How to Make a Cat Cottage

A cat cottage is just a fancy phrase for a cardboard box. Yet, cats love to play in a house that is strictly their own. Look online or in a catalog for a cat cottage, and if you can find one, youre going to pay big bucks for it! It might just be a cardboard box, but after the manufacturers add a few tiny details, it becomes a fancy cottage thats going to cost you plenty. Cost for a simple cat cottage: $50. Price to make it yourself: $5! Use a large cardboard box to make the cottage you have in mind. The first order of business is to open the flaps, or if the box has a lid, remove the lid for now. Cut a piece of thick cardboard to be the width of the box. This piece should only be half the size of the depth of the box. Cut several thick cardboard strips as well.

Since youll be aiming to make the cardboard box look like a cottage, house or other building, youll need to decorate the box at this time. First, paint the bottom of the box - which will be used as the top of the cat cottage. Next, wrap the box with fabric or even wallpaper. Fabric as well as wallpaper give you zillions of options for the look of the outside of the house. Glue the chosen material to the four sides of the box.

To assemble the cat cottage take the cardboard strips, and if needed, glue several of them together. Turn the box so that the opening faces you. Slide the single cardboard piece into the box so that one flat side of the cardboard panel faces you. Slide it about halfway in the box. This cardboard piece is only a half-floor. The missing half of the floor allows the cat to jump from the first floor up to the second. If you want, glue a piece of carpet, towel or fabric piece to the cardboard before sliding it inside the cottage. Position one of the cardboard strips on the right side of the box and one on the left so that the second floor can rest on them. Its important that these be in exactly the same locations but on opposite sides. If theyre not even the floor of the house will be tilted. Place these so that they are against the bottom of the cardboard half-panel. So, if you were to set the box on its lid, the lid of the box will make one floor of the cottage and the cardboard panel you slid in will make a second story of the house. Place the lid on the box or close the flaps. Set the box so that the lid is on the floor. Cut a circle, square, heart shape or other image from the side of the box so that the cat can be on the first floor and look out. Cut a second shape - the same shape or a different one - so that you create a window from the second floor. Add additional windows if you want. Make sure that at least one window on each floor is large enough for the cat to jump out of. Attach embellishments to the house, like stickers, scrapbook frames, cloth or paper cutouts and similar things to make small windows, climbing vines, shutters around the windows and other accents. If you want, cut a hole in the top of the box, and the cat can jump from the second floor up to the roof. If you do this, attach a piece of carpet or towel to the top of the building rather than painting it. Your cat will have the time of his life!