Cat Climbing Frame (and the wonders of Hardboard)

So I'm still rushing about, caught in the euphoria that by the end of this week I'm going to have a little kitten running about my room, when a few days ago I discovered the giant pile of hardboard I stashed behind my wardrobe and never used ever again. Hardboard, I've found, is wonderful. It's thin enough to saw easily and thick enough that is isn't going to snap unless you put some welly into it. Use it on the right frame and you can use it to make some nice things: boxes, canvases, use it to cover up that little drafty hole in your ancient house, guinea pig chew toys etc.. So I thought 'what the heck, lets make a climbing apparatus - it'll take up my boredom rather than jumping about the house and I'll save some money.' It's a pretty simple step design but I'm hoping the cat won't notice.

For this I used:

• 2 and a bit pieces of massive hardboard
• Square wooden poles (I just used what I found lying about)
•  Many many many screws
• Old piece of carpet
• Masking tape/Gum tape
• Staple gun
• Saw
• Adhesive glue (optional)
• PVA glue (optional)

So I began with a couple of quick concept sketches.

 And went straight onto measuring sketching and sawing out.

 When sawing out, do try to do it out of the midday summer

 sun in thirty degree heat. I was not wearing my brain that day.

I then got my wood, cut it to size and shaped it. For the main frame itself I used 2x30cm, 4x75cm and 6x322cm (minus whatever the width of the two poles they would be held between). I also stuck on a few other small pieces of wood where the tops would rest.

Using screws I attached the hardboard and the wooden frames together, with a little help from adhesive glue to give it a little ore strength. It also helps to use PVA glue just to hold the wood in place while you screw it together.

To make the steps and keep them sturdy I used another small piece of square wood to screw/glue each piece of hardboard on.

Then screwed and glued these (and the very top) onto the main body.

 

I Gum taped up the sides and opening (or at least I wished to. I could only find masking tape and no shop within reach seems to sell gum tape) to give it a tidy edge.

Now all that was left was to attach the colourful carpet of choice (unless your me and the only old carpet available is an unattractive gold... It's going to be very lucky if the cat even wants to climb on that colour).

 I used a staple gun to attach it while giving a 3cm overlap on either side. I went back over and cut at each corner, then folded over and stapled it into the sides.

And there's a simple feline climbing apparatus which won't cost you a small fortune... not that I know how much cat climbing frames usually cost... and when the economy of hardboard goes crazy you may have a bad time.