Another Cat Litter solution (deluxe version) IKEA hack

I recently made an IKEA Hack that I would like to share.

top entry cat litter

Due to my small apartment size I am stuck with the cat litter tray in the living room next to the TV so it was directly in eye sight when I had guests come round! Add to that the problem of my cat throwing her litter round and getting it stuck on her paws and tracking it all round the flat making all the floors dirty!

I had seen some cat litter hacks on IKEA Hackers before but none of them seemed to solve my three requirements which were;
1) Attractive enough to be in the living room
2) Top entry to allow gravity to keep the litter inside!
3) With a horizontal element to allow the cat litter mats to do their work!

Basically I need something that would force my cat to have to walk along the cat litter mats and jump out the top.

IKEA Items used:

  • 800mm Wide METOD Base Cabinet with shelves
  • 400mm Wide METOD Base Cabinet
  • 3 x LAXARBY Doors
  • 3 x FAGLAVIK Handles
  • 6 x EKBY HEMNES Shelves
  • 6 x EKBY HENSVIK Brackets

Steps

1) Assembled the two METOD cabinets mostly as per IKEA instructions although without any worktop or wall mounting since my cabinets would be grounded on their bases and not using the IKEA kitchen cabinet feet. Once the cabinets were assembled I could see where I wanted to make holes in the side walls of the cabinet and marked this in pencil.

2) Partly disassembled the cabinets to allow me to cut two holes in the joining side wall. Since I have limited tools this was done using an electric drill and a large hand saw. Whilst cutting the holes I made sure to leave enough wall to support the middle shelf in the cabinet. Since both the 400mm and the 800mm cabinet has a side wall I had to cut holes in both. So that the holes lined up I cut the holes in one side wall first then marked out in pencil on the second side wall using the first side wall as a template.

Hacking a cat litter

3) Reassembled the cabinets, with one middle shelf in the 800mm cabinet. and with the 3 LAXARBY doors.

4) Since 6 EKBY HEMNES Shelves work out a lot cheaper than the standard Ikea kitchen worktops and gave the more rustic look I was going for I used these instead. These are 790mm x 190mm. To make the top I left 3 shelves uncut, 1 shelf was split in half length ways. 1 Shelf was cut to give me 1 x 430mm long, 2 x 180mm long. The last shelf was cut to give me 1 x 610mm long and 1 x 120mm long plus some excess which was thrown away. These were assembled (Minus the 2 x180mm pieces) to make the top with the 610 + 790 making up the back portion and the 430 + 790 to make the front. I used the second shelf from the METOD cabinet and the pieces that I had cut out for the holes as supports to screw the shelves together into one piece.

top of the cat litter

5) I then used the two remaining 180mm pieces of the EKBY HEMNES shelf plus the 6x EKBY HENSVIK brackets to create some access steps on the side of the cabinet. The cantilevering part of the worktop acts as the first step making 3 steps in total.

6) Installed some Cat litter mats and a litter tray!

Installing the cat litter

~ Andrea Weight