Cabinet for Top-Entry Litter Box By: Lauren

Materials:

· Akurum Wall Cabinet Frame 30” x 24”

· Härlig Door 15” x 24”

· Härlig Door 15” x 15”

· 2 sets of Integral Hinges

· Rationell Fully Extending Drawer 24”

· Filur 3-gallon Trash Bin with Lid

· Dustpan and Broom

· 2 Bästis Hooks

Description: My IKEA Hack was inspired by my need to hide my cat’s litter box away, like so many other hackers. My cat has the Clever Cat top-entry litter box, which poses unique issues when trying to create a cabinet to enclose it. As a top-entry litter box it is 15” high and you have to include enough space so kitty can still jump on top to enter.

Since this is my first hack, I wanted to try and keep the actual “hacking” to a minimum and be creative with materials. My starting point was the Clever Cat litter box itself, which has a 20” by 15” base and stands 15” high. I found the Akurum 30” by 24” wall cabinet frame, which when turned on its side (so it is 30” tall instead of 24”) would be perfect, allowing enough room for the litter box itself and head room for kitty to jump on top of it. I selected the wall cabinet frame because it had 5 sides, whereas the base cabinet frame only had 4 sides. I assembled the cabinet as the instructions indicated.

I had to get a little creative with the doors and drawer because I put the wall cabinet on its side. By rotating the wall cabinet, all the pre-drilled holes for installing drawers, shelves and doors were on the top and bottom of the cabinet. This set up was fine for the bottom door (Härlig 15” by 24”) which opens down like a drawbridge. The top though required extra effort. Because I didn’t want to cut anything, I bought a smaller door for the top half (Härlig 15” by 15” door) which left a large opening for kitty’s entrance. Unfortunately the pre-drilled holes in the top of the cabinet wouldn’t work for this door, so I measured where holes would need to be on the left hand side of the cabinet and drilled them myself to hang the door.

The final piece of the design was the drawer. Another challenge with this (and any) litter box is that it’s heavy to drag in and out of a cabinet. Installing a drawer (Rationell fully extending 24” drawer) allows me to easily pull the box out of the cabinet to clean and then move it back in again. But like the small door on the front, there aren’t pre-drilled holes to work from so those have to be measured, marked and drilled on your own. The drawer also had to be elevated slightly to clear the hinges from the large door on the bottom. Also be aware that the unit can lean or tip when the drawer is fully extended since the litter box is heavy. Anchoring the cabinet to a wall can fix this.

After that, there are just small additional things I did for the cabinet. I added a hook to the back of the small door for the scooper and a hook to the side of the cabinet for a dustpan and broom. There was also enough space next to the litter box to store a small trash can and the extra litter container. This self-contained litter station cost me about $115.

via IKEA Hackers http://www.ikeahackers.net/2013/11/cabinet-for-top-entry-litter-box.html From Lauren