How to Build a DIY IKEA Hack Kitty Jungle Gym

worstontheblockApril 13, 2021

Love cats? Me too. Hate how all their supplies look when you’re striving for that Pinterest-worthy space? ME TOO! But don’t fret! I’ll show you how you can easily replace all those ugly cat trees for a unique and custom kitty jungle gym that both you and your kitties will love, while maintaining your budget!

There are several necessary items you need if you have a cat. Especially an indoor cat.

Unfortunately, most of what you’ll find from the store is pretty darn ugly.

Litter boxes, scratching posts, cat trees, toys. Even their dishes can be ugly. They need these items for their health and wellbeing (so obviously we keep them around) but, man. They need an overhaul.

In the accumulation of multiple cat trees and scratching posts that were taking over our home, I about had enough.

Come on you guys! There’s no reason we can’t live with pets and still have a beautiful home. We don’t have to wait for that sad day our friends cross the rainbow bridge to get our home looking nice again.

So with a little brainstorming we came up with our kitty “jungle gym”. We wanted them to have every joy (and more!) that they did with the ugly items but I also wanted it to look decent.

And it had to work with the budget too.

I think we accomplished the goal.

We added:

A floor-to ceiling scratching post
A cat bed that hangs from the ceiling
Multiple shelves that act as a staircase/scratching post/place to hang and nap
An ikea shelving unit with two beds and a brush

And as a bonus we were able to donate our cat trees and extra scratchers to the local animal shelter.

We didn’t get rid of absolutely everything as far as the other cat items go BUT it looks so much better to have less clutter.

He loves this thing. We just couldn’t get rid of it.

Follow along for the easy steps on how we did it.

Floor-to-Ceiling Scratching Post

This was such a great addition and the cats LOVE it.

And I love that it just blends into the background instead of sticking out like a sore thumb.

What you’ll need:

PVC pipe
Hand saw
Rope (we used jute twine)
Super glue
Gloves!!!
Driver & drill
PVC Toilet flange (2)
Screws

Optional:
Spray paint
Spare piece of wood to attach to floors

1. Measure & Cut PVC

Measure your ceiling height in the area the scratching post will live. This will be the length of PVC pipe you’ll need.

The PVC is pretty easy to cut with a hand saw, and the cut doesn’t have to be 100% perfectly level. Just do your best.

The toilet flange will sit at either end of the PVC pipe and is how you will attach the finished cat scratcher to the ceiling and floors with screws.

We have cork flooring so it was very simple to screw this thing in. It should screw into most floors.

If you don’t want to screw into your floors, the other thing you can do is secure the flange to another piece of wood that is stained to match your floors. That way you can screw the scratcher into the ceiling and just wedge it into the floor.

But MAKE SURE it is secure!!! You don’t want kitty to get hurt.

Also decide if you want to spray paint the flange to match the adjacent surface. We left our top one white (to match the ceiling) and sprayed the bottom a gray/blue that matches our painted cork floors (that’s a story for another day).

Then glue both ends onto the PVC.

2. Attach your rope

If you can find someone to help you, this part is easiest with a buddy: one to work with the rope and the other with the glue.

You’ll DEFINITELY want to wear gloves for this. The rope will hurt your hands if they’re not protected.

Using your driver, drill a hole as close to the attached cap as possible, big enough for your rope to fit through.

Push one end of your rope through the hole from the outside and into the center of the PVC pipe. Pull the slack through the hole.

Tie a knot at the end and make sure it’s secure and not going anywhere! This knot is going to keep the rope from sliding down so don’t skimp here.

Now you’re going to wrap the rope around the entire PVC pipe, gluing small sections at a time (so the glue doesn’t dry) and securing the rope to the PVC, twisting the pipe as you go.

We also used a screw driver to push each line of the rope closer to the others for a tight fit.

This can definitely get tiring after a while. Do as much as you can and take breaks as needed. BUT because you want it to be as snug as possible, don’t wait too long to get back to it or you may lose your efforts.

Keep moving down, pulling, gluing and twisting. Take turns until you get all the way to the bottom.

