I Built a Cat Tree

After three weeks, the beast is complete. My first major wood-working project is a SUCCESS! This five-level cat tree, complete with two perches and a hole in the third level, gets a 5-star rating from our resident furballs.

Building the wooden frame actually wasn't that hard. Once I borrowed Tim's miter saw, the cuts were easy. I had some difficulties screwing 3-inch drywall screws into stud-grade 2x4s with my wimpy drill, but I overcame them. The frame building process took only a few hours.

The carpeting stage was a BEAR. I used left-over carpeting from our bedroom so that the finished product would color-coordinate with our decor. Unfortunately, I ran out of carpet, so I had to wrap five of the six posts with sisal rope. (The directions only call for the post supporting the top perch to be wrapped in sisal.) The cats enjoy the extra scratching surfaces, so the carpet shortage turned out to be a blessing.

I used the Mistoffolees Castle plan from cattreeplans.com. I recommend the plans (which are mailed on a CD) to any beginner. The directions were easy to follow and fully illustrated. The total cost of the materials (somewhat of an estimate due to my spotty receipt tracking) was roughly $70 (not including carpeting). As the Castle turned out to be MUCH larger than I anticipated, I'll probably be building a smaller tree soon to take its place in the living room.

View more cat tree pictures here.