’t the most ideal designs for cats. The most cat-friendly tree that we reviewed was the PetFusion Modern Cat Activity Tree & Scratching Post. Our other top-performers were the Lotus Cat Tower and Vesper V-High Base.
Quality
Material quality and quality of design were evaluated. With the exception of the KATRIS Modular Cat Tree which is made of cardboard, all the cat trees we reviewed were made of similar quality manufactured wood. The cat trees with removable/replaceable carpet pads or scratching pads were given extra points for user-friendliness. The Lotus Cat Tower earned top marks for quality, which we hoped would be the case, considering it was the second most expensive cat tree on our list. The PetFusion Modern Cat Activity Tree & Scratching Post also got a high score for quality, but it was one of the least expensive cat trees on our list. It is comforting to know that you don’t have to spend several hundred dollars to get a great quality cat tree.
Best Overall Cat Trees
Our top pick was the Lotus Cat Tower. This cat tree combines beautiful modern design with excellent functionality and quality. We just wish the price would come down a bit! Runner-up was the PetFusion Modern Cat Activity Tree & Scratching Post. This cat tree is definitely the best value on the market. Honorable mentions go to CurvyNest and Contoure Modern Cat Tree by ContempoCat.