At the bottom of the PVC, you’ll do the same thing you did on the top: drill a hole in the bottom, string your rope through and tie it off with a tight knot.

If you decided to use another piece of wood for the floor, cut that to size, stain or paint as desired and secure the flange to it.

Then all you have to do is secure it in place with screws. It should be a tight fit and very secure. You don’t want kitty to get hurt on this thing!!

Look for a stud to drill into. If you can’t find one, use anchors to ensure it’s firmly in place.

Drill your pilot holes through the flange’s screw holes into your stud (or anchor it), and screw it in tightly in as many places as possible.

Make sure it’s secure before letting kitty play on it!

Hanging Cat Bed

This is a very simple build and a great beginner project for wood working.

The specs below are for a 2’x1’ bed hanging 1’ from the ceiling.

What you’ll need:

2×2
(2) 1”x4”x2’ for ceiling
(4) 2x2x1’ for posts hanging from ceiling
(1) 1”x12”x2’ for bed platform
Drill and driver
Screws
Paint
Cushion
Fabric for cushion
Saw
Sand paper

Optional for “handrails”:
(1) 1”x2”x2’
(2) 1”x2”x1’

1. Cut wood to size

Always follow all safety precautions and read all directions prior to using power tools!!

If you don’t have a saw, borrow from a friend or have the wood cut in the store.

And check out the 8 mistakes to avoid when purchasing lumber (and how to stick to your budget) here.

2. Assemble your cat bed.

Secure your 2×2’s to each corner of the 1×12. Use a drill and driver to screw through the 1×12 and into the 2×2.

Then lay your 1×4 on top of your 2×2 posts long-ways. Using your driver and drill, screw through the 1×4 and into the 2×2. You can eyeball or measure to ensure you’re in the right place.

At this point, you have a fully functioning cat bed that can be secured into the ceiling.

BUT if you are as neurotic as my husband and I, you can also add “safety bars”.

We used the 1×2’s and secured them about 4 inches from the bottom around three sides (the side which accesses the shelf “stairs” will be open).

They work well but I don’t think they’re 100% necessary. Our cat’s dumb but not that dumb.

3. Sand

Be sure to give your bed a good sand to remove any splinters. This will also help it to look better after it’s painted.

4. Prime & Paint

You can use any color your heart desires. We went with white as it matches both our moldings and the ceiling.

Do what you love and remember that kitty will be using it so it’s a good idea to have a semi gloss paint which will make it more wipeable.

5. Make the cushion

You can pick up a foam cushion at any craft store or online pretty inexpensively. Lucky for me, my mother-in-law had an extra piece that fit perfectly.

Measure the area for your cushion and cut it to size. Then cut out the corners as needed so the cushion fits around the 2×2’s.

This is a little weird BUT it keeps the cushion from moving around when kitty jumps to and from the bed.

Safety sally over here!

Another way to build this would be to attach two 1×2’s to each corner on the outside of the 1×12 instead of 2×2’s to each corner, which would give you a square space for the cushion.

It would likely be easier to purchase a square cushion with fabric already attached, but this way worked great for us.

6. Cover your foam cushion

You can pick out any fabric you love at a fabric store, or get thrifty and use what you have. I used an old tablecloth we had lying around.

Sewing is not one of my great skills at this point. All I did here was cut the fabric to size and tuck it under the cushion. It has stayed very nicely in place for several years. (Those cut out corners aren’t so bad!)

But do what works for you.

7. Secure the bed to the ceiling

The last step here is attaching the whole thing to the ceiling.

*Find the studs* or use anchors to secure it. Finding studs should be easier on the ceiling. It’s very important that this is secure as you don’t want your pal to fall to the ground with this thing.

Use your driver and drill to secure it with multiple screws through both 1×4’s to attach it to the ceiling.

…and then you have a hanging bed!

The cats seriously love being up so high and watching everything below.

Shelves

This was probably the easiest part of the jungle gym.

I had plans to make shelves with nice clean lines, but I was in Michaels one day and spotted these shelves.

They were SUPER cheap- less that it would have cost me to buy the wood and DIY it, and they were already assembled so I didn’t have to spend any time on them at all!

