How to Make Hand Crafted Cat Shelving or Cat Wall

Intro: How to Make Hand Crafted Cat Shelving or Cat Wall

Introducing the Cat Shelf Wall by Andrew Jones

please scroll down for more photos
Some years ago I created some basic cat shelving in the basement, shown in the very first section of the video above. The cats loved it, but I recognized some flaws in the design and after some inspiration, created the Catwalk for Kitty. Although I did start a business selling these online for a little while, demand was such that I could not keep up with the orders in a timely manner. It was simply too much work for one person to do.

I was even approached by Jackson Galaxy, in order to have my cat shelving on his TV show "My Cat From Hell". But due the the fact I was presently no longer making them, he did not want to show a product that was no longer available. (sadly) I initially contacted Jackson through his facebook page and he was so awesome to respond!

Of Course, when he did reach out to me for his show, I didn't believe it and thought someone was pulling our leg, so asked them to prove it. He then sent me this image:

We had lost our chance at making the show as I had already moved out of the workshop and had no space to create them for now.

Our thoughts moving forward is that if we can find someone to pre-cut the designs I have created, then we might be able to out-source the creation of the catwalks, and once more have them on sale on our website.

But for now, here is how I make my Cat Shelving.

The Cat shelf is created using the following:

Materials

1. 1 piece 1/2" x 4' x 1' Birch Ply (I purchased this in 4' x 8' sheets)
2. 2 pieces 1/2" x 4' x 1' Birch Ply (for sides)
3. 1 piece 1/2" x 2.5' x 1' Birch Ply (for bottom)
4. 4 x 1/2" or 3/4" inch birch ply strips (inside each corner re-enforcing strips)
5. Wood Glue
6. 1" Bard Nails
7. 4' x 1' of carpet of choice.

Tools

1. Table Saw
2. Sander of Choice (for edges and all rounded corners)
3. Furniture Brad Nail Gun
4. Sandpaper
5. Router & Bits
6. Templates
7. Clamps of Various Sizes
8. Stain
9. Polyurethane Sealant

Process
The large 4' x 8' sheets are cut into tops, sides and bottom pieces.
You can create your own design, but I used:

top: 1 piece of 4' x 1' (rounded all 4 corners on a sander)
sides: 2 pieces of 4' x 1' (cut each each with a bias to add some design element, plus rounded all 4 corners on a sander)
Bottom: About a 3' length x 12" (edges only sanded, but left with square corners)

The inside side pieces, were routed with a groove of 1/2" wide, about 1/4" deep, almost the entire length on the top and the entire length on the bottom.

A bead of wood glue was run along the inside of the routed grooves of both inside, side pieces

The bottom pieces are then slotted into the lower groove and the top piece slotted into the upper groove.
The unit as a whole was then placed into a jog that helped it stay square and true while I then nailed the unit together with brads along the top and bottom, joining all pieces together strongly as a whole unit.

I created a template of a square cut-out for the top entry hole for the cats. And designed some cat paw, fish, bird etc. shapes for the sides facing outward from the wall for the cats to look out of.

After all rough edges were sanded, I stained (or not) to the color of my choice and allowed to dry for a few days to allow the finish to de-gas. Then finally a Polyurethane coat was added to seal the finish and allowed to sit again prior to mounting on the wall.

Mounting
On the rear facing side, holes were drilled into the cat shelf, centered at 32" apart so they align with the wall construction of the wood studs. High strength steel screws were used in order to fix the shelf to the wall, making it extremely strong, able to hold 90lbs plus! Easily able to handle all the running, jumping and pounding they get every single day from our cats.

Our Cats LOVE Our Catwalks
To Make Them Right takes Time
I Create Mine in ALL Different Shapes and Sizes
I Love Creating

If you wish to check out the old website, here is the link. We might kick it back into action again, if we can work out some issues having the wood pre-cut etc.

Comments

[vbanaszak]

These are so pretty! I sure hope you can get your business back up and running. I would love to see them on "My Cat From Hell". I am sure you got allot of orders. That is allot of work for 1 person and your finished designs are stunning

[UnitedKreative-Com]

Very kind Vbanaszak, thank you :)

[UnitedKreative-Com]

Thank you vbanaszak! I appreciate that. They are a lot of hard work to create since each one is made with loving care, unlike much of the mass produced items we see in the pet stores today.

[Attmos]

Very, Very Cool. It's easy to tell that you care very much for your cats and those of others. Hope you can someday go back into business.

[UnitedKreative-Com]

Thank you very much Attmos! We love our cats and very mindful they are indoor cats, so try to make thier lives as playful as possible. We hope too that we will kick these back into gear some day. Maybe with help of a kickstarter campaign? Who knows. :)

[Danger is my middle name]

These are great, I can tell the cats love them and they actually look nice, unlike so many other pieces of furniture for cats! It's so cool that Jackson Galaxy contacted you about them too!

[UnitedKreative-Com]

Thank you SO much Danger! Yeah, I love creating these, though right now I have no place to make them. The cats have come alive since giving them the ability to go vertical and get out of harms way should they need to.

[pansycritter]

How is the long rug for keeping clean? My cats shed blankets daily and it's impossible to keep up. Is the longer shag better for that?

[sis.n.smith]

Wow! I am so impressed! I have been wanting to do this for my three cats (buy or make)! They already have some high levels, but I want to provide the means to go around the top of at least two rooms. I also hope you can get things going again! Thank you for being brilliant and willing to share your designs!

[jessyratfink]

They are beautiful! I hope you'll be able to get some help and get up and running again - I bet they do sell really well. :D

[UnitedKreative-Com]

Thank you so much Jessy! I love making them and hope to be back up and creating them sometime soon.

[UnitedKreative-Com]

Thank you for your work Chris, we work with shelters near us. We did sell these about 1 year ago for about 1 year, they were very popular, but I could not handle the work load all by myself. In the future we may begin again, so keeping the site up and alive for now. Thank you for your kind words.