Monday, May 30, 2011

IKEA Hack Cat Cabinets


You cat owners out there know that stylish, affordable cat furniture is hard to find. If you have dogs and cats there are very few contraptions that keep dogs out of the litter and kitty food. 

Beavis hacked some really cool IKEA cabinets to create a kitty litter containment locker and a private dining room for our two cats. 

Pepper couldn't wait for her new groovy kitty condos
You'll need:
  • IKEA PS lockers
  • Heavy Duty Tin Snips
  • Cat Door Kits
  • A drill and a drill bit intended for drilling through metal
After assembling the cabinets Beavis traced out the hole for the cat doors using the template that came with the cat door kit. The cabinets came with shelves but we didn't use them. You could hang them on the wall for instant magnet boards.

Beavis had to drill a few pilot holes around the traced line in order to get the tin snips into the cabinet to cut out the door.

Mark where your screw holes need to go and drill through. Attach the door and fasten. Done!

Pepper makes her first "deposit'

We left the flap off the kitty litter cabinet to allow the cats some room to move since the litter pan took up most of the cabinet space.

11 comments:

  1. brilliant! love this idea! and you have them on castors which is handy in case things getting stinky while company is over. :)

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  2. love this... just wish ikea sold this cabinet in the US!

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  3. It's up and I finally received approval to share! Hope you do share as well and that it drives some traffic to your blog.


    http://petcha.com/pet_care/10-hacks-to-hide-your-cats-litter-box/


    thank thank you!
    =^^=
    Tamar
    www.ihavecat.com
    Single in the city, with cats

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  4. Do you have a name or link for the ikea cabinet?

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  5. I am a fan of the litter idea..but not a fan of the food bowls. Don't you feel that they would not like to eat in the dark? It's also quite cramped in there. If you have kitties, why be ashamed of their food bowls? Just seems like overkill to me. Not sure if you keep their food and litter so close as shown in the photo, but cats have an acute sense of smell, and I wouldn't want to eat that close to my toilet personally.

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  6. I am a fan of the litter idea..but not a fan of the food bowls. Don't you feel that they would not like to eat in the dark? It's also quite cramped in there. If you have kitties, why be ashamed of their food bowls? Just seems like overkill to me. Not sure if you keep their food and litter so close as shown in the photo, but cats have an acute sense of smell, and I wouldn't want to eat that close to my toilet personally.

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    Replies
    1. they may be trying to keep the family dog from bothering the cat while eating

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  7. Thank you so so much for this idea. I searched high and low for concealed litterbox ideas that were actually stylish and this is the ONLY one I've found. I copied it for my cat using the larger version sold here in the US (the IKEA PS Cabinet) in blue. I always loved the look of the cabinet and was excited for an excuse to buy it.
    I wasn't sure my cat would use it, and didn't want to cut into it in any case because even if he didn't I'd have wanted to use the cabinet elsewhere in my home. However, the version I have is twice as wide as this one and uses two floor panels to build, not one. So, I just left the floor off on one side and put the litter box on the other. After a few days of leaving the door open for him, knowing he knew where it was and that he'd use it, I shut the door while he was in there and boom, he just went underneath through the floor, no problem. It's a great way to hide his litter, and I also used the shelf on the floorless side to store disposal bags, the scoop, baking soda and an odor absorber. I keep his carrier and other kitty equipment on top in one of the wooden boxes IKEA sells and the whole thing looks great. I haven't had any problems with litter box odor at all - right now it's in my mudroom but when I move in the future I'd be comfortable putting it in a more central place in my home, confident that it would look nice and won't smell!

    ReplyDelete