Cat Highway

Recently we adopted a kitten and I thought it would be really cool if he had his own cat highway.

Because we already had a wooden wall with a shelf in our lounge I only needed to make a short shelf for our kitten to walk onto. I wanted to make it more interesting for him and give him another place to hide so I decided to use an old Christmas tree as "bushes / greenery".

For this project I mainly used old cupboard doors for the shelf, unused Christmas tree for the bushes and birthday/Christmas cards for the flowers.

Step 1: Prep the Shelves

For the shelves I used a couple of old cupboard doors, which I rid of the vinyl since it was cracked all over.

With a jigsaw cut whichever wood you're using into 4 longer pieces (or however many you might need for your wall) which will be used for the shelves, one smaller piece (22cm x 22cm) which will be the turning point (not needed if your shelf is wide enough) and a larger piece with two side pieces (31cm x 31cm) for the bed. Sand all over.

Step 2: Assembly

Glue the shelf pieces together if needed, attach the shelf brackets and paint if desired. Glue and screw the side pieces onto the bed piece.

Step 3: Attaching the Shelves

Attach the shelves onto the wall and watch your kitty explore. Don't forget to use appropriate wall plugs ;)

Step 4: O Christmas Tree

Disassemble the Christmas tree and attach a couple of branches to the turning point. Screw the turning point and the bed onto the shelf.

Step 5: O Christmas Tree

Carry on attaching the branches with cable clips throughout the length of the shelves.

Step 6: Flowers

Print out the template attached to this step, glue it onto one of the birthday/Christmas card and cut out (this will be used as a template for the rest). Trace the flower pieces onto the cards and cut out. Curve each petal around a pen. Make two holes into the bottom flower piece and thread a wire through. Glue the flower pieces together with hot glue.

Step 7: More Flowers

Affix the flowers onto the branches. I ended up making about 35 flowers to cover the length of the shelves.

Step 8: Nap Time

Make a cardboard box roughly 29cm x 29cm. Slide on and glue pipe insulation around the edges of the box to make it comfier. Glue in a piece of blanket larger than the box just under the pipe insulation on the inside leaving one of the sides open. Insert ample amount of pillow filling and glue in the fourth side. Glue on the blanket on the outside of the box and trim off leftovers.

Step 9: Final Thoughts

I'm very happy with how it turned out and I think our kitten Loki is as well. He really likes to hide in the "bushes" or just watch over us from up there. The only thing I would change is the shelf brackets. They are a little bit of an eye sore so I might change them later :D