Materials: Stolmen
Description: Inspired by earlier hacks (such as this) we decided to hack IKEA for our cat, Billy.
We live in a rather small apartment and wanted him to use the height of the apartment as well, so that his living space is optimize (especially since cats love high viewing points). We bought the Stolmen Post and Mounting Fixtures at IKEA, went to a DIY shop and bought: plywood, paint, glue, doormats and rope. Additionally we uses extra bolts and such, I think the photos say enough.
1. Design a shape and size for the boards/shelves.
2. Saw the plywood accordingly.
3. Drill or saw a hole in the shelves (the pole must fit through it later on).
4. Sand the plywood shelves.
5. Paint them.
6. Design and cut the doormats (or some other material).
7. Glue them onto the shelves. It's softer for the cat plus it prevents them from slipping off the boards.
8. Mount the shelves onto the pole (which you already installed). A bit hard for me to explain, just take a good look at the photos I'd say?
9. Wrap rope around the pole (we used 8 mm on the lowest part (took 10 meters) and both upper parts are 8 mm (took 2x 20 m!).
Billy absolutely loves his tower. he reaches the top in no time (he jumps and climbs as well), loves scratching the rope and when he's not sleeping on our laps on the coach, he's asleep on the top shelf.
See more of the Stolmen cat tower.
~ Kelly, The Netherlands
neat job, I love those proper shelves with the mats on them :)
ReplyDeleteNice design. And this is an apt project for apartments
ReplyDeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteNice cat tower! Nice cat, too!
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one thinking that "Billy" is a great IKEA name for a cat using an IKEA Hack?
ReplyDeleteOr is it just me that obsesses about Billy bookcases...
haha I almost didn't want to name him Billy because of that, because 75% of our interior comes from IKEA. But we liked the name and it suits him so we decided to just go for it. But funny, you were the first one to notice/mention it!
DeleteGreat idea! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGreat for a small space. What are the dimensions of the steps?
ReplyDeleteI just measured them, at the widest part they're 34 x 43 cm.
DeleteI absolutely love this hack! It's so neatly done and looks very professional. I have a couple of questions:
ReplyDelete* how thick is the plywood board?
* how much plywood board did you buy in total?
* how much doormat did you buy in total?
Thanks for a great hack! /Andrea
Our shelves measure (at the widest part) 34 x 43 cm. So how much plywood to buy depends on if you use the same measurements and how many steps you would like (best to calculate yourself). We bought plywood board on sale, in already cut sizes (and sanded), and I don't remember the sizes. But we bought too much, since we decided to use less steps and add the rope for climbing instead (of jumping). The plywood is 1 cm thick though, that I cán tell you ;).
DeleteAre you sure you didn't just order the shelves from:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.franklincatfurniture.com/
They look just like them.
Indeed they do! But we didn't ;). We looked at other hacks for scratching posts, here on ikeahackers. But we mostly found the rectangular shaped steps and didn't like them so much, so we decided to make our own shape. I just drew it by hand, and then duplicated the steps. We decided to put the doormats on for extra grip and comfort. But it's weird how much the designs look a like, it might be that I saw it a while ago and my brain remembered it, but I don't recognize the site/images. But then, the shape isn't really that unique I guess? When you think of an easy shape for the cat to jump on, and nice to look at (not rectangular) I quickly came up with this option.
DeleteDelightful! I will remember this for future smaller space living. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice cat tree !!!!
It's awesome. I love it. So nice design!
I am wondering what is the dimension of the sisal rope, and how much did you buy?
How did you attach it? Did you glue it to the pool?
Did you have to drill that into the floor and ceiling?
ReplyDeleteOnto the ceiling, not into the floor.
Delete