Refinishing a Cat Tree With Sisal Rope

Refinishing a Cat Tree - continue wrapping below the shelf

Rather than buying a new cat tree when the original carpet has finally been shredded by your lovely kitties, try removing it and replacing with sisal rope. Cats love to use sisal as a scratching surface and will of course wear through it too eventually, but it is easy to replace. This page offers instructions and photos helpful for refinishing a cat tree with sisal rope.

Refinishing an Old Cat Tree With Sisal Rope

By lalala... [893 Posts, 111 Comments]

October 3, 2017

Refinishing a Cat Tree - three stages of the project beginning to end

New cat trees can be quite expensive. We had an old one in our garage, that had been heavily used and was pretty much useless for scratching. After deciding that I didn't want to purchase a new cat tree, I settled on updating the old one with sisal rope. Our new kitty loves it and it looks new again!

Total Time: 2 hours

Supplies:

box knife
pliers
untreated sisal rope (Affiliate Link)
hot glue gun
scissors
rubber cat brush, optional

Related Product:

untreated sisal rope

Steps:

Use a box knife to carefully remove the carpeted post sections. There will likely be a lot of staples, so it may need to be removed in small sections. Note: This is a surprisingly messy job. You may want to do it outside, if possible. In addition to hair and dander, there was a lot of glue dust from the carpet.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - cutting away old carpet with box knife

Refinishing a Cat Tree - removing carpet

Refinishing a Cat Tree - removing carpet on lower portion of the tree

Refinishing a Cat Tree - removing carpet from the base

Use pliers to remove the staples.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - use pliers to remove staples

Use a rubber cat brush to remove any hair from the carpet shelves. I got off way more than I expected!

Refinishing a Cat Tree - remove cat hair from carpeted shelves with rubber brush

Refinishing a Cat Tree - brushing up hair

Use scissors to trim away any loose threads, strings, or carpet fibers.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - use scissors to trim threads or strings

Here is the cat tree after all of the carpet was removed.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - tree with carpet removed from upright part of tree

Refinishing a Cat Tree - clean carpeted shelf

Refinishing a Cat Tree - carpet removed from paper scratching box area

Starting at the top apply a liberal amount of hot glue and attach the end of the sisal rope. Begin wrapping the post with rope, making sure to keep the rope tight as you go. Push up on the rope as you go, to remove any gaps. Note: I wanted to avoid cutting the rope and potentially wasting a bunch, so I actually spun the entire cat tree as I wrapped it. If that is too difficult for you, I suggest you attempt to estimate the amount you will need to limit how many new sections you have.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - begin with a liberal amount of hot glue around the top of the post

Refinishing a Cat Tree - begin wrapping the sisal

Refinishing a Cat Tree - pull taut as you wrap

Refinishing a Cat Tree - continue wrapping and push up on sisal to close gaps

When you are only a few wraps away from a stopping point, apply more hot glue. I found that there was a gap between the shelf and post that I could tuck the end down into.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - closeup of back side of post right above the shelf with glue applied

Refinishing a Cat Tree - the end fit between the post and the carpeted shelf

For the space where the shelf prevents you from wrapping the rope around, you will want to use lots of glue and wrap the rope back and forth to fill that space. Then continue wrapping the rope around the post.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - for space where the shelf prevents wrapping the post go back and forth gluing down

Here is the cat tree with all 3 sections of the post wrapped.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - all sections wrapped - top

The cardboard scratching insert wouldn't fit if I wrapped that section, so I sanded it and left it as raw wood. Because that section was originally wrapped in carpet, the insert was a bit loose. I made a cardboard wedge using cardboard from a food package. I folded it to the correct length, then wrapped it in packing tape, and I put a note on it to not throw it away.

Refinishing a Cat Tree - cardboard wedge wrapped in packing tape

Refinishing a Cat Tree - wedging the scratching box in place

Refinishing a Cat Tree - final view of the scratching box in place

PB Jelly, ThriftyFun's new office kitty, absolutely loves her "new" scratching post!

Refinishing a Cat Tree - Jelly on lower shelf of refurbished cat tree

Refinishing a Cat Tree - checking out the bottom

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