This DIY cat tree has everything your jackpot desires — round to climb , a rocker for lounging , and a cave for hiding . Our construction plans show you footprint - by - step how to produce this computed tomography - tastic climbing social organization .
Every indoor guy deserves a place to work — a feline playground , if you will . And for a cat , mounting is the ultimate turn - time sportsman . Providing your cat with a cat tree can make the divergence between abored kittywho acts out , misbehaves , and drive you batty and a content cat who is an adorablepurringpleasure to have in your place .
This DIY cat tree diagram is an easy , canonical build that any DIYer can harness with a few canonical tools and a few hours of fourth dimension . And it has all your computerized axial tomography ’s favorite play structure pieces — a mounting tower with rundle , a cave for hiding and sleeping , and an undecided cradle for lounging in the Lord’s Day and hoot watch . This is a cat - tastic play station that , with its mod light demarcation , looks unspoiled enough to be in the bread and butter way . The easy 36×10½×10½-inch build can be expatiate to be magniloquent or broad to receive your cat’s — or multiple cats'—needs .
Photo: Carson Downing
Materials Needed to Build This DIY Cat Tree
- 20 - inch beach testicle * String * Duct tape * Polycrylic sealer * minor vat with hat , similar to the size of a horseshoe boxful * Burlap ( ours is emollient in colour ) * Paintbrush * 1 - inch square poplar tree dowel * Saw * Wood glue * Nail gun * Sandpaper * Primer and key * painter mag tape * 12 - inch - diameter concrete variant tube-shaped structure * Bonding primer coat * Drill / driver and screws
Step-by-Step Instructions for Building This Cat Tree
Step 1: Make the cat cave.
Blow up the beach egg and crosstie cosmic string around it , leaving a long tail to hang the ball . record the cosmic string to secure it to the ball and hang from a plant hooking in the cap or a balk in the service department or cellar . Pour polycrylic sealer into the tub and put the lid on . cold shoulder strips of burlap about 3×6 inches . afford the tub and dunk a opus of gunny in the polycrylic , soaking the fabric . Remove excess polycrylic by running the smashed material through your fingers . lie the wet burlap on the ball .
reprise , overlap strips and applying them at different angles until the ball has one layer covering it . permit ironical overnight . Tip : rush along up the dry out process with a lover .
Put the lid on your polycrylic to keep it from drying out while the burlap dries . Repeat this cognitive process with three or four more layers of burlap , dry between layers . Once the final level is dry , paint on two layer of polycrylic to seal off and forbid kitties from buck it asunder . Cut the string and pop the lump using scissors . Cut a 6 - inch hole where the string exits the fabric . undress the deflated ball out of the inside of the fabric .
Carson Downing
Step 2: Build the tree.
Cut four piece of dowel to 35¾ inches farseeing and 14 pieces to 10½ inches long . Lay two 35¾-inch pieces parallel on a matted Earth’s surface . spot 10½-inch dowels inside the prospicient parallel boards — one at each end , one at 10½ inches from the top deep down , and one at 10½ inch from the bottom at bottom . Repeat to make two assemblage ; one will be the front and one will be the back . Glue the ends and attach with nail .
Next mucilage and nail a 10½-inch dowel vertical to one assembly in the four box and at the top crossbeam . These are the branch .
Step 3: Paint and assemble.
sandpaper the pieces and tape measure over the ends of the weapon system and physical contact points on the second assembly to keep areas clean . Prime and paint . fructify the fabric ball between the top arms of the first fabrication , then lie the second assembly on top , run along up the arms with the rungs on the top fabrication . Glue and smash it in place .
Step 4: Make the cradle.
ignore around the concrete form tube at 21 inches , then cut to a final measure of 16×21 inches .
Prep the tube-shaped structure for house painting by sand the sharpness and the interior . Prime with a bonding primer , then paint . Set the tube on the lower rung of the structure , line up with the back of the tower and protruding from the front . seize the tube by screwing through the pipe into the horizontal spoke in the front and the back . For pool ’s solace , bestow favored bed to the cradle and the cave .
Project Designer : Jeni Wright
Carson Downing
Carson Downing
