apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I expected the closet to look different inside, more customized for the cats. However, I REALLY love the tunnel. It's quite handsome and clever.

Great idea, but what's with the hot pink light? It seems to draw attention to the area. And i assume the cats don't need it, what with all their nighvision and all...

i also imagined the inside of the closet to be like a room for them or something heheh. anyway, i think this is incredibly brilliant and i'm thoroughly jealous! you did an awesome job!

I believe the light is a laser pointer, used to make the cats cooperate for the camera!

Would also be a great way to put one of those noisy self-cleaning boxes on the main floor.

i wish i could do this in my rental! it would be soooo much nicer than leaving the closet door ajar at all times :/

i actually had a similar predicament but instead of cutting a hole in the wall i just cut a hole in the closet door and installed a cat door...no problem.

Neat idea... and yeah it beats leaving closit doors ajar. Now how to get my apartment not to freak out at the hole in the wall... ;)

Brilliant.
Your kitty is so shiny and cute.

I love the idea. One of my Aunts has a similar kitty tunnel giving her cats access to the basement. However, the inside of that closet was disappointing. I thought the space would be more cat friendly.

We did something similar in our last laundry room. We installed cabinetry in the room over the W/D along with a floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinet. The pantry cabinet faced out of the laundry room and was somewhat visible to the rest of the house, so we cut a cat-sized hole in the side of the cabinet and trimmed it out. Then when I wanted to clean the box, I'd just open the front cabinet door for easy access. We also lined the bottom of the cabinet with puppy pads in case there were any misses, and all of the supplies were kept on the shelf above.

We're going to be doing something similar with a built-in pantry in our new laundry room, with a hole in the side like above and easy access through the door. The hole will actually be under the utility sink though, so it will be less visible in general.

i did the same thing when i moved in with my (now) husband. i had never lived with cats before and was very weary about having a litter box. we sacrificed the linen closet, put a cat door in the bottom and a self cleaning litter box on the floor. then we put shelves above and use them for storing things like the tool box and cleaning supplies. i didn't want coats or anything fabric in there in case the experimant turned into a stink pit. it works quite well and keeps the dog out of the litter (yuk!)
we have hollow core doors (yuk) and when we have the funds to replace them i think we are going to build custom doors so there are two different doors one above the other - sort of like a dutch door. that way we can make them into completely different spaces and i will NEVER have to look at the litter box (it's the husband's job to clean it) when i go into the closet. i think it is my fall project!

Very cool! Can you be called a neat freak when your closet interior looks like that? Just teasing, Adam!

totally cool

I would think that it would be less costly, easier, and would require less modification to the actual apartment to just go through the door. I wouldn't want to buy an apartment that had holes cut in all the walls. Creative, though.

I installed a "cathole" in the door to my cat's loo:

http://www.cathole.com/

if you're in a rental you can take down the existing door and replace it with a cheap hollow core door, and just replace the original when you leave.

As for the cats' night vision: I found, after a thoughtful purchase by the cat-sitter, that a night light in the litter box room increased litterbox accuracy immensely. Angie's List reviews for the sitter show that I'm not the only one to have this revelation.

I love the tunnel concept but I would definitely put some sort of light source in the closet for the cats.

We made one like this in our garage. A little more involved though since we had to make a "cage" to keep them from getting in to the rest of the garage. I should take pics...

Not for all kitties, though: with only one entrance/exit some more skittish kitties might not want to use the litter box for fear of being trapped inside it.

This keeps the litter box out of site-but cutting a hole in the closet door would've been more discrete-aye?!