I thought I would share my weekend´s worth of work with everyone at UC. My fiance and I built a cat tree out of scrap wood. All we spent was $25 for scrap carpet and wood glue.

It took us two full days to finish this up. I designed the tree and cut and attached some of the pieces. My fiance also cut and hammered. We both spent an entire day carpeting it.

Here´s some photos:

This is before we added the carpet. The cats weren´t allowed to play on it at this point.


And here´s the finished product


We added a hinge to the box so we could open it and see them inside.


We also added toys

A lot of my post got deleted.

Here´s a pic of the added toy:


I know that cat trees can be very expensive, so for those who may not be able to afford one - you can try building it!
It wasn´t as difficult as I originally thought. And I think it came together nicely.

Wow! The cat tree looks fantastic! And if I were your cat I would be so excited about this new cat tree. I once thought about building one of these myself but just wasn´t confident enough about whether I could do it successfully.

Oh wow! That is awesome! I wish my husband was this handy, he can´t even put a slot in bed together -_-

I want one!!!

Thank you Cyclee and JoviaDea I´m glad you both think it looks nice.

Trust me, it is a little rough around the edges, but for something home-made and practically free, I won´t complain

It´s also very rewarding I bet You can say to people "I made that!"

looks awesome! Can you build us one? Patches, Missy, and Persey!

Wow! It looks just great!!! It´s a great looking cat tree.

I bought mine for $100.00 but still had to put it altogether. It was a lot of work and I didn´t have to glue anything so I can appreciate how much effort went into this.

Wow Clerihewed...I feel ashamed of myself now. I work in a shop with scraps of wood and carpeting everywhere. And I still went out and bought a cat tree recently. Okay partly it was because the only one I ever built Sophie was afraid of and wouldn´t go anywhere near. But mostly it´s because I´m lazy. You did a great job! Well done.

Whoa Clerihewed, great job!! Actually we had the exact idea last year just after we got Oliver, we collected the raw material but they are still as they are sitting on the balcony... My partner Cristiano is a real DIY man and full of ambition, it is just that he never gets around to do it because he is always swamped with work... and I am afraid to get on with it myself I am a total eejit when it comes to DIY, I might as well end up with an askew one that would tip right over when Oliver hops on, or hammer my finger into the post or something...
I will show these pics to Cris and try to get him motivated, wish me luck ...

Yay! Maybe you will get Cris to build one. If I can do it anybody can! I´ll cross my fingers for you.
This one hasn´t tipped over yet, if you want to try to make yours like it. I don´t care. The base and the support beams support the weight of the structure and the cats.

Good luck!

Brilliant! Well done. When I got my first dog, Kellie, I couldn´t afford a dog kennel so I made one out of an old hardwood bookcase. I even got the roof for free coz it was scrap from the hardware store. Some old paint and bingo, one dog kennel. Kellie loved it. It is still going strong. I am about to pass it on to my sister for her dog.

As he say, necessity is the mother of invention.

Im also a handy-man and have thought some day to build a cat tree myself... for my cats i mean!! but i wanna build one so big that its not allowed in rental houses LOL

But why i wanted to write here is because there are really no limits what you can build yourself for your cats but just keep in mind:

-Always use safe glues that are not toxic even when they are dry..cats do like to also chew their toys and cat trees and so on.. and use glues that are specially ment for the materials you are using. They hold best!

-And when using nails and staples use them in places where the cats cant reach them or hurt them selves in to them. Measure carefully the lenghts of the stables and the wood you are using so the stables wont stick out in any point.
And make sure the stables are not too short either that cats cant drag the stables out of the wood.

-Use safe carpeting.. some carpeting can shread easily and form that sort of dust that can give your cat problems with breathing.

-Use healthy woods. Good wood dont have any living organisms in them and last longer in time. Also make sure there are no sticks sticking out of any corner. Sand the woods carefully.

And in all way make it very steady and firm so it will last through time and wont fall apart at any time soon Cats do use their cat trees roughly so when your home made cat tree seems to had its best days..just tear it down..just in case so your cats wont hurt themselves using it.

And just to say..why cat trees are so expencive in stores is that manufacturers have designed the products to their finest. They use all animal friendly materials and think all the ways to make the cat trees as safe as they can make them for your cats.
All this takes time and money. But they are safe!

Happy times with climbing for every1!

Reija....those are excellent points to remember.

I didn´t even think about it when I bought my cat tree, but I do know that the company is reputable. My cat tree is now 3 years old and has had a lot of action..and is still in great condition. I have 4 cats.

I do think that the cat tree that Clerihewed built looks fantastic and I am sure her cats will have many, many hours and years of fun with it.

Nice job on the cat tree!!

It is wonderful! I wish I was as skillful as you!

good job clerihewed!! If my cat would use his cat tree more I would definitely build one with my husband, but he only uses the middle tray!! his cat tree is a little shaky for some reason... would you come over to try to level it? (just joking).

You are right the prices of cat trees some times are ridiculous!! we got ours on Craigslist... we were pretty broke buying everything for the cat back them.

But building one is a great idea to spend some quality time with your fiance and making something for the babies.

Thanks for the comments everyone! I really appreciate it.

As far as cat safing the tree: any nails that seemed to protrude were clipped or hammered down. We cleaned the wood (this wood was used when we remodeled our kitchen). We added the carpet outside, so any carpet dust was left out there, but I did vacuum and clean the tree with damp cloths just to make sure. The glue said it was safe, but I made sure to clean any excess. Mine might try to eat anything

wow clerihewed that is one amazing cat tree. u have alot of skills. u have given me inspairation to build one for my babies...nice work...

That cat tree looks amazing!!
I´ve always wanted to do it and now that you´ve built one and it´s successful i;m really inspired to do it.
Where did you find scrap wood and carpet? Besides a home building store I have no idea where to find it.

Where did you find scrap wood and carpet? Besides a home building store I have no idea where to find it.
Xostephanie take a look on Craigslist there´s always people giving away scrap wood and carpet leftovers for free or you can also get scrap wood in home building stores, they always sell small cuts of millstead.

Good luck with your project