Anyone constructed a cat tree?

Does anyone have a plan or 'pattern' how to make a cat tree. I would love another one for my boys... I already have 2 bought trees, but I know a handyman who would be able to make one for them. Thanks.

Heavens, my hubby just made a beautiful one last year for our cats but he didn't have a plan - just in his head.

Hubby just went on the internet and looked a a number of different ones, got some ideas and went from there.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

Heavens, my hubby just made a beautiful one last year for our cats but he didn't have a plan - just in his head.

Hubby just went on the internet and looked a a number of different ones, got some ideas and went from there.

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I didn't even think of that! Off to Google to do a bit of searching. Just thought that there might be some homemade ones from this forum. I would love to see pics if there are any.

I didn't make a tree, exactly, but I made a climbing wall...

Bunch of boards, wrapped in carpet remnant, mounted on brackets... Put a scratching post on one...

He likes it when he's nipped out.

Originally Posted by sphynx

I didn't even think of that! Off to Google to do a bit of searching. Just thought that there might be some homemade ones from this forum. I would love to see pics if there are any.

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I keep promising to take a photo and post but I haven't been able to get a good one yet - at least not good enough to see how awesome it really is. Of course my hubby is a perfectionist so that should tell you something.

Don't buy the one at Wal-Mart. It falls over, then falls apart. I wasted 34 bucks on that thing. At least the fallen pieces can still serve as scratching posts. It was made of nothing but cardboard rug rollers-actually not much more than thick wrapping paper rollers- and some cheap carpet glued onto it. The thing that holds it in the ceiling was a square piece of wood with a huge screw, but the screw had to hold onto the cardboard, which always tore up and gave way. Timber.

Originally Posted by TabbyTail

Don't buy the one at Wal-Mart. It falls over, then falls apart. I wasted 34 bucks on that thing. At least the fallen pieces can still serve as scratching posts. It was made of nothing but cardboard rug rollers-actually not much more than thick wrapping paper rollers- and some cheap carpet glued onto it. The thing that holds it in the ceiling was a square piece of wood with a huge screw, but the screw had to hold onto the cardboard, which always tore up and gave way. Timber.

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Someone gave me one of those and mine did the same thing in less than a month.

I made a tall condo years ago but it is so beat up that I won't bother showing pictures of it right now. It needs to be recarpeted and new sisal put on.

The easiest scratch post that we made:

Take a 1" thick plywood piece (about 30" square), cover it with a carpet remnant and bolt a 4 inch thick, 36 inch tall tree branch to it. Then wrap a portion of the branch with sisal rope (optional). I added a piece of wood to the top (wrapped in carpet) as a perch. My cats absolutely love it. Never throw away any wood that you get when you prune your trees!

Thanks so much for all the tips... I feel inspired . I like the idea of using a natural tree branch. I have a friend whose Grandma has turned her house into cat heaven. She has a dead, HUGE tree in the living room, full of interesting little things for her cats to play with, and she is busy building walkways at the top of all her walls (up near the ceiling) and is even breaking through every room so that they can go from room to room on their walkways and through the holes in the wall . I don't think I would go that far... I would love to do it for mine buy DH would strongly object!

my husband made our cats a tree, here are the finished pictures. they love it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/littleraven7726/Cat Tree Project/finishedtree4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/littleraven7726/Cat Tree Project/finishedtree3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/littleraven7726/Cat Tree Project/finishedtree2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/littleraven7726/Cat Tree Project/finishedtree1.jpg

We used 2x4's, fiberboard cut to 2x2 for the base & second level and a 1x1 for the step, 2 concrete tubes (available at home depot or lowes) cut in 1/2 and glued together for strength, sisal rope, carpet remnants, and wood glue & staples. the one-story condo on the bottom is not permanently there, it's mainly a step for raven, he can't jump more than a foot at a time easily.

That's a nice one you made, littleraven!!
We are going to build one for Oliver (ideally for Christmas but that is probably difficult..) and right now working on the design... yours gives a pretty good idea!! Thanks for posting the pic!

Here's the one my wife and I put together a few months ago, about 2 weeks after we got Juniper.



The tube is 10" so it's actually too small, which we didn't realize at the time. Actually the whole thing is rather kitten-sized, rather than cat-sized, because we a) used wood remnants we had and b) scaled it for current Juniper, not future Juniper. Bixby loves the thing, though.

We found that it's very easy to use eye-hooks and dangle a cat toy of some sort from any platform, so there's more hanging off of the thing now. We're planning on building a bigger, 2-cat one next spring.

Thanks Raven and Eggy Toast!!! Those are AMAZING. I am printing off everything I see on here and will hand all the pics over to the handyman. DH not much of a DIY guy . He (handyman) is just busy at the moment making a set of stairs for my Frenchie to be able to get on and off my bed at will, as we have a rather high bed! The things we do for our 4X4's .