Vesper Cat Furniture V-High Base Review

We purchased the Vesper Cat Furniture V-High Base so our reviewer could put it to the test. Keep reading for our full product review.

Is your cat scratching your furniture? The perfect cat tree or scratching post might just be a way to solve that. But the problem with so many of these products is that they stick out from the rest of your décor. Enter the Vesper Cat Furniture V-High Base, a cat tree and scratching post with a clean, midcentury-inspired design that blends in with its surroundings. But is its performance as great as its look? To find out, we assembled it at home and observed how our cat, a 4-year-old tuxedo, interacted with it. Read on to find out what we discovered.

Unboxing and Assembly: Easier than expected

The Vesper Cat Furniture V-High Base comes in a box with all necessary parts and tools for assembly. When we first opened the box and sorted through the various parts, we feared the setup process would be unclear and arduous—especially because we're not particularly handy. We were wrong! The instructions were illustration heavy, which was helpful, and overall they were very easy to follow. All in all, assembling the cat tree took us about 45 minutes.

Read more reviews of the best cat products available to purchase online.

Design: Sleek look but not very sturdy

Perhaps the most positive attribute of Vesper’s V-High Base is its clean, contemporary lines. Many cat trees stick out like a sore thumb in a living room full of furniture; this one, with richly colored wood platforms and a midcentury-style cat cave, does its best to blend in with its surroundings.

This cat tree has two platform surfaces and a square cat cave with entrances on two sides. Each of these surfaces, including the inside of the cat cave, has a corresponding memory foam topper (that attaches to the wood via velcro) to make your furry friend more comfortable. There is also a scratching pad on top of the cat cave. While these design features feel very intuitive—there are spots for both rest and play and there’s a little alcove for extra privacy—this is negated by the fact that the structure isn’t very stable. While the individual pieces of this cat tree seemed sturdy and well constructed, they didn't fit together as seamlessly as they could have, especially the scratching posts that connect the platforms. And so, because each piece was heavy and the structure itself is quite tall, the whole thing felt wobbly.

Another design feature of this product is a string with three ball-shaped cat toys attached for the cat to play with. Within a day or two of assembling this product, one of them fell off as our cat was swiping at them. We wish the toys could have been attached a bit more strongly to the string.

Want to take a look at some other options? See our guide to the best interactive cat toys.

Effectiveness: Cat uses it, but really only to sleep in the box

Every cat is different, and some are far more fickle than others when it comes to using scratching posts. Our cat, in particular, is shy about climbing on new furniture. However, when she did muster the confidence to start exploring the V-High Base, she quickly got comfortable sleeping in the enclosed box but didn’t gravitate toward resting on any of the platforms or scratching any of the posts. We observed her trying to explore other parts of the structure numerous times, but she seemed skittish when the structure would sway slightly under her weight—for example, she’d jump up to the top platform and then jump back down to the floor.

Price: Clean design will cost you

The cat tree has a list price of $175, although you can usually find it for closer to $130, which is significantly higher than many of its competitors. For its sleek and unobtrusive design, this product feels worth the price—though, to be perfect, it would have to be a bit more stable.

Vesper Cat Furniture V-High Base vs. Pawhut HomCom 47” Modern Contemporary Cat Tree Scratching Post

PawHut also makes a cat tree and scratching post that, at 47-inches tall, is almost the same height as Vesper’s. It also includes a cat cave, two platforms, scratching posts, and a string with two ball toys attached. Both products have rounded edges, foam cushions, and weigh approximately 45 pounds. There are a few key differences, though: The base of PawHut’s model is decidedly rectangular (23.5 x 15.75 inches), while Vesper’s is a square (at 22.1 x 22.1 inches). Price is also a key factor: PawHut’s tree costs approximately $50 less than Vesper’s—so if you’re on a budget, PawHut’s might be worth considering.

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