Building the Cat House Your Kitties Deserve

December 27, 2018 handtools 0 DIY Projects,

When it comes to cats, they expect nothing short of perfection. And their living quarters are no exception. The goal in making this custom cat house was to give our five cats at the shop something they’d actually use. To our surprise, that fortunately happened. Whether it’s a blustery day or just a bit chilly out, we can expect to see 2 or 3 of the kitties nested into one of the six cat beds.

Now we can’t guarantee that your kitties will find the same cat house as appealing. After all, these are cats that we’re housing. However, we’ve provided step-by-step instructions for building a cat-tested & cat-approved kitty hotel (Veterinarian-approval pending). Best of all, the design that we offer can be modified to match your neighborhood’s building style (because that’s important). Continue reading as we take you through the steps of creating a one-of-a-kind house for your felines to love.

Materials for the Cat House’s Structure

For our cat condo, we chose pine for building the structure. In order to follow these plans exactly, you’ll find that using pine will save you a lot of headaches. That is, you’ll be able to locate all of this wood in the listed dimensions at a local Lowe’s. If you choose to go with another wood species, we recommend avoiding cedar. The strong smell of cedar has a tendency to repel cats.

Lumber & Other Materials:

1″ x 8″ x 48″ Board
1″ x 6″ x 72″ Board
1″ x 4″ x 48″ Board
1″ x 3″ x 72″ Board
1″ x 2″ x 96″ Board
1″ x 2″ x 72″ Board
1″ x 2″ x 48″ Board (Qty 4)

3/4″ x 24″ x 36″ Panel Board
3/4″ x 16″ x 36″ Panel Board (Qty 3)
3/4″ x 7.5″ x 48″ Stair Riser / Board (Qty 2)

Wood screws are recommended for fastening the boards together. They allow for more errors and present more opportunities to customize your cat house. If you’re concerned about the screw heads being visible, our design allows for you to drill from the inside as well. Just be sure to always use a pilot hole and a countersink hole so the screws fit seamlessly.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Framing the Back of the Cat House

Materials:
1″ x 2″ x 72″ Board
1″ x 2″ x 48″ Board
3/4″ x 24″ x 36″ Panel Board

Steps:
Starting with the 72″-long board, cut off two 34.5″ pieces. The remaining scrap can be saved for a decorative touch later on. Using the 48″-long board, cut it down to 34.5″ as well. With the remaining 14.5″, you’ll want to shed 6.5″ and the use the 8″ piece as a guide for aligning the second story of the cat house.

Taking two of the 34.5″ cuts, secure them to the 36″ panel board. The placement of these will be such that they are .75″ from the outside of the panel board in 3 different directions. We generally recommend using screws as this design allows you to hide them entirely if desired. They’re easy to remove is necessary, and they don’t require time to dry ore cure. From here, use the 8″ board to set the height for the second story. You’ll want to use a square to confirm that the trim pieces run parallel. Lastly, you can screw in the second story’s trim after aligning it with the 8″ guide.

Building the Sides

Materials:
1″ x 8″ x 48″ Board
1″ x 6″ x 48″ Board
1″ x 4″ x 48″ Board
1″ x 2″ x 96″ Board

Steps:
Since a number of our readers don’t have access to a table saw, we adjusted the design to accommodate that restraint. Thus, the sides of our cat house utilize three different board widths to match the the current dimensions of the floor levels and the back panel board. It’s important to note that the back of the cat house will be enclosed by the two sides.

With the 1″ x 2″ x 96″ board, you’ll cut it into 16″ pieces to run the depth of the house. These will act as the guides for setting the floor levels of the cat house. Unlike the actual sides, the guides won’t enclose the back panel board. Instead, they will only run the depth of the actual floor level. For each wall, you’ll run three 1″ x 2″ boards across the side walls at the same heights as the three supports on the back panel board. We generally recommend assembling each side as a unit before attaching them to the rest of the structure. On the other hand, the front of the cat house will cover the the sides by expanding the whole width of the kitty hotel. However, we won’t cover that until steps 6 & 7.

Laying in the Floor Levels

Materials:
3/4″ x 16″ x 36″ Panel Board (Qty 3)

Steps:
Laying in the levels of our cat house is one of the more self-explanatory steps. The only tricky part with this step is bringing together all of the walls to finally form the structure. Beginning with the bottom level, lay the left-hand wall on it’s backside. Then, you’ll want to stand the bottom level up on its backside, and fit it into corner notch created by the guide and the wall. If you need help holding the side wall steady, consider using a cooler or milk crate to act as a bookend that supports the wall. Next, screw the bottom level to the floor guides that we have on the wall.