How to Tuesday: Cat Tower Re-Do

A few years ago, a neighbor of mine built a great cat tower for my cat kids. All real wood and carpet, it has been a joy to have in my home. Of course, though, as the years have passed and the carpets deteriorated with the constant scratching of multiple sets of nails, the posts were looking a little worse for wear (the carpet completely worn down to the posts in a couple spots). Our carpenters at work were going to re-cover the tower for me last year, but I didn't want to take it out of my place, even for a day. So, I took to Google and figured out that I could re-cover the carpet posts with sisal rope fairly inexpensively, and it sure beat buying a piece of fiberboard crap cat furniture that I (and they) would hate every day and that wouldn't last nearly as long.

So, I set off collecting supplies! Here's the list of things you'll need:

Sisal Rope
Hammer and Small Nails (or staple gun)
Box Knife
Wood Glue

Seems pretty simple, right? What I would do, though, is before you pick up the rope, especially, comparison shop! The day I had the idea I spent $5.99 each for balls of 50 feet, and a couple of days later found balls of 100 feet at Lowe's for about $1 more! As for the rope, I picked the 5/8" diameter, but you could go smaller - though you'll need more. How much you need will depend on what you're trying to cover - for the front posts on mine, it took right around 150-200 feet. Everything else is pretty easy to find. I chose to use Gorilla Wood Glue, but any wood glue should suffice. As for the small nails, anything less than 1" should be fine - I used all small nails out of a picture hanging kit that I picked up at Target and had no issues.

Here we go, the steps:

1. Rip the old carpet off of what you're trying to re-cover with a box knife so you're left with a bare surface.

If there are staples or anything in your way, either pull them out the best you can or pound them into the wood. I cut straight down the side of mine and pretty much just yanked until the carpet came off. If you have older, flakier carpet, you'll want to have a trash bag and the vacuum handy!

2. Apply a liberal layer of glue to about the first four to five inches of the surface.

Why do I say four or five inches? If you don't have help (like I didn't), you will need to hold the rope taut and if you have too much area, it's hard to get the glue to stay sticky long enough to get all the way up a post.

3. Pound a nail into the center of the rope at the back of a post to start with. Pull the rope taut as you wrap, and add another nail every four to five wraps.

I started with a nail so that as I pulled the rope, I wouldn't have slack. The tighter the pull, the closer the rows will be together.

4. As you go, use your hammer to pound down on your rope, so you can fit more on and have a tighter wrap.

5. Repeat the above steps. Nail, wrap, repeat. And before you know it, your cats will be enjoying the fruits of your labor like Vegas is here!

Overall, it looks scary, but it was pretty easy to accomplish, and Vegas and Reno definitely appreciate my giving their favorite perch new life. In place of nails, you could definitely utilize a nail gun, but either way works. I didn't want to use too many nails since I didn't want the cats to get their paws stuck and hurt themselves, but thankfully, I haven't had any issues.

If you try this project, I would love to see how it turns out, as well as any feedback or questions in the comments!