DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

A while back we built a horizontal cat scratching post/pad and shared it on the blog. Mochi did use it, but the downside is she still clawed our couch too. Womp.

So we built a modern vertical cat scratching post that slides over the arm of our couch, hoping that giving her something vertical to pull on will spare our couch from further damage. And so far, she’s using it!!! Yay!!! Bonus, this thing also acts as a wooden couch sleeve to set your drink on. Double yay!!

Of course, we documented the whole build on video so if you’d like to see the action in video form check it out!

[Before we keep going, I want to pause and say if you have a second it would mean SO much to us if you’d like our video or subscribe to our channel. Since we’re brand new to YouTube, every view, like, and subscription makes a huge difference for us. Click here to see the whole channel. Thank youuuuu! We’re doing a big goofy happy dance right now!]

Tools & materials

Before I get into this build, I’ll preface it by saying we used a lot of tools on this simply because we had them at the ready, but you don’t need everything we used. So I’m gonna put the must-have tools at the top of the list, and additional stuff we used below.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comMust-have tools/materials

Additional tools/materials we used (helpful, but not 100% necessary)

Step 1: Measure & cut the 2 vertical pieces

This scratching post is made of three pieces. To start, we’re going to find the measurements we need for our two vertical pieces (numbers 1 and 2 below). All the measurements for this build will depend on your couch.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comBecause couch arms can be rounded, grab a scrap piece of wood, or anything flat really, and place it across the top of the couch arm, making sure it’s level. Then measure the distance between the floor and the underside of the scrap piece.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

This measurement is going to be the length of your longer vertical wood piece that goes on the outside of your couch arm.

https://www.youtube.com/user/EvanAndKatelyn

Next, slide the yardstick between the arm of your couch and the cushion until it hits the base of your couch under the cushion.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

This measurement is going to be the length of your shorter vertical wood piece that goes on the inside of your couch arm.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

We used these two measurements to cut two pieces from our 10×1 on the miter saw. You could definitely use a circular saw instead though, or heck even a jig saw or hand saw.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

On the shorter piece, we also added a slight taper by cutting an angle on our miter saw so that it would slide between the cushions more easily. It’s optional, but it does help.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

Step 2: Pocket holes

Next we drilled pocket holes. If you don’t have a kreg jig don’t worry, you can just screw perpendicularly through the boards with wood screws later to attach them (don’t do it til after you’ve attached your sisal though. We’ll cover that part later). If you want to try the kreg jig but aren’t sure how to use it, here is a great tutorial on it.

We drilled these at the top of both vertical pieces, on the inside part that will be facing the couch arm. We’ll use them to attach the top piece later.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

Step 3: Attach the sisal

Next we wrapped the longer vertical board (the one on out outside of the couch arm) with thick 3/8″ diameter sisal rope. We used most of this 100 foot roll which is pretty crazy.DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comBecause it’s so thick, we had to wrap the board first before we could get an accurate measurement of how wide our top piece needs to be.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

We attached the sisal in such a way that if she really goes to town on it and at some point we need to replace it, we can easily do so. First we drilled a hole at one end of our longer piece of wood.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

Tape the end of the sisal and thread it through the hole so that the taped end is on the pocket hole side of your board.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comWe secured the sisal by screwing through it and into the wood. First drill a small pilot hole, making sure to NOT go all the way through the wood.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comThen screw through the taped end of the sisal and into the pilot hole. Make sure you use a small enough screw that won’t go all the way through your board (we used #8 x 3/4” wood screws).

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comNext we rounded out our edges with the router and ⅛” radius roundover bit. Eventually we are going to round pretty much every edge except those that are joined together, but for now we just rounded out the edges of the piece that will have the sisal because we wanted to do it before we wrapped it.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comAs we started, we realized we should have rounded these edges BEFORE we attached the sisal because it actually got in the way of the router. So we had to detach it, round the edges, and then reattach it.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comAfter reattaching the sisal, we got started wrapping it tightly around the board. It helps to have a buddy for this part because our arms actually got surprisingly tired haha.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comWe attached the end of the sisal the same way we started it, by drilling a hole through the wood, threading through the sisal, and screwing it to the board on the pocket hole side of the wood (the same side we screwed the starting end to)

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

Step 4: Measure & cut the top piece

Next we are going to measure out and cut our top piece of wood.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comFirst we put the two vertical pieces in place.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comWe made sure they were level, then measured the distance between the outside edge of each board.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comWe cut that length on the miter saw, but again, use whatever saw you’ve got.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comBefore attaching the top piece, we rounded the corners of the rest of our edges. Like I mentioned before, we wanted to round out everything but the edges that we would join together.

Step 5: Sand & smooth

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comThen we sanded out surfaces so that everything was smooth because it’s a lot easier to do before everything is assembled. We used the random orbit sander on the large surfaces and hand sanded it with a sanding block on the edges.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

Step 6: Attach everything

We used right angle clamps to keep the boards as square as we could before attaching them. In the picture below, we’re attaching the top piece to the shorter vertical piece

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comWe screwed through our pocket holes using pocket hole screws. If you didn’t do pocket holes, this is where you could screw wood screws perpendicularly through the boards.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comWhen it came time to attach the long vertical wood piece, the dang sisal was in the way again so we had to get creative with some additional clamps and scrap wood in order to clamp the boards at a right angle. But we figured it out and screwed through those pocket holes as well.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comYay, all attached!

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

Step 7: Finishing

Next we rounded out the corners of our top piece so that they matched up with the rounded corners of our side pieces. You can see in this picture where some edges are still sharp, and some are already rounded.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

Then we rounded the rest of the top piece. You could potentially do all the edge rounding at once, we just thought it was easier to do it as we went.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comWe noticed there were a couple slight gaps where our pieces joined together. So we filled them with sanding dust from our sander and some glue. This is a great alternative to wood putty, and it’s guaranteed to match the color of your wood. Add more dust if you need to, and sand it to finish.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comA trick to get your cat interested in the scratching post is to spray it with catnip spray. It’s sorta cheating… but it works! We also like to scratch on it with our hands to help show her what it’s for.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

If all your measurements were correct (cross your fingers!) this should slide right over your couch arm.

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comShe’s spotted it…

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comDIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comShe actually likes it!!! Eeeeeeep!!

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.comWe definitely like this new scratching post more than our old one. It feels a little more finished looking, and we don’t have to worry about stubbing our toes (although we’ll still hold onto the old one for a while)

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com

Hope she continues to like and use it! Please, Mochi, please use it, for the sake of our couch…

DIY Modern Cat Scratching Post - evanandkatelyn.com………………………………………………………………
You can also find us at:

YouTube (all our DIY videos)
Instagram (sneak peeks @evanandkatelyn)
Patreon (if you wanna support us, but no pressure!)
Pinterest (stuff that inspires us)
Twitter (us, in 140 character doses)
Facebook (be our friend)
Instructables (straight up tutorials)
………………………………………………………………
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting us!

1 Comment

Leave a Reply