The best suggestion I have is an out-of-the-way place, and a covered litter box, if your cat(s) will use one. You can always get a pet crate of appropriate size (the wire kind), put the litterbox in that, and make a cover for it, or buy a basic cover. Commit to washing it relatively frequently. However, anything you do to hide a litterbox will make it more of a pain to clean, because first, you have to get it out of that area, and then, you have to clean the area, too, particularly any fabric covers. (Febreeze helps, but it’s not a miracle worker.)

Our cats’ litterbox is on a landing at the top of the stairs near our bedroom doors, which we really don’t like, but there’s no other practical place for it in the house. We tried to keep it in our little furnished basement for a while, but the cats didn’t like having to get by the dog (who lives on the first floor of our townhouse, and cannot be allowed access to the litter box) to use it, and tended to just go on the floor in its former position. That was a problem, to say the least. We used piles of Nature’s Miracle odor/stain remover (which really works!) and Spot Shot carpet cleaner on the accident spots, and eventually gave up and put the box back upstairs. Even then, we had problems with the more timid of the cats, because he refused to use a covered box. He rightly thought that someone would be waiting to pounce on him whenever he tried to leave the box. We had to go back to an open pan that we try to keep as cleared-out as possible. This wouldn’t be a problem in a single-pet home.

Scratchpads covered with natural rope tend to look better, I think, than the ones covered with carpet, or the ones that are glorified cardboard boxes made for the sole purpose of being destroyed by cats. Doesn’t mean the cat will use them, though. I think living with cats entails a certain degree of resignation. & for what it’s worth, when we did buy a big ugly climbing playset (which at least matched our carpets), the cats wouldn’t use it and we wound up returning it after a few weeks anyway. The only thing I know that you can buy and that cats will use for certain is the “cat beanbag” – the little bed that’s just like a beanbag chair. You can always recover one in your own fabric.

Likewise, my dog has a crate, but prefers to sleep under any of a few very solid coffee/side tables that have space between bottom and upper levels, or on the bottom shelf of a bookshelf. I don’t know why. The spaces are all kind of similar to her crate in size, but a little more central in location, and she can come and go from them more freely.