How to Decoupage a Tray  

Back to List

How to Make a Mosaic Tile Portrait of Your Pet

How to Make a Cat Castle and Scratching Post

Lee Meredith, contributor

9 users recommend

Banzo the kitten claws herself up onto the top of her post.

Lee Meredith

Garbanzo brings her toys up onto her castle to wrestle with.

Lee Meredith

Carpet pieces with the same pattern but in different colors look great together!

Lee Meredith

Banzo the kitten claws herself up onto the top of her post.

Photo: Lee Meredith

Add Comment
Print

I love making things from what would normally be trashed, and when I found piles of old carpet samples for 50 cents each I knew I could turn them into something fabulous for my kitty! I am lucky enough to live near SCRAP, which stands for "school and community reuse action project" where people donate stuff instead of trashing it—stuff like these carpet samples and thick cardboard tubes for artists and crafters like me to find new uses for! If you don't have a store like this near you, I'm sure there's somewhere where you can find carpet scraps if you look hard enough, and your cat will thank you for your effort!

I built this kitty castle and scratching post a few months ago, so I'm going to show you how I made them by partially deconstructing them, which is why the step-by-step pictures don't all look how they would when you're constructing them.  The projects are very flexible anyway, and your materials will probably be different from mine, so it shouldn't matter.

To make the kitty castle, you'll need:

• Two or more large, thick cardboard boxes
• Several pieces of carpet (or enough total to cover most surfaces of the boxes)
• Scissors that can cut through the carpet
• Box cutter or craft knife
• Hot-glue gun

For the boxes, I used a printer box, which is good because it's extra-thick cardboard since printers are heavy, and I re-recycled the box from my Halloween costume, which was huge and thick. You need to make sure the boxes can withstand your cat climbing on them, sitting on them a lot, etc.

Make sure your holes don't jeopardize the sturdiness of the boxes.

First, cut several holes in both boxes, big enough for your cat to fit through. I cut holes on three sides of the large box and on three sides plus the top of the smaller box. Cut them so that one hole on one box lines up with one hole on the other box when you put them side by side. This way, when the castle is put together, your cat can go from one room to the other.

Use more than two boxes if you want, so your castle will have more rooms!

Glue the two boxes together, with one side lined up evenly and the holes lined up inside. Then glue the carpet onto the outside walls. Cut one piece of carpet so that it covers both boxes on the side where they are lined up—the carpet will help hold them together, especially when your cat is climbing all over them.

I cut a carpet piece in a kind of L shape to cover as much as possible of both boxes on the front side.

Cover the tops of the boxes and some or all of the walls, cutting the carpet where needed. Try to clean up any strings of hot glue (you know how stringy hot glue can be!) so your cat doesn't eat it.

I think mismatched carpet pieces give the castle a more interesting look!

It isn't necessary to cover all the walls, but it would look nicer if you do. I left the back side carpetless, as well as the long side of the tall box, but my kitty still has plenty of places to scratch!

Garbanzo loves to sleep on top of her castle!

To make the scratching post, you'll need:

• Six thick cardboard tubes, all the same length
• Duct tape
• Carpet pieces
• Scissors that can cut through the carpet
• Staple gun or small nails and hammer
• Hot-glue gun
• Piece of thin chipboard

I got my cardboard tubes from the same reuse store where I got my carpet samples, so hopefully you'll be able to find some in your area. The thin chipboard I used came from an Ikea picture frame—it's for the base of the post, so you can use anything thick enough to support the post that you can either staple through or nail through. If your base is too thick to staple through, then you can nail through it instead when I get to that part.

Start by arranging the tubes in a triangle like this and duct-taping around them securely.

Cut a piece of carpet approximately the same size as your chipboard base and glue it to the base. Then glue the tube cluster to the base, on top of the carpet. Flip the whole thing upside down and staple through the bottom of the chipboard into the tubes to hold it all together well.

The tubes need to be strongly secured to the base.

Wrap the tubes in carpet pieces, attaching them on the edges with the staple gun. You can also stick some hot glue in there around the top.

Try to make all the edges touch, but if they don't, it will be ok.

Now you just need to cover the top. Cut a carpet piece to the size and shape of the top, and glue it on there.

Carpet pieces with the same pattern but in different colors look great together!

You shouldn't need to staple this top piece, since gravity will hold it in place most of the time, but use plenty of glue because your cat will be clawing at it.

If you have carpet pieces big enough to cover your tubes with no gaps, then your post will look better than mine!

That's it. If you want to lure your cat to it while it's new and scary, you could sprinkle a little catnip on it!

My cat loves to claw on the sides and sit on the top!

Add Comment Print

Comments (2)

Pattiphoo writes: love it U have 5 cats and they are always clawing my furniture. I already have the tubes and carpet. Can's wait to make one. Hopefully they will claw at it. Thank you
Posted: 10:03 am on February 28th

vicky_north writes: I should make one of these for Bear. He likes to sit on top of everything and his scratching tree is getting pretty old.
Posted: 6:13 pm on February 14th

You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.