This project was a sorely needed addition to the house. My wife and my daughter love cats, but the kitties love to climb and scratch things. I created this little scratching post/condo for them in a day. I bought some rope and a cheap carpet from Home Depot, but all the other materials I had left over from other projects.
The good thing about this build is you don’t have to be neat! The whole thing is covered with carpet, so it doesn’t matter what the wood below looks like. No sanding, standing, or clean up! Just cut and assemble the pieces, staple carpet to it, and you’re all set! This build took only a few hours to put together.
Some details:
- The center support is just 2 – 2×4’s screwed and glued together. This creates a super strong 4×4 post that I screwed down to the base. I also added some angled 2×4’s for extra support.
- The shelves are secured with cheap shelving brackets. These are ugly but strong. But again – since it’s all wrapped in carpet – doesn’t matter what the inside looks like.
- The bottom condo area adds support, and is just some plywood all screwed together with some access holes.
- The top is a box without a top. I didn’t bother mitering the corners or doing any sanding – just screwed together and it was done.
- I added some rope on the front so the kitties could use it to scratch.
- The carpet is secured with some staples. I heard that kitties could rip out a claw if it got stuck under a staple, so I initially tried gluing the carpet down. It didn’t work at all, so I ended up going with the staples. So far there haven’t been any issues, and the staples work really well.
