Cat Tree
I rescued my cat, Tapatio, back in October. He's half Bengal so I knew I would need to give him lots of ways to use his excess energy, but of course, large cat trees were too expensive for me.
The floor-to-ceiling tube is a carpet tube from Home Depot. They don't always have an empty one, but they did when I went in and they gave it to me for free. I added wood support in the tube so I could screw the platforms to something solid. The platforms are also supported by shelf brackets hidden under the carpet and rope.
I cut out the platforms with a jigsaw from plywood I had lying around from disassembling an old project. I also used a router with a homemade circular jig to cut circles for the hammock and dome.
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Name
Sarah
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Category
Personal Project
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Tool Highlight
Jigsaw
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Date
January 28, 2024
I got carpet scraps from Carpet Liquidators and added some padding because my cat is spoiled. I used a staple gun to affix the carpet. The most tedious part was wrapping the whole thing in sisal rope with a hot glue. I went through 4 rolls of rope and pushed the ends into drilled holes of the tube to secure them.
The top and bottom have large nuts and bolts applying upward and downward pressure to keep the tree in place.
If I did it again, I would skip the bottom shelf. My cat, like most, prefers the higher shelves. If I’m honest, he mostly just uses the top but at least the middle shelves are cute.
Tapatio the cat standing over the parts that would make up his new cat tree.
The pieces of a cat tree coming together.
A vertical view of a newly built cat tree.
Tapatio the cat sits in the bubble within his cat tree.
Tapatio the cat takes a peek through the transparent bubble on his new cat tree.
Tapatio the cat looking directly into the camera as he enjoys hanging out in his new cat tree.
