If you remember my post Create a Comfy Bay Window Seat you know how much I've been wanting a cat. Well how about two?! My two babies are waiting for me to come home from work in their bay window.
My Christmas
present (Ellie) has brought a lot of movement into our home.
Her big brother
(Sam) has found a new playmate in his sister.
Whether they chase each other
around the Christmas tree or play fight on our bed at 2 am, they are constantly
keeping each other active.
Their active lifestyle and mischievous shenanigans
sparked the idea to build them a cat tower.
The levels are
2 feet, 3 feet, and 4 feet. We originally had the top level at 5 feet but it
proved way too high for Sam.
The base and
the shelves were from scrap wood. The 2 by 4 for the 2 foot tower is the
sturdiest. If I were to do this project over again I would use 2 by 4s for all
of the towers. The other two towers are held up by a 4 by 4 post.
We attached a
basket for them to jump into using some hooks and bungee cords. So far
Ellie likes it but it’s a little unstable when she jumps out of it.
We reinforced
the 4 foot tower with some brackets since that was a little wobbly as well.
I used garden rope ($9 at Home Depot for 50 feet of it!) to create a scratching pad. If you want to save time (about an hour and fifteen minutes) hot gluing fifty feet of rope, attach a scratching pad to the side.
My favorite part of this project was making the cushions for each shelf. I’ve seen cat trees carpeted before but I wanted to take it to the next level. I call Sam my King and Ellie my Princess so I wanted to give them a play space built for royalty. I attached high density foam with adhesive and let it sit overnight. I used batting and a soft fabric to wrap each shelf like a Christmas present and stapled the fabric underneath.
We plan to add
more toys to the base of the tree, but for now, this day long project was well
worth it. We sprayed some catnip mist and put some treats on each shelf and they
knew what to do!
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| Sleepy kitties |
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