DIY Friday – recycled cat scratching post

Roughly this time last year I spotted this pin from Design*Sponge on Pinterest and I knew I had to recreate it in our home. Their pin was all about their stylish cat scratching post tutorial which showed you how to make a pretty cat scratching post to hang on your wall. 
I thought of that pin every time I saw our current haggard cat scratching post. Just look at it, cowering behind the dresser in our bedroom … 

I bought this scratching post close to 7 years ago when Toshi was a kitten. And if you’re curious + I want to share a picture of how painfully cute Toshi was as a kitten, whether you like it or not, here’s what our cat scratching post looked like way back then …

Squee! Our scratching post hasn’t aged very well thanks to two sharp cats, but that’s what it’s supposed to do, right? I kept remembering Design*Sponge’s tutorial and thanks to my recent nearly new wood challenge, I thought hey – I could just recycle our scratching post by reusing all its pieces in a new way! And so I did. And here’s how I did it … 

What you’ll need – an old cat scratching post, a saw and a drill, a staple gun, a screwdriver [for removing staples, if needs be], paint and some ribbon, but these aren’t necessary. You could leave the board au naturale and use extra twine at the top in stead. 

Method – I unscrewed the original scratching post from its base, enlisted in some DIY-expert-dad help and asked him to saw the base in half then drill two holes in the top; in order to hang it up [thanks again, dad!]. I unravelled the twine from the original scratching post and added it directly to the ‘new’ base.

TIP: if you want to paint the base, do that now. I only decided to paint it at the very end, and it would have been easier if I painted it at this point. 

I stapled the twine on the back of the board and started winding it around. Every second row I un-twisted the twine and stapled it to the back of the board [as seen above], to ensure the rope was extra secure. After all, there were going to be two cats picking at it. 

I wound the twine around until I was happy with the amount, and then stapled the twine a couple of times at the back to finish it off. I threaded a spare piece of black ribbon through the two holes and tied it tightly in a knot, then made it pretty by tying it into a bow.

Since there would be two cats hanging out of the new scratching post, I needed something tough that would hold up so I used a wall anchor. I measured the previous height of the scratching post and the height that our cats prefer to scratch at, and hung the new scratching post at this height. I threaded the ribbon through an eye hook and wound the eye hook into the wall anchor. Snug as a bug. 

So if you have an old eye-sore of a cat scratching post and want to have something a bit more chic for your feline friends, fear not for you already have the materials at hand.

And there you have it! I just hung up the new scratching post the other day and I have yet to see either Juniper or Toshi properly use it. Just yet. I had to trick Toshi to get that picture of her playing with it, but I know you won’t tell anyone. Us Bloggers are just a bunch of liars. 

 xx A

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2 Comments

  1. November 16, 2014 / 22:52

    Hello to you, The Interior DIYer! Very excited about this name change – I think it's a good move. Lumberjack just said, what are you going to call her now that you can't say Hydrangea Girl? (When I talk about you, I call you 'Alex, Hydrangea Girl', ha!) I probably still will – you'll always be Hydrangea Girl to me!
    This scratching post is such a classy elegant upgrade to the original – it looks great. And I enjoy the fact that cat trickery went on to get the cat shot!
    Maria xx

    • November 22, 2014 / 08:17

      Ah I'm still Hydrangea Girl under it all Maria! The boring / official stuff – I'm going to have to continue to own the rights to it so hydrangeagirl.com doesn't get bought by anyone else and to make sure any old links still redirect to me.

      I'm glad you like the new name – and the scratching post. But probs the name a bit more xx A