IKEA cat hacks...

[sarie]

OK so I recently bought a house and as I no longer have a landlord I figured I could add some cat hacks to my home. I was always concerned about doing anything to the walls in rentals but also concerned about making my home look "catty" for inspections too so I stayed away from doing anything interesting for my boys. However, now it's open season and I'm on a mission.

I'm going to have a go at this I think - the cats have their own space in the utility room which is great but they do take up a lot of room and it looks cluttered. I thought I'd have a go at this hack only I'll put the cupboard at one end, rather than in the middle and I'll use the other end for their food dishes! That's the plan anyway... whether it looks any good remains to be seen
http://www.ikeahackers.net/2013/05/expe ... r-box.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've also started this hack but I'm only halfway through, I need to get some brackets Worth noting in the picture here there's no sign of any coating on the shelves - I've glued some matting to my shelves to make them non-slip so my cats actually use them as there's no way they'll use anything that feels dangerous to them.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/116741815316376233/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have any of you tried any IKEA hacks yet? If so, any success stories or pics to share?

[Lyn from Australia]

I presume a hack is using a product and adapting it for another use for which it was designed? I really like what you are doing and I'm sure your cats will appreciate it too. Isn't it lovely to get into your own place and not be afraid to put up a painting or paint a room something other than off-white? Hope you can post some more pictures when you are happy with the end results.

I was looking for tension poles recently to perhaps be able to turn into what I call a planter pole (very 80s) and hard to find. What I did find somehow, via Pininterest I think, was a "Stolmen" tension pole (part of an Ikea wardrobe project) cat climbing pole - there are a couple of companies which sell the platforms to attach to the pole, and you buy the pole and the brackets from Ikea yourself. Works out to be hideously expensive here in Australia, especially since Ikea here has about 2 shops, neither anywhere near me, and they also don't have online shopping and shipping, but it's a pretty good idea. http://www.sehorsch.com/PRICELIST2009.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Podsy]

Wow, I've never soon those ideas before, thank you! The 'Ikeahack' is a great idea.
Also like the high up ledge idea. We have 2 cat baskets in our house. 1 on the floor and 1 on top of the fridge. The fridge one is always the full one!

[Hazel]

We (well, hubby) made some litter boxes with Ikea kitchen cupboards turned on their side so the the door opens downwards towards the floor. There is enough room inside for a tray and a litter mat. They work really well and look much nicer than litter boxes.
They are not quite as decorative as that unit though, I love that one, but we didn't have enough room and something like that wouldn't have matched the rest of our furniture.

One thing we did was coated the inside with Fablon which wipes clean nicely if needed.