Cardboard Moroccan Cat Palace!

It's official, our cat has become a homeowner!  (While mom and dad are still renting... how shameful for us.)

We've been working on this project in our spare time for a few weeks now, and by "we", I mean just me, until I suckered Michael into it too.  Crazy loves company.

I love this picture because of Dynamite's expression as I'm cuddling and smooshing her face.  I'm clearly more enthusiastic than she is.

See pictures of the full construction process after the jump.

It all started when we bought a chair and it came in this huge cardboard box.  And it just seemed rife with possibilities.  Cardboard is one of my favorite things to work with.  It's plentiful and versatile and a great chance to upcycle something that's otherwise considered garbage into something useful.  And I always love a fun project.  So I decided to make a palace for my cat, and not just any cat palace, a Cardboard Moroccan Cat Palace!

Here's the original box.

Here's Dynamite wondering what's going to happen.

Drawing the design onto the cardboard at the top of the box.

Cutting it out from both sides.

Dynamite watching over construction of her new home.

Joined by Michael.

 Work faster!

 Design for the wall that will be up against the window, so she can look outside from her perch.

Everything cut out.

 Here is the structure all taped up and hot-glued together.  The footprint is a quadrilateral, the triangular wedge shape is so it will fit behind a chair that's at a corner of the room.

 Snack time!

 

Then I covered the whole structure in craft paper.

 And now I have to cut where the designs are to expose them again.

 Kitty surveying progressing and investigating.

Now all the pieces have been cut out and the pieces tucked and glued inside to give it a clean look.

 The next step was to create 3 boxes with same foot print as the box so I can stack them together and have there be 3 levels.  That didn't quite work out as planned, but I did get this great picture of the kitty as I was working on it.

 Then Michael took over this part because he had an idea for platforms and support beams.  And here it is.  He cut up some yard sticks to use as support and also reinforced the floor levels with them.

Here's what it looks like all together!

And here's Dynamite inspecting her new home.

Yay!  Ting Ting's excited too!

I like the phrase "Cardboard Moroccan Cat Palace" so much, I'm already planning to do a story by that name :)