As you all know, just from having seen previous photos in this blog even if you don’t know me, I have cats. Two cats, Dante and Chaucer. And they are fuzzy and wonderful. But they also like to climb things. Bookcases, dressers, people who stand still for too long… and, of course, their cat tree. This is an object I built five years ago, when I first got Dante and had access to the sculpture studio at college. It was functional… but fairly ugly. To the point that I had to do a lot of searching just to find this photo of it, because every time I’ve taken a shot to show off the new house, I’ve moved the cat tree out of the shot. So forgive the ridiculous messiness of this photo – it was taken on moving day, when the cats were confined to the guest bedroom so they wouldn’t escape.

So then I saw this cat tree online that a guy built, starting from an IKEA Stolmen post – it’s a modular closet shelving system, but the important thing is that it uses a sturdy vertical pole, held in place mainly by pressure between the floor and the ceiling, and you can buy brackets to attach shelves to it, at whatever height you choose. So I took the idea of a series of platforms, deciding on two big ones for lounging, and four little ones for traveling between the big platforms.

Once I bought the IKEA post, I got three 2×2 plywood boards to make the platforms out of. I cut them all as circles – this picks up the mobile in the room, and also eliminates pointy corners for me to run into, as I’m prone to do. The little platforms are about a foot in diameter, and the big ones are two feet across. In this shot, you can see that I’m cutting out little platforms – three are done already, and this is the last one in progress.

They’re not perfect circles, because I decided to make them conform to the post a bit more, so there’s a semicircular “bite” out of them on the side where they attach. The little platforms just attach by one screw, but they’re very sturdy, which I was originally a bit concerned about. You can see the “bite” on this one that I was cutting:

The big platforms attach with two screws, and have a hole for the pole to go through – all of this to ensure that they’re very stable. Because of the shape of the brackets, I ended up routing around the hole to make sure the screws could sit flush with the board, instead of having a gap. This is what the Dremeled shape looked like:

Once I cut out all the shapes and Dremeled the big platforms, I sanded all the sharp edges off, and stained all of them dark walnut to match my bookcase.

Then I took a trip to Joanne’s Fabrics to find soft material to put on top of each circle – for grip on the little platforms, and to add some cushiness to the big platforms so my cats will hang out on them for longer. I found some bright aqua and green felt, as well as some fleecy white fabric. I attached all of the fabrics with Velcro, so they’ll be really easy to switch out if they get dirty or if I change color schemes.

Assembling the pole was a little bit exciting, since I had to put it up with the two large platforms already on it – because the pole goes through them, there’s no way to get them on or off once the pole’s up. Also, yes, the IKEA instructions are correct, you really should have two people for this project – standing on a ladder, twisting the pole to secure it, while also trying to ensure it’s perfectly vertical – well, yes, it would’ve been easier with a second person. But I persevered and succeeded in installing the pole securely, vertically, and in the correct location. Then it was just a matter of picking heights for the platforms, and rotating each one about 120 degrees from the one below so that they’re a usable stairway for the cats.

You can see how the small platforms fit against the post:

And here’s the large platform – pole through hole, screw on each side:

And from below – see how the routed area makes the bracket fit snug against the wood?

I also wrapped the bottom section with sisal rope so they can use it to scratch on. What do the cats think? Well, here’s Chaucer on the highest platform:

And both cats checking it out:

They’ve both taken naps on it, and the highest platform is Chaucer’s favorite place in the room, while Dante likes the lower platform so that she can be in reach for petting. So I’m calling this a success! All for a lot less money (but way more time) than the typical cat tree from the pet store, and way more my style.