Cats love crawling into pretty much every nook and cranny they can find. If you’re looking to indulge your furry friend’s climbing, scratching, and clawing instincts, then this DIY cat tree plan is perfect for entertaining your cats and protecting your furniture at the same time.
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DIY Cat Tree Plans to Indulge Your Cats and Protect Your Furniture
Step 1: Design and Personalize Your DIY Cat Tree
First of all, you must have a design plan to follow before purchasing any of the materials you might need. This can be as simple as a quick sketch on an old notebook you have around.
Just make sure to keep a couple of things in mind when designing your DIY cat tree.
- Space. Think of the space the cat tree will occupy. Decide where exactly in your house you want to install it, as well as how big you want it to be.
Take as many measurements as you need so that you’re sure that your cat tree fits into its space once you’re done building it. - The personality of your cat.
Is your feline friend a climber? If so, then maybe you should design a tall cat tree that has a couple of perches he or she can climb.
Does she prefer lying around and looking for private places to hide in? Maybe you could add a covered nook for her to cozy under.
Perhaps your cat’s a scratcher and you hate it when you get home and see your furniture filled with claw marks. Why not add a scratch post wrapped with sisal rope to your DIY cat tree so she could scratch to her heart’s content. - Your skills in carpentry. If you’re a relatively new DIYer, then avoid complex designs so you don’t end up getting overwhelmed.
You can always base your ideas from cat trees you see at the pet store. For simpler designs, you can browse through social media for DIY cat tree designs other people have made.
Step 2: Buy All Necessary Materials
With your design ready, you can now buy the materials you need. Generally, these include tools such as:
- Drill and wood screws
- Nails and hammers
- Table and hand saws
- A utility knife and some carpet
- A powerful adhesive such as wood glue
- Electric stapler
Plywood is great for horizontal platforms. Cardboard or PVC pipes and dimensional lumber are ideal vertical supports, while carpet makes for great wood cover.
Concrete form tubes may also come in handy for covering the area your cat can lounge on. Cardboard tubes are perfect for your furry friend’s tunnels and perches.
Step 3: Cut Them According to Your Measurements
With your plan in hand, cut your lumber and plywood sections accordingly.
For dimensional lumber, hand saws should be able to do the trick. Table saws or handheld circular saws, on the other hand, work best for plywood.
After cutting, you might want to smoothen rough edges by sanding them.
Step 4: Assemble Your DIY Cat Tree’s Base
Your tree should have a sturdy and steady base to hold it in place. To prevent your DIY cat tree from tipping, make sure to extend the base farther out compared to any other component or platform of the cat tree.
In making the base, it’s ideal to cut to the right size two squares of plywood. Afterward, you can attach them to one another for additional weight and thickness.
Typically, a basic cat tree should have a simple 24-inch square. If your tree is taller, however, you should have a bigger base to make sure that it is stable.
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Step 5: Cover the Base Using Carpet or Other Thick Upholstery Fabrics
Before you start installing any of those vertical supports, it is better to cover your base with carpet or a thick upholstery fabric.
Cut your carpet according to the size of the base, but make sure to give it some extra inches on the sides. Wrap the edges of the carpet around the base’s edges before using your staple gun to staple the carpet in place on the base’s underside.
To make it fold neatly under the base, you might also have to cut a few small notches around the corners of the carpet.
Step 6: Install the Vertical Supports
You can use bolts, screws, nails, or wood glue to install the vertical supports. These will hold up the entire DIY cat tree.
Next, flip the base over in such a way that the side covered with carpet now faces down. Next, you can start drilling holes on the base’s underside on the spots where you want your supports.
You can now attach the supports using your nails and screws by inserting them through the hold and driving them through the supports.
Before securing them in place, you should also cover your vertical supports using the carpet. This is a lot easier to do than covering them later on when the vertical supports are already attached to the base.
You can also use sisal rope and make your DIY cat tree also act as your feline friend’s scratching post. Simply wrap a few of your vertical supports with the rope and secure the ends with staples.
Make sure to place the ends somewhere your cat can’t scratch them. Additionally, you might also want to tap down the staples using a hammer just to flatten them out.
Step 7: Attach the Perches to the Vertical Supports
Using either wood screws, wood glue, or any other strong adhesive, you can now attach the plywood perches to the vertical supports’ tops.
Wrap your horizontal perches with carpet or a similar fabric after you attach them and secure them in place on the underside as well. This hides any unsightly screws sticking out.
Step 8: Finish Your DIY Cat Tree by Adding Your Personalized Features
Finish your DIY cat tree by affixing the individual components you might have made in the first step.
You can also either make adjustments to your design after finishing the steps or make adjustments to the steps to better fit your design. Allow yourself to explore with new ideas along the way while also making sure to account for stability issues or incorrect measurements.
Looking for inspiration for your DIY cat tree? Review Tube shows us some of the best cat tree designs below:
Keeping your furry friends happy and securing your furniture aren’t mutually exclusive. This DIY cat tree plan is an easy and fast way to make sure you’re able to do just that.
Do you have other DIY cat tree designs you might want to share with us? Tell us about them in the comments section below!
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The post How To Build A DIY Cat Tree For Your Feline Friend appeared first on DIY Projects Craft Ideas & How To’s for Home Decor with Videos.
