Ananimalab – Our Story

It started with two everyday frustrations

Why do so many scratching trees end up looking like tattered monsters in the corner after just a short time?
Why should a cat scratching tree look out of place in a beautifully furnished living room?
Why couldn't it be designed to fit your home while meeting your cat's needs as well as possible? And does a cat tree even have to be a “tree”?

In spring 2014, designer Antti Latvala set out to find an answer. He designed the first wall-mounted cat furniture that looked beautiful and worked even better. A year later, in 2015, Ananimalab was born: a small, determined design workshop where quality and cats come first.

The design process for the now-classic Tutti i Gatti+ range also began in spring 2014. The goal was to create furniture that answered cats' needs without compromising on what their people wanted to see in their homes.

The idea: your floor is for you, the wall is for your cat

From both a practical and visual standpoint, the wall was the natural place for cat furniture. We developed our adhesive fastening method for its many advantages. Moving the furniture off the floor gives you more room to live, while your choice of colours helps every piece blend into your interior.

Materials chosen for a reason

Right from the start, we wanted to use materials of the highest possible quality. The most important surface for cats is genuine, tightly woven sisal matting, bonded across the entire frame with solvent-free, non-toxic, low-emission adhesives. Our premium fleece is tough, long-lasting and pleasant to lie on. Durable cotton edging gives each piece a neat finish and helps keep the sisal from fraying. The frame is made from fire-safe cellular foam, a material also used for thermal insulation in buildings. It is exceptionally lightweight and resource-efficient, odourless and emission-free. Its ability to reflect warmth adds to your cat's comfort — a little like a sunny patch on the floor.

Finnish design to be proud of

Our cat furniture has been awarded the Design from Finland mark in recognition of professional, user-centred design.

Ananimalab's first products went on sale on 16 May 2017, with the campaign “The Grand Opening: First series on sale!” Since then, the range has grown dramatically, with new ideas coming from both cats and their owners.

The modular Tutti i Gatti+ wall-panel concept, already a classic, has been joined by Step elements and climbing columns. The ZikZak family of steps originated in a customer's request for glass-mounted elements. Together with the shaped pieces in the Taboo range, they make it possible to build striking adventures for cats. The Balk collection makes it easy to create a staircase or climbing corner. Quickly installed Lätty scratching mats help protect furniture, walls, doors and floors while giving your little tiger a place to care for its claws.

Quality and durability in everyday life

Improving quality is not a one-off project for us. We keep refining how we work. That is why we brought waste from our foam-frame production down to zero: every offcut is ground up and used again in the manufacture of new cellular foam. Less waste, more sense.

Our next principle: modularity.
Every element is available individually. That is the whole point of a modular system: if one piece eventually wears out or breaks, you can replace that part instead of buying an entirely new piece of furniture. The environment benefits too.

Materials that earn their place.
We use tightly woven premium sisal matting, fully bonded with non-toxic, emission-free adhesives. It is not the cheapest option, but it feels right under little paws, stands up to use and stays tidy. The edges are finished with strong, neat binding that helps prevent fraying when cats scratch along the sides.

No drilling — designed for real homes and real walls.
Over the years, we have refined our adhesive mounting method so it can be repeated at home with the warmth of an iron and a tested adhesive surface. The result is neat and stable. And if you want to move your furniture, fresh wall-mounting adhesive strips restore its grip without making new holes.

Packaging that protects the furniture.
We design compact packages to transport more product and less empty space. We favour single-material, recyclable packaging. PE plastic film has proved particularly effective: in Finland, clean and dry PE packaging can be collected with household plastic packaging waste and recycled for further use.

Longevity is a promise of service.
We aim to keep replacement parts, instructions and colours available, so even years later you can find the right part in the right shade. A change should be an upgrade, not a reason to buy everything again.

The advantage of a small workshop.
We make our furniture by hand in Finland. When we discover a better way to do something, we can adopt it straight away without waiting for the next quarterly planning cycle. Our approach is one small improvement every day, not “one big overhaul someday”.

Have a question? Get in touch with us. When was the last time you could speak directly to the maker of a mass-produced scratching tree from the Far East and get an immediate answer about its materials?

The point of our story is simple: built to last, repairable and recyclable — and designed to look like your home: like you.

A reputation that travels

Our cat furniture has found its way onto the walls of cat-loving homes across Finland, Europe and further afield. Ananimalab's production was born in Finland and will stay in Finland. Word has spread: exports account for a significant share of orders, and most customers return for more. With more than 4,000 customers, several language versions and a community on social media, the message is clear: when design meets cats' real needs, people want to be part of it.

2025: A new chapter, the same spirit

In 2025, a new chapter began with a new workshop in Salo, Finland. Still handmade, still Made in Finland. We keep refining production, improving instructions and packaging, and paying attention to the little details — while staying true to the idea that started with Antti in 2014: your home should look like you, and your cat should love living in it.

What we promise you

• Your home still feels like home. Shapes and colours to match your interior.
• Your cat gets what it needs. Climbing, resting and scratching in one system.
• Installation without drilling. Our tested adhesive method and an iron make installation quick.
• Durable, repairable, replaceable. Replace worn modules, not the whole setup.
• Quality without shortcuts. Genuine premium sisal, non-toxic adhesives and odourless frame material.
• Finnish craftsmanship. Small details matter, and we take them seriously.
• Enrichment with style. No ugly compromises.

In a nutshell:
A way to give your cat an exciting world of its own without turning your home upside down — your cat's world, in a home that looks like you.

With 💛, Ananimalab