My wife and I recently decided to expand our family by adopting a pair of kittens from a local organization, Furkids, These two little balls of energy have been nothing but a blast so far. One thing we really wanted to do for them is give them something they could climb up on top of, play on, and scratch as much as their hearts desired. So to accomplish all of these goals, I set about designing and building a cat condo.
List of materials:
- 3/4 inch plywood
- 4 x 4 square post
- 2 x 4 boards
- 1/4 inch rope
- Rugs
- Log (optional)
I didn't really have a firm design when I started, so as I went along I just made sure things were fitting. I started by cutting the base and checking to make sure it would look okay. I then started measuring out how big I wanted each level. It took a bit of playing to get the height correct, but once I had everything figured out it was mostly just cutting out the pieces and putting it together.
The most complicated part of the whole thing was the "condo" portion. I wanted to make sure that it was big enough that they could go inside, but still fit on top of the structure without making more problems. Based on the materials I had on hand, I figured that I could make it in a pentagon shape.
For the front door of the condo, I decided on a radius of the circle and used a piece of scrap wood to mark it. See an example here. I then used a jig saw to cut it out. It slipped in nicely and while clamped, I screwed it together.
When I got most of it together, I realized I made a big mistake. There was no way for the kittens to easily get up into the condo from the middle level. They still couldn't jump quite that high, so I cut out another board to add an additional level that would give them more space.
You can see a better example here of what I meant. I then took the rope and carpet and covered everything using a staple gun. It was extremely tiring and I had to make a couple of trips back to the store for more rope.
In the end, I think they enjoy it. They rarely ever go inside the actual condo, but when they do it is pretty cute.