Happy quarantine! We’re trying to respect all the stay at home guidelines while staying busy and creative. I decided that I wanted to make SOMETHING out of the scrap wood we have in our garage. We got a stack of free wood from a NextDoor neighbor a couple years ago but have been so focused on yard projects that we haven’t used much of it. I didn’t have anything specific in mind but I’ve been curating a Pinterest board with woodworking projects I want to try so I looked through that for inspiration and then started designing!

For a project like this I like to get an idea of what I want to make in general and then let the material guide the rest of my design. Hamilton (our grey cat) has been scratching carpet lately instead of using the nice post we made them a few years ago. I thought maybe he would appreciate a horizontal scratching option so that’s the idea I started with.

When I looked at the wood we had, I found some beautiful oak flooring - definitely not perfect with lots of knots and cracks, but because I didn’t need a lot I was able to get long enough pieces for a good sized scratcher.

I thought legs going across the depth of the boards would help strengthen the structure so I just needed a stick that could be cut in two pieces. Using one floor board and one stick of wood helps make the end result look more unified than if I pulled random pieces together.

I used my favorite Polycrylic finish for this project. It’s water-based so it preserves the natural tone of your wood and it’s super easy to apply with a foam brush.

Fortunately I also had twine on hand. I considered tying it but didn’t think I would be able to maintain enough tension to hold up to the scratching of two kitties. I went with hot glue instead which seems to be holding well but I think when it comes time to replace the twine (which is inevitable) it will be reasonably easy to scrape off and start fresh.

So…did they accept it? If you’ve ever made something or bought something for your cats you know that there’s a solid chance that they’ll decide that beautiful plush bed you bought them is trash. So far Hamilton (yes, the cat I made it for…) has shown no interest in using it, but Jarvis has been using it pretty regularly since day one! Even if it’s not exactly the results I was hoping for, I’m happy that at least one of them is using it and I love the way it looks!