After painting the main rooms of our house, the next thing I decided to do was make climbing shelves for our cats. Our cats have their own room, though they don't actually hang out there much anymore. It started when they were small and we didn't want them wandering the house unsupervised. We also used to shut them in there at night, so they didn't bother us. So they have a room with a cat tree, and I decided they might like some shelves for more climbing places. Unfortunately, this was awhile ago, so I don't remember all the details of making the shelves, but I'll do my best. They were super simple. I got some 1x10 boards at Home Depot. Dodger is pretty big, so I wanted to be sure he'd be comfortable lounging on them. I cut the boards into pieces about 20" long using a circular saw. Then I grabbed some carpet scraps left behind by the builders, cut them to fit with a utility knife, and nailed them to the boards. None of this had to be super pretty since it was just for the cat room. I got some shelf brackets at Home Depot, plus long screws and drywall anchors. I tried to attach as much of the brackets into studs as I could, but some didn't quite make it. This was before we were smart enough to own a stud-finder, so I used the old tap-on-the-wall method for finding studs. Of course, once I found the first two, I could just measure to find the rest. Our studs are 16" apart, which is pretty standard. I staggered the height of the shelves to make it more interesting for the cats. I also had to put the relatively close together because Oliver is really small and can't jump very far. I initially enticed the cats up to the shelves with toys and treats, but once they tried them out, they were pretty big fans.
Oliver Dodger
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