Patricia from Cascais, Portugal submitted this awesome DIY project she made for her very lucky cat. She used an Ikea Stolmen pole wrapped with sisal rope as a giant scratcher and climbing pole, allowing kitty to scale the pole to reach the top shelf. Two smaller shelves provide an easy way down. All the shelves are covered with a chopped up doormat to add traction, plus it looks like grass! Check out the video below to see it all in action.
what kind of shelves are those? are they from ikea also? i love this idea!
Kathy, the shelves look like LACK from IKEA. Unfortunately they were discontinued not long ago, but you should still be able to find something of the same style.
Wonderful post and shelves (they remind me of something similar that delights the cats of The Cats’ House of worldwide fame, in San Diego, CA) and look at that calico go!
This is awesome. I’ve been planning something similar, but I didn’t think about using the Stolman pole.
Lucky kitties! Looks like fun! Would you explain what kind of sisal rope you used and how you wrapped it around the pole especially how you started it and ended the rope. Thanks!
Love it! I’d make one if I owned a home.
haha! That girl must of had TON of patience! I created a scratch post on my stairs and that took forever! Trying to wrap the cord around and around.
Suggestion!! use the Medium cord, the large one is too wide I think.
This is fabulous!
I’ve been thinking this winter of doing the same for my energetic kitty, but I get stumped trying to figure out how much rope I’ll need. Any info on how much was used for this project? That would give me a ball park figure for mine.
What a great project. I would think could easily use a PVC pipe fitted into flanges to attach the pole to ceiling and floor for stability. When you have the pole cut at the home store, use it to wrap the rope around till it is full plus some. You might need to hot glue the rope to the pole, by running a seam of hot glue down the pipe at about 1-2″ apart around the pole. Then wrap your sisal rope tightly around the pole. Wait till it is good and dry before mounting it into the flanges, and securing those to the floor and ceiling. You could add landing pads or square shelves every few feet as perches. For the shelf, I would use a precut one from the home store. They are just as sturdy for the purpose. There is no sense of paying Ikea prices when Home Depot will suffice. You can get scraps or bulk auto interior carpeting for very little money at discount and liquidator stores. That is a more cost-effective method, anyway. Either way, the cats will love that. Thanks for the inspiration!