social

Refinishing an Old Cat Tree With Sisal Rope


Gold Post Medal for All Time! 899 Posts

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

Advertisement

Total Time: 2 hours

Supplies:

Related Product: 

Steps:

  1. 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.
  2. Refinishing a Cat Tree - cutting away old carpet with box knife
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - removing carpet
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - carpet removed
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - removing carpet on lower portion of the tree
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - removing carpet from the base
     
  3. Use pliers to remove the staples.
  4. Refinishing a Cat Tree - use pliers to remove staples
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - staple holes
     
  5. Use a rubber cat brush to remove any hair from the carpet shelves. I got off way more than I expected!
  6. Refinishing a Cat Tree - remove cat hair from carpeted shelves with rubber brush
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - brushing up hair
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - puff of hair
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - balls of hair
     
    Advertisement

  7. Use scissors to trim away any loose threads, strings, or carpet fibers.
  8. Refinishing a Cat Tree - use scissors to trim threads or strings
     
  9. Here is the cat tree after all of the carpet was removed.
  10. 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
     
  11. 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.
  12. Refinishing a Cat Tree - begin with a liberal amount of hot glue around the top of the post
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree
     
    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
     
    Advertisement

  13. 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.
  14. Refinishing a Cat Tree - closeup of back side of post right above the shelf with glue applied
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - cut sisal
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - the end fit between the post and the carpeted shelf
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree
     
  15. 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.
  16. Refinishing a Cat Tree
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - for space where the shelf prevents wrapping the post go back and forth gluing down
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - continue wrapping below the shelf
     
  17. Here is the cat tree with all 3 sections of the post wrapped.
  18. Refinishing a Cat Tree - all sections wrapped - top
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - wrapped middle
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - lower section
     
    Advertisement

  19. 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.
  20. Refinishing a Cat Tree - cardboard wedge wrapped in packing tape
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - wedging the scratching box in place
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - wedge inserted
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - final view of the scratching box in place
     
  21. PB Jelly, ThriftyFun's new office kitty, absolutely loves her "new" scratching post!
  22. Refinishing a Cat Tree - Jelly on lower shelf of refurbished cat tree
     
    Refinishing a Cat Tree - checking out the bottom
     

Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!

 

Diamond Post Medal for All Time! 1,246 Posts
October 4, 20170 found this helpful

Good job! That PB Jelly is a lucky lil one :)

 
October 23, 20170 found this helpful

I sure my Mama Kitty felt the same way about hers! She used it for about a week...,never touches it..its been about 3 yrs.

Advertisement

She prefers the carpeting, the FLOOR CARPET. Pretty perplexed now for over 2.5yrs ,now. Any suggestions?

 
November 6, 20220 found this helpful

Put catnip spray on it

 

Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!

 
In This Page
Categories
Pets Cats Cat ToysOctober 3, 2017
Pages
More
🎂
Birthday Ideas!
💘
Valentine's Ideas!
🍀
St. Patrick's Ideas!
Facebook
Pinterest
YouTube
Instagram
Categories
Better LivingBudget & FinanceBusiness and LegalComputersConsumer AdviceCoronavirusCraftsEducationEntertainmentFood and RecipesHealth & BeautyHolidays and PartiesHome and GardenMake Your OwnOrganizingParentingPetsPhotosTravel and RecreationWeddings
Published by ThriftyFun.
Desktop Page | View Mobile
Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Contact Us
Generated 2024-01-08 03:21:11 in 4 secs. ⛅️️
© 1997-2024 by Cumuli, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
https://www.thriftyfun.com/Refinishing-an-Old-Cat-Tree-With-Sisal-Rope.html