Indoor Cat Garden Design

One aspect of our house design which is a bit unique (and a lot self-indulgent) is that it has an indoor garden. But not just any indoor garden. Our indoor garden is principally for the use of our indoor cats.
So when it came to designing what the garden would look like, we had to put a bit of thought into it.
The following three photos formed the basis of what we were thinking of in terms of style...

But because it is a cat garden, it had to be not only cat friendly, but also provide stimulation for the little fuzzies too.
So we had the idea of fusing the above concepts with something resembling a big cat enclosure as seen in the (more reputable) zoos...

So while Viktoria was bed-bound post foot-surgery, she drew the following (using a 0.5mm Pacer pencil, as the Android wouldn't let her play with her willow charcoal in bed). This is what you would see if you were standing outside the house looking in....

...there are some big flat rocks for basking on, a selection of tasty cat-friendly grasses for chewing, and a recycled stump from when we cleared the land for climbing and claw sharpening.

In plan view, it looks a bit like this...





...the perimeter of the garden is paved to allow the human inhabitants an easier way to walk around. And you will be able to see into it from both Viktoria's studio and the kitchen.

As we are closing in on when we need to submit the Building Application, we will continue our metaphorical walk-through of each room to make sure we are happy with the details. As Neal-the-architect didn't recoil in complete horror from Viktoria's dodgy cat-garden sketches, we'll let you know how we get on with the other rooms.

V&A