It was a no-brainer.

They work great and the cats like them, but now that they’ve been on my wall for a few years I am ready for a change. It’s a little too “farmhouse” for me. No matter what, they’re better than those old cat trees.

1. Prepare the shelves

If you buy your shelves pre-assembled, the only thing to really do is to paint them any color you like (I just went with white). They should already be sanded down, so you won’t even have to do that.

You can also attach carpet to the shelves. This may stop kitty from sliding right off without something to grab onto.

Again, this may be neurotic, but they are our babies. Yes, we are those people.

And if you have carpet, you know that cats LOVE to scratch at it. Having this extra place for them to scratch helps them stay away from our rugs! So they’re happy and so am I.

A win-win for coexisting with cats ☺

You could pick up some old carpet samples from your local carpet supply store. Mine typically has a stack of samples from discontinued carpet that they’re happy to give away. Or just pick up a small amount of carpet that you like.

We had an old roll of carpet in the basement (a LOT of stuff was left down there when we moved in).

Measure the top of the shelves and then cut 4 pieces of carpet to be just slightly smaller.

To attach the carpet to your shelves, super glue is ok but if you can get also your hands on a staple gun, this is the way to go.

The staples will really secure the carpet to the shelf. The last thing you would want is kitty to jump up and the carpet to go flying and take kitty with it.

I was concerned the staples would come out and hurt their little paws but it’s been a few years and they’re still in there very secure. Even after all that scratching.

2. Hang the shelves

Our shelves came with little holes for screws to slide into for hanging.

We made a template by tracing the back of the shelf and where the holes are and then placed the template on the wall to determine where we wanted the shelves AND to know where to put the screws.

These ideally should go in studs but most likely it will not be in the right place, so you can use some simple anchors to screw into.

Make sure it is level! This is a good project to have a buddy to help you but it is possible to complete on your own.

For placement:

Get creative with the placement of the shelves but remember it has to be functional. If the distance is wrong, kitty won’t want to climb on it.

As a guide, allow about 2 feet between any horizontal shelves.

If you’re using the shelves as a staircase, you can put the vertical shelves about one foot above another if you shorten the horizontal distance to about 1.5 feet.

While you don’t want to put shelves too far apart, you also don’t want to put them too close together. Kitty may try to skip shelves that are unnecessary, making longer and sketchier jumps.

This is another thing I would like to change on ours. I was thinking that they would appreciate a shelf right adjacent to their hanging bed, so that they could just walk over to the bed.

They don’t.

They skip this top shelf all together and jump from the one on the side all the way to the bed, going around the top shelf. If I put this shelf about 1ft lower than the bed they would most certainly use it more.

So when we make our new shelves we’ll fix the spacing. Stay tuned!

For your purposes, stick to the guide of 2 ft for a horizontal jump, 1.5 ft horizontal and 1ft vertical for a stair step.

So once you figure out where you want your shelves, level your template, secure your anchors to the wall with a hammer, then screw in your screws.

Your shelf can hang right on the shelves and the template will ensure your screws are in the right place and the shelves are level.

Now kitty can go up and down!

IKEA shelf

You gotta love an ikea hack! We decided to pick up this ikea shelving unit to add to the jungle gym.

It is the perfect size for two cat beds on the inside and it is a great height for them to jump up on and then jump to the nearest shelf.

And it’s inexpensive.

You could also certainly use another piece of furniture that you like better or nix it all together and just go with shelves all the way up.

It’s your space, use it how you like it!

We decided to put the carpet on the top of the unit as well using the same process we did for the shelves.

In addition to the two beds, we also purchased a brush for the corner that our guy LOVES.

Conclusion

So between the giant scratching post, IKEA shelving unit, and “stair” shelves to the hanging bed, we have a very happy kitty who gets his exercise going up and down and perches for his cat naps on top of the room.

AND you have a very happy kitty mom who does not have to look at those ugly cat trees any longer.

It is truly a win-win.

He loves it and I hope that your little guys and gals love it too.

Questions? We’re here!

Leave a comment below and let us know if your cats will like or LOVE this!