Introduction: Cat Tent From Repurposed Materials

Learn to make a Cat Tent from a T-shirt, cardboard box, and wire clothes hangers.

Have you ever wanted a bed for your cat? But, you found the ones at your local pet store are way too expensive!

Well we have the perfect solution for you, just make a cat tent!

Using things already at your house to make an amazing cat tent is wonderful. Who would've thought that an old T-shirt that you were thinking of throwing away can be used for a great place that your cat can rest in. Everyone with a cat will love this affordable, cute, comfy, and easy to make cat tent. With only a few tools and a few steps we will make your cats slumber ten times better!

YADI

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Step 1: Supplies

The supplies you will need to make your cat tent will be:

  • A cardboard box - we found this in our garage, but if you don't have any there should be some at your local hardware store.
  • An old T-shirt - we just used one of our old baggy T-shirts that could fit around our cat bed.
  • Two metal hangers (one of the untwistable ones)- we found these in our closet, but hey have some at any general store. (Optional)
  • Blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals- they have these at 5 below, or you could just used old ones like we did.

Step 2: Tools

  • Scissors for cutting the cardboard- we found some at our house, but they have some at any craft or general store. We used scissors but you can use anything that can cut through cardboard. A utility knife will work well also.
  • Tape for securing the handles to the box and together - We used some from our house, but they have tape eat any craft or general store. You can also use hot glue or any type of strong glue.

Step 3: Cut Box to Desired Depth

The first step to making your cat bed is cutting the flaps off of your box with scissors (or any item you have that can cut through cardboard). Make sure you have adult supervision while cutting! You want to make sure that you are left with just the bottom of the box. A 3-4 inch rim around the edge around the box should be fine. Of course that depends on the thickness of your bedding material.

Step 4: Cut and Mount Hangers

The next step is to undo the metal hangers into a “u” shape, and tape them into the corners of your box. When you undo you metal hangers you start at the top and twist it so that the winded part comes undone. (We had a little bit of a struggle to do this alone so you can use scissors, or a little help from your parents.) Once the hanger is undone, tape the two hangers across the box in the diagonal corners, so it makes an “x” shape.

Step 5: T-Shirt

Take your shirt and place it over the hangers. If your shirt is too long you can tuck the bottom of it under the cardboard. If you want to we decided to add a blanket to the bottom of the cardboard, so it would be more comfy for our cat. This craft is customizable to your liking so you can use pretty much anything to decorate your cat’s new bed. We also added a stuff animal. (If your cat has any favorite toys you can throw those in as well)! After this your cat tent is done!

Step 6: Summary

This project was a lot of fun but we did learn many things along the way while building it. First off you really want to make sure that your not using too big of a T-shirt, because the hole that your cat walks into to get in the tent ends up being too low and saggy. At first we made this mistake too, but we quickly exchanged it with a smaller tighter shirt. Using a smaller shirt also makes it more open inside for you cat because the top does not sag down. We also had our parents unwire the hangers and shape them into a “U” shape. This was helpful because we struggled a little bit to do it ourselves. All in all this was an easy and affordable project for our cat, and we hope that you will have fun as much fun as we did while making this.

YADI

Made by DIS Demons

Hi361578 and Fi402065

Before and After Contest 2017

Participated in the
Before and After Contest 2017