Cat Café

Hello! My name is Katelyn Wong and I am a rising senior at West Campus High School in Sacramento, California. I decided to design a cat café in Tinkercad because I love coffee and cats. A cat café is a great place for people to work and socialize while interacting with cuddly cats. Many kittens in shelters are not being adopted so this cat café will hopefully motivate more people to adopt.

• paper
• pencil
• laptop
• mouse
• Tinkercad software

Roughly sketch out how you want your cat café to look like with a piece of paper and a pencil.

In Tinkercad, go to this link: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/4QWbxUq7O95. Click “copy and tinker” to make an editable copy of the shipping container template.

Add a sign and logo to the front entrance to attract customers. Learn how to use a custom font at this website: https://www.instructables.com/Custom-Fonts-in-Tinkercad/.

To create a custom logo, go to the “basic shapes” library and click on the scribble option. It will take you to a screen where you can customize your own logo. Once you are done, click “done” and extrude your logo to the desired length.

Create a rectangular "hole" and place it where you would like the door to be placed. Using the combine feature, combine the "hole" and the shipping container to make an open space for the door. Then place the door in the open space. To make a door knob, combine a sphere and a cylinder as shown in the picture and scale as needed.

Search for “table” within the community-created objects and choose the one that you prefer. You can also design your own table if you would like. I designed my own chair using the scribble feature as shown in the picture and extruding it to the correct length to fit the table. I added a couple of various items created by the community, including a laptop, 2 mugs, and a cup, to show the scale of the entire project.

To make the cashier counter and the back counter, make 2 rectangular prisms. Increase the radius of the blocks so that they look more visually appealing, and would not pose a risk to customers if this design was actually implemented in real life.

The cash register I made was inspired by the Clover cash register. I made a small rectangular prism for the base and combined that with a tube for the rotating neck. Then, I rotated 2 other rectangular prisms to make the screen and attached them onto the neck.

I added some shelves by combining a "hole" object with the counter. I then placed a thin rectangular prism in the created hole to make a shelf. I placed 4 thin rectangular prisms on the back counter to make the cabinet doors. By excluding the handles, this makes for a simplistic and clean look.

The cat tree is very simple to make. It is a combination of several varying-sized cylinders as you can see in the image. Create a hole in the bottom cylinder by combining it with a “hole" cylinder, using the combine feature. After you have finished assembling the cat tree, hold shift, select all the pieces of the tree, and click combine. This will allow you to move the tree around as a single unit, instead of moving each piece individually.

I have seen these pastry displays at most cafes I’ve been to so I decided to include one. It may seem difficult to make but it is simply the combination of several rectangular prisms. The “cashier” side of the display has two transparent doors so that the employees can take out the pastries for the customers. You can copy and paste the previously made door handles for the display doors and scale them to the appropriate size.

Add in 3 transparent thin rectangular prisms for the shelves of the display. I made some chocolate chip cookies by combining a rounded cylinder (which is done by increasing the radius) with several small rectangular prisms for the chocolate chips. Rotating these prisms along different axes and changing their sizes makes it look more realistic. I made 3 different types of cookies by changing the colors. If you are having trouble finding the right colors, go to this color palette website: https://colorhunt.co/.

In the basic shapes category, choose the “roof” option and make it a “hole.” Then combine it with a rectangular prism as shown in the picture. Then combine this with another rectangular prism at the top to make the machine. I added two portafilters to the machine by combining a smaller cylindrical handle to a larger cylinder. I included two community-made mugs in the machines to show the scale.

To make the cat activity wall, use the scribble feature and draw a “wave” as shown in the picture above. Then extrude and place it on the wall to make the shelves. You can flip the shelves and change their lengths to make it look more varied. This wall is designed for cats to jump around and relax.

I added two copies of the logo inside the café. One was placed on the front of the cashier counter. Another larger copy was placed on the right blank wall. This could be a wall for customers to take pictures and post on social media, which would help to promote the café and cat adoption.

I also imported a community-made couch for customers to sit and interact with the cats. The one that I chose was “scaling locked.” To fix this issue, I watched this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/CbRwbik8R6Q. First, export the object to a “stl” file and save it to your device. Then, import the file back into the design, and it should be scalable.

A simple menu is the best option because it makes the customer feel less stressed and have less decision fatigue. Thus, I created a 5-item menu by placing text objects onto a rounded rectangular prism.

I included a sink for the employees. You can make this by combining a “hole” rectangular prism (increase radius for rounded sink) with the back counter to create the sink. Then combine two small round holes with the sink for drainage. To create the faucet, combine 2 cylinders and two rectangular prisms as shown above. Increase the radius of the rectangular prisms to make it look less sharp and more aesthetically pleasing.

I made rectangular holes in the roof and in the left wall. I then placed transparent rectangular prisms in the holes to make the glass windows. This would provide the café with natural lighting which is ideal for the customers to take pictures inside the café.

I made hanging lights to provide light when sunlight is not present. These were made by placing a solid half sphere on top of a “hole” half sphere, and then combining them. Then, reshape them to your liking and attach a narrow, long cylinder to create the hanging light. Add in a small sphere at the top of the dome to make the light look more visually appealing and cohesive. Add in a small yellow sphere inside the dome to make the lightbulb.

Here’s a video of my completed project.

This project has helped me learn how to design and build a small shop from scratch. I feel that I have improved upon my creative thinking and 3D designing skills.

If you have any feedback for this design, please post it in the comments! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and this unique opportunity!