J.N. Taylor and Co.: Climbing wall for cats By: IH guest

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Climbing wall for cats By: IH guest

Climbing wall for cats

To give my indoor cats a new challenge I made them a climbing wall. It takes up very little space and could be fitted in any small room or apartment.

I attached an OSTED rug to the wall and made a perch above the door next to it. They can reach the perch by stepping through the open staircase or by climbing up the wall.

For the climbing wall you need:

1 OSTED rug, 80 x 240 cm (2’7″ x 7’10″)

at least 8 screw hooks

sturdy wire

For the perch you need:

2 EKBY LERBERG brackets

1 shelf

2 BORRIS doormats

screws to hang the shelf

First check to see if the rug fits between your floor and ceiling. I decided to attach it to the wooden plinth on the ceiling so I didn’t need to drill in the wall. If you can drill in the wall this might be sturdier. The rug itself is pretty heavy and you need to count in the weight of your cats, so make sure your connections can hold the weight. I screwed 6 screwhooks into the ceiling at regular intervals, to hang the rug from.

I then threaded some wire through the top end of the rug, right beneath the rim.

The stitches were about 4-5 cm wide. I then measured out where the rug would meet the hooks and at those points made a small loop in the wire that could fit over the hook. I then fitted these loops over the hooks so the rug now hung from the ceiling.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

I decided to make some anchors on the bottom end so it doesn’t come off the wall when the cats hang onto it. To do this I screwed two more hooks in the plinth near the floor, open end down, and attached the bottom corners of the rug to these anchors with some more wire pulled tight. You might want to make more anchors, but for me 2 was enough.

Step 6

I then made a perch near the top, so they had a destination to climb to.

To do this I hung two EKBY LERBERG brackets on the doorframe and laid a shelf over it.

It’s pretty strong, so it can hold our three cats.

To make sure they could grab onto the perch with their nails I covered the plank with some BORRIS doormats, cut to size. These I nailed onto the shelf. I then hung some toys from the top end of the rug to get their interest.

Our cats love it, I hope yours will too!

Step 5