Scratch Canvas sets ship free. Replacement panels do, too.
Our story
Scratch Canvas began with Honey and Theo and a question we kept coming back to: why did something so useful for cats have to feel so temporary in the room?
Made for the cat. Welcome in the room.
Honey and Theo are rescued littermates we adopted together at seven weeks old. They arrived tiny and needed hands-on care. We syringe-fed them, helped them learn to drink water, and watched two very different personalities take shape.
Caring for them taught us to pay attention: to what each cat prefers, how they play, and how a shared home can work better for everyone in it.
The day we met
Their foster family’s kids arrived with Honey and Theo peeking out of a stroller. Their foster mom handed Honey to Tanner and Theo to Tara. Honey immediately climbed over Tanner’s shoulder and onto his back.
A little later, Honey was exploring the bushes and batting at a leaf in the wind. Theo tucked himself beneath Tanner’s crossed legs, watching until a piece of grass became a toy.
At the time, we were simply filming two kittens we had just met. Looking back, those videos captured our first play session together and the earliest glimpses of the cats they would become.
Honey still gravitates toward Tanner, and Theo toward Tara. We couldn’t have known it then, but that first handoff got something right.
From the studio archive
Cardboard scratchers did the job, but they left flakes around the room and never felt at home in our space. Theo made the ottoman his personal canvas.
We wanted a middle ground: something practical for cats and intentional enough to leave out.
Scratch Canvas did not arrive fully formed. Each version helped us understand what the product needed and what it could leave behind.
01 · The box
The earliest Scratch Canvas concept was a custom-designed cardboard box with a printed scratching surface inside the base.
It was an experiment, but it proved something important: the scratch surface did not have to feel disposable. Artwork, color, and function could belong in the same object.
Version 01Custom box prototypePrinted scratching surfaceHorizontal box format
02 · The early gallery
Early 24 × 16-inch framed experiments, including Koi, Honey and Theo’s portraits, a botanical study, and Tanner’s rainbow palm design.
Early prototype gallery. Art direction: Tanner & Tara. Quality control: Honey & Theo. Storage department: increasingly concerned.
For Christmas, we wanted to make something just for Honey and Theo.
We started with portraits we had painted during a wine-and-painting night. Tanner painted Honey, and Tara painted Theo. We used them to create oversized 24 × 16-inch scratching panels mounted in wooden frames.
Once we saw the portraits as scratching surfaces, we kept going. We tried florals, landscapes, Koi, and rainbow palms, treating each surface like a new canvas.
Koi became one of our first finished designs. The black wooden frames inspired the black bound edge around the panels we make today.
The rainbow palms never became a product, but the feeling behind them did. Tanner designed the piece to feel like a quiet beach at sunset. Its saturated color and calm found their way into Tiger, along with a stronger focal point and a little more magic.
These experiments also clarified the bigger idea. Scratching is part of being a cat. Giving that instinct an intentional place made the scratcher feel more at home in the room.
The large frames took up more space than we wanted, and they only stood upright. That worked for cats who like to stretch upward, but not for those who head straight for the floor. In a home with more than one cat, you may have both.
The next version needed to carry the artwork, offer more than one scratching position, and fold down easily when we needed the space.
No disassembly. No hardware drawer. No annual search for the instruction manual.
Version 02Early framed panel studies24 × 16 inchesFixed upright format
The turn
We framed the scratcher. Then we realized it was already the canvas.
03 · The easel
The next version removed the permanent outer frame and let the easel do the supporting.
We made the format more compact so it would be easier to place, move, store, and bring into different rooms. The smaller footprint also created a sturdier, more contained object.
The adjustable base allowed the panel to sit upright or at a lower angle instead of limiting the scratcher to one position.
The result was simpler and more versatile: one printed scratch panel, supported by a wooden easel, ready to move through the home.
The scratch panel is the canvas. The easel is the frame.
Version 03Current easel system16 × 12 in printed panelAdjustable wooden easel
The cats behind the first prototypes are still the clearest reminder of who the product is for.
Prototype inspector
Honey appears in the earliest box photographs and has been part of Scratch Canvas from the first experiment.
Former ottoman artist
Theo helped make the original problem difficult to ignore. His ottoman art inspired us to give him a canvas of his own.
We’re Tanner and Tara, the husband-and-wife team behind Scratch Canvas in West St. Paul, Minnesota. Running a small business means wearing plenty of hats. We’re getting better at knowing which ones fit each of us.
Tara created Koi and is taking the lead on future scratch panel designs. She also shapes our visual identity, hand-crochets the fish toys, and leads our market presentation.
Tanner developed the original concept, created Tiger, and leads the website, operations, sales, and customer experience. He remains very attached to his tiger.
We make product decisions, inspect inventory, pack orders, and talk with customers ourselves. The first production run is intentionally small so we can stay close to the product and learn from the people bringing it home.
Tiger and Koi are our first two scratch panel designs. We plan to grow the collection with different colors and themes, with Tara leading the artwork.
Over time, we hope to release special editions and holiday designs, collaborate with other artists, and create panels with animal shelters or animal welfare organizations.
Those are possibilities we’d like to explore as the studio grows. We don’t have release dates or partnerships to announce yet. We’ll share the details as individual projects take shape.
For now, the collection starts with Tiger and Koi.
That means a useful place for cats to scratch, artwork that feels welcome in the room, and a product simple enough for the person bringing it home.
Scratch Canvas is our attempt to make those things belong together.