DIY cat house

my first cat DIY, hurrah! i absolutely hate leaving kipper when we go away (even though he's totally spoilt by our cat sitter) so when i returned from our holiday this weekend i decided to build him a snazzy new house!

i wanted to keep the design simple and modern, i've used plywood for the house and put a comfy little bed inside that's really easy to make. so far kipper seems to give it the paws up.

my box is pretty big because i had a 40x 40cm piece of foam i wanted to use inside (in hindsight you could totally make this house smaller as cats like small spaces- well kipper does anyway?!) i'll give you the dimensions of the wood after it was cut below:

base: 40 x 40cm

side panels: 40 x 43.5cm

back panel: 44 x 44cm

top panel: 44 x 43.5cm (with one 45 degree cut edge)

front panel: 44 x 46cm (with one 45 degree cut edge)

to create the entrance hole you'll need to use a jigsaw (which are good fun!) find the centre of the front panel and use a compass to draw a 20cm circle. 

drill a hole through the centre of the circle and then insert the jigsaw blade into the hole. turn the jigsaw on and start cutting towards the circle edge (start to turn the blade as soon as you power up so that when you reach the compass circle the blade is at the right angle to cut along it.)

use plenty of wood glue and nails to assemble the box. i didn't want joints to show on the front panel so i got my pops to make a 45 degrees cut on his circular saw where the top panel meets the front panel... see below.

you don't need to cut these angles in, it just makes the front/top panel joint neater. you could just cut the panels straight like the rest of the box (if so keep in mind your measurements will be slightly different to mine.)

take a foam square and some fabric.

tuck the fabric around the foam square and insert into the house. i didn't sew mine as i want to be able to remove it when it gets dirty! the foam is a good snug fit so the fabric tucks neatly underneath without moving.

to finish nail the front panel into place. fill any gaps with wood filler to disguise the nails and any imperfections.

HE'S IN!!!! purrrfect.

back soon

caroline x