There’s a whole economy of cat-themed gifts designed to be funny for about four seconds and then live in a drawer forever. The mug with the pun. The socks. This guide is the antidote. The rule for every pick below is simple: it has to be something a cat person with actual taste would leave out on a shelf, wear in public, or hang on a wall, not something they’d quietly regift.
The good news for you is that “chic” and “cat-obsessed” aren’t opposites. There’s a surprising amount of beautifully designed, cat-adjacent stuff out there if you know where to look. We rounded up twelve favorites, from a sculptural cat bed to a custom photo shoot, sorted by what the recipient is really into.
Statement pieces for the design obsessive
Meyou Paris Cat Bed — $182. The rare cat bed you’d actually want on display. Meyou Paris makes sculptural, cocoon-like beds in a range of colors built to match a grown-up interior instead of fighting it. It’s the gift for the cat parent whose apartment looks like a design magazine and who’s tired of hiding an ugly fleece dome behind the couch. Shop at Meyou Paris
Rory Dobner Cat Monocle Cake Stand — $160. Cakes and cats, together at last. This two-tier stand carries Rory Dobner’s whimsical, slightly Alice-in-Wonderland illustration style, and once someone falls for it they tend to fall for the rest of his cat-themed dishware, and a Cheshire Cat candle, too. Best for the entertainer who serves tea like it’s a plot point. Shop at Rory Dobner
MoMA Design Store Kit-Cat Clock — $50. “Iconic” gets thrown around until it means nothing, but this wall clock earns it. Designed by Earl Arnault during the Great Depression, the wide-eyed, tail-swinging Kit-Cat became a fixture of the 1950s American kitchen and has since graduated to full high-kitsch icon. It comes in two sizes, keeps perfectly silent time, and is made in the U.S. Best for the cat person with a sense of humor and a soft spot for Americana. Shop at MoMA Design Store
For the art lover
Where They Purr (W. W. Norton) — $50. During the early pandemic, interiors photographer Paul Barbera, whose clients range from Vogue Living to Hermès, traveled his native Australia shooting cats inside the country’s most beautifully designed homes. The book is a genuine pleasure for cat people and design nerds alike, and reads as a coffee-table object rather than a gag gift. Shop at W. W. Norton
Cat Lady by Leah Goren — $20. Artist Leah Goren pairs her enchanting illustrations with smart, funny essays and interviews about the long love affair between women and their cats. At twenty dollars it’s the perfect add-on gift or the whole thing for someone who reads. A real gem. Shop at Leah Goren
The Feline Marseilles Tarot Deck — $30. These gold-foil-edged, holographic-detailed cards were created by the artist Ivy Feng in memory of her late cat, Bosco, and they arrive in a lovely box with a booklet for tarot beginners. It’s a thoughtful gift with real feeling behind it, for the cat person who’s a little witchy or a little sentimental, or both. Shop at Etsy
Fully custom, fully extra
Edie Parker Custom Cat Portrait Accessories — price varies. The most decadent thing on this list. Edie Parker will emblazon your cat onto a clutch, a tray, coasters, a hand mirror, even a lighter, with pricing that scales to the object and the complexity. It’s genuine handmade couture in the designer’s signature mix of luxury and whimsy, and it’s a 100-percent-custom collaboration, you pick the colors, fonts, and design. For the cat person who has everything except a hand-painted portrait of their cat on a clutch. Shop at Edie Parker
Eleonor Boström Key Cat — $280. A handmade porcelain cat sculpture, roughly nine and a half inches tall, with a small but mighty magnet hidden in its paw to hold your keys by the door. Far more charming than the sad bowl currently doing that job. Best for the maximalist who wants function disguised as art. Shop at Mociun
The experience gift
Custom Photo Shoot with “Girls and Their Cats” — $375. Commemorate the real love story with an in-home shoot led by the wonderful BriAnne Wills. Sessions run one to two hours and yield five to ten fully retouched images of the recipient with their cat, plus a bonus solo portrait of each feline. A note on eligibility: Wills works with women and non-binary cat owners across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, every cat must be rescued or adopted, and a sliding scale is available for BIPOC clients who need it. Best for the NYC cat parent who deserves to be in the frame for once. Book at Girls and Their Cats
Small, silly, and safe bets
54 Celsius Kisa Cat Candle by Thorunn Arnadottir — $45. Pardon the enthusiasm, but this candle is very cool: as it burns, it melts to expose a hidden metal cat skeleton, which finally gives you a novelty-shaped candle worth actually lighting. It’s unscented, burns about 20 hours, stands a solid 6.7 inches, comes in five shades (burgundy, black, white, mustard-yellow, and pale pink), and it’s from a women-owned brand. Shop at 54 Celsius
Areaware Aelfie Pillow — $65. It’s cute, it’s silly, and that’s the entire pitch. Created by LA artist Aelfie Oudghiri, this round throw pillow is 100-percent cotton with acrylic-yarn embroidery, polyester fill, and about 17 inches across. Adorable, low-stakes, hard to get wrong. Shop at Areaware
Whiskey River Soap Co. Soap for Cat People — $12. The cheeky stocking-stuffer. This handmade bar looks funky, and its packaging claims a scent reminiscent of “purring” and, less appealingly, a fresh hairball underfoot, but it really just smells of warm milk. Like all bar soap, it’s a more sustainable pick than a plastic bottle of body wash. Best as the small, funny extra that rounds out a bigger gift. Shop at Whiskey River Soap Co.
How to choose
Match the gift to the person, not the price tag. Design snob, the Meyou bed or the Kit-Cat clock. Reader, one of the books. Sentimental type, the tarot deck or the photo shoot. And when in doubt, the twelve-dollar soap plus one of the books is a two-part gift that never misses.
