A single room can still hold two private worlds if you stop thinking in floor area and start thinking in layers and sightlines. Cats who need distance from each other rarely need more square metres; they need a place where the other cat is out of view, reachable without a confrontation, and defended by nobody because it never has to be contested. In a studio, height does the work walls would do elsewhere, and furniture placement does the rest.
Height Gives One Cat the Upper World
Give the cat who climbs a retreat at wardrobe height: a firm bed on top of a stable wardrobe, reached by a cat tree or a stepped shelf route that does not wobble under weight. Height brings a genuine sense of safety for many cats, because from up there the whole room can be watched without being approached, and the route up doubles as exercise and scratching territory. Keep the approach clear of the other cat's low zone, so climbing never means crossing a rival's doorstep. Add a washable blanket that smells of that cat alone, and resist moving the bed once it is accepted, because a retreat that migrates around the room stops feeling like territory and starts feeling like furniture.
A Covered Low Bed Gives the Other Cat Seclusion
The second retreat belongs at floor level and should feel enclosed rather than exposed: a covered bed under a table, inside an open-fronted crate draped with a blanket, or behind a sofa where the opening faces a wall gap rather than the room. A screen, a bookcase or a tall plant stand placed between the two retreats breaks the direct line of sight, and that broken view matters as much as distance does. Cats relax when they cannot be stared at, and tension often drops simply because neither cat wakes to find the other watching. Leave a second way out of the low retreat where you can, even if it is only a gap behind the table, so the cat using it never faces the choice between staying trapped and walking past the other cat.
Duplicate Every Resource, Then Protect the Routes
Separation fails when daily needs pull both cats into the same corner. Serve meals at the same moment in each cat's own zone, at opposite ends of the flat, so hunger never forces a crossing and neither cat finishes early and arrives to supervise the other's bowl. Set two water points away from the food, because cats often prefer drinking apart from eating, and place three litter trays, each in a different corner, rather than side by side, since trays in a row read as one shared toilet to a cat. Check that routes between retreat, food, water and tray stay open at all hours: a closed bathroom door or a drying rack in the wrong gap can cut a cat off from its tray and undo the whole layout overnight.
Reading Whether the Layout Is Working
Judge the arrangement by traffic, not by hope. Note which retreat each cat chooses for daytime sleep, whether either cat waits, crouches or detours before using a tray, and whether feeding stays calm when both bowls go down together. A cat who starts sleeping in a sink or behind the television is voting for a third option, so move a retreat rather than insisting on your original plan. Small shifts of a screen by a few inches can change a sightline completely. Once the map settles, KinsLe lets Family Sharing put each cat's retreat, feeding spot and tray corner in front of everyone who shares the flat, so a well-meaning tidy-up never erases a boundary.