Build An Easy Cardboard Cat House Out Of Any Box: The Construction Part Two

Welcome back to Part Two of Building An Easy Cardboard Cat House Out Of Any Box: The Construction. If you missed Part One, please click here and then come back. Your cats are going to love you forever for being so awesome. Nina and Ollie sleep in and play with this box every single day. They love it.

photo of a calico tabby cat sitting next to a handmade diy cat house made out of cardboard boxes. An orange tabby cat is visible behind the cardboard cat house.

We're just going to jump right back in here.

You can scroll down for the written directions or click the photos below for visual directions. READ ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS BEFORE STARTING YOUR CARDBOARD CAT HOUSE.

Photo 1: Take those circles that were put aside from Part 1. I took 2 of the large circles, 2 of the middle sized circles, and 1 small circle for this part. You can totally customize this however you want. Glue along the areas where you will be attaching your circles.

Photo 2: Place your circles in place and glue the others in place afterwards.

Photo 3: Look how cool this looks. Let the glue dry.

Photo 4: I used the remaining circles to decorate the front of the cat house. I highly recommend the circles in the middle over the cat door. These will help later when we're stabilizing the roof. If you ran out of circles, you can just cut 3" and 1" extra circles out of extra cardboard.

Photo 5: The roof and cat house front entryway are now decorated. Let everything dry before doing to the next steps.

Photo 6: Tell your cat not to eat the cat house while it's drying. CUT THAT OUT!

Photo 7: Cut 2 strips of cardboard from the extra cardboard that is about an inch longer than each side of your cat house. Make each one about 2 inches wide

Photo 8: Cut 2 more strips of cardboard from the extra cardboard that is equal to or shorter than the sides of your cat house.

Photo 9: Cut 2 small pieces that are about 2 inches by 4 inches. 

Photo 10: Starting with the back of your cat house, glue half of the small 2" X 4" piece of cardboard.

Photo 11: Attach the glued portion to the inside top edge of your cat house.

Photo 12: You can add clips to hold the cardboard in place until it dries. Hi Ollie!

Photo 13: You really want this piece to be completely dry before starting the next part. Maybe make a sandwich.

 Photo 14: Add a thick bead of glue to the top edge of the box before the roof and to the corner of the roof about 2 inches up.

Photo 15: Place glue on the top half of the piece from Photo 12. Then set the extra strip of cardboard that was longer than the sides of the box in place leaving an inch overlap on each side. This part is a bit of a balancing act for a few minutes.

Photo 16: Clip the section just attached to the middle piece from Photo 12. Make sure your roof corners are touching and let this dry for about a half hour. It will be mostly dry.

Photo 17: Remove the clips and place the house face down. I had oozing glue so I put a paper bag down under it. Then I put a little bit of weight on it, using these books, magazine, and tub of snacks. Make sure the roof corners are really in place here. Let it dry completely.

Photo 18: Cover one of the strips of extra cardboard that was shorter with glue.

Photo 19: Place the strip horizontally covering the bottom half of the piece just glued on from Photo 15 and the top part of the cat house. Clip it securely into place and let it dry. Then you can start the other side of the cat house.

Photo 20: Repeat from photo 10. If you put decorations sticking up over the edge of the house above the door, just make sure you glue that side too when attaching the longer strip. I also cut my shorter strip into 2 shorter pieces instead of keeping it long because of the circles. Explain to your cat that just because there are clothes pins attached to something, it doesn't mean you should eat them.

Photo 21: Finished cat house. It's awesome.

Photo 22: The other side of the finished cat house. It's still awesome.

Photo 23: What? Your cat thinks it needs some paint and fun decorations? Promise your cat that you will come back for Part 3.

 

And here's the entire house in all of its glory. My cats battle over who gets to sit in the house... mostly at dinner time and it's full of hair and it's going to be a mess when I have to paint it to make it even more awesome.

Part Three (PAINT and decorating!) is coming soon.

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