8 Free DIY Cat Wall Playgrounds: Easy & Cheap (With Pictures)

Cats are natural climbers and will take advantage of any high furniture in your house—including tall shelves, your refrigerator, or your armoire. Your cat likely enjoys the high vantage point to survey its surroundings or to escape other housemates, such as rambunctious dogs or territorial cats.

If you prefer your cat to stay off your furniture, you can build a cat wall playground. They’ll have a dedicated play area, and your prized knickknacks stay safe from careless paws. You can build many of these playgrounds in an afternoon or weekend with minimal DIY know-how.

Whether you’re looking for simplicity or a cat play haven, we’ve gathered some of the best easy DIY cat wall playground plans to design for your own space.

Top 8 DIY Cat Wall Playgrounds

1. Cat Shelves by Plaster & Disaster

These cat shelves are a fun way to use your existing space to add some climbing and perching spots for your cats. All you need is some wood cut to the length you prefer, brackets, and some basic carpentry skills. Like the other tutorials on the list, you can customize the design to include as many or as few shelves as you wish, and you can add some details like fancy wall brackets or carpeting.

2. DIY Cat Rope Bridge by The Owner Builder Network

This DIY cat rope bridge is a little different from the other shelves if you’re looking for something unique. This tutorial is detailed and includes both images and videos, so it’s easy to follow along. You do need some basic DIY skills, but the instructions take a lot of the guesswork out of the equation. If you prefer, have the wood pieces precut, so all you need to do is assemble the pieces.

3. Floating Cat Shelves by IKEA Hackers

These floating cat shelves are also made by IKEA and use floating shelves, which you can arrange however you wish for your cat. Installation is easy with the IKEA product. You can add carpeting to the top of the shelves to make them more comfortable or leave them bare. The hardest part will be making sure the shelves are the right distance for your cat to jump freely.

4. Perfect Cat Oasis by Simple Stylings

These free DIY plans for a cat wall playground are about as easy as they come! All you need are basic shelf brackets, various sizes of shelves, and pieces of carpet. Making the shelves is easy, and they can all be done simultaneously to save time. You can cut the shelves to whatever length you like, but most are rather short at around 12 inches.

Mounting the shelves on the wall takes a little time and patience, so they’re level. It also helps to consider how far your cat can jump, which will help when placing the shelves in their location. You want them close but not too close so that your cat has somewhat of a challenge getting from one to the next. Lastly, if you like, you can paint the shelves and brackets to match your home’s decor or leave them white or natural.

5. DIY Climbing Wall for Cats from Vivianne Yi Wei

Many of the free DIY cat wall playground ideas on our list place cat shelves level on the wall, but not these plans! Several of the shelves are mounted at an angle to allow your cat to climb them more easily and reach other shelves mounted in their wall-based playground! That makes this wall playground unique and more fun!

This playground also incorporates a cat climbing tree and several smaller “steps” here and there to challenge your cat while playing. One of the angled shelves also has small grip pieces added so that your cat will feel comfortable climbing.

6. Wine Box DIY Cat Playground Plans for Free from Imgur

You use old wooden wine crates for these DIY plans as well as used carpet and scrap wood. That makes this DIY cat playground project much cheaper, but the results are still outstanding. You’ll notice that the wine crates are mounted on the wall in several positions, and one uses nylon straps to create a “floating” bed, which is unique but time-consuming.

Finding high-quality wooden wine crates is recommended so that you don’t need to reinforce them, but the maker adds the instructions to do that just in case. Like most of the DIY cat wall playground plans on our list, you can also paint the shelves to match your home’s color scheme. The results, as seen in the pics, are stellar!

7. Ikea Mosslanda Picture Ledge Cat Wall Playground Hack

If you love shopping at Ikea, this easy DIY cat wall playground project and plans are the best! All you need are Ikea Mosslanda picture ledges, wall anchors and screws, and maybe a table or circular saw. You can cut the Mosslanda ledges shorter if you like.

Once you’re home from Ikea, this easy project should be finished in no time. All you need to do is decide where to place them on the wall, make a few marks, and mount them. The ledges are just the right size for the average cat to walk along. If you like, you can also place a strip of carpet on the ledge for scratching. One recommendation is not to put pictures and other tchotchkes on the ledges. If they’re like most, your cat will inevitably knock them off!

8. Renter Friendly Cat Wall playground Plans from Melanade Beauty

This colorful and fanciful DIY cat wall playground is also a good choice for renters as it does very little damage to your walls. It’s relatively simple to make, but a few steps might be slightly difficult. If you have wall decals, it looks even better, but they aren’t essential for a great result.

One of the most remarkable aspects of this cat wall playground is that it can hold other items safely, including hanging plants! The jute rope scratching wall is a nice touch, and it gives your kitty a place to sharpen its claws and take out some pent-up aggression. When finished, this cat wall playground is one of the most attractive. It will also fit on practically any wall in your home.

Conclusion

Cat shelves are a fun DIY project for you and an excellent source of enrichment for your cat. Whether you choose premade shelves or go with a complex design featuring multiple shelves and a rope bridge for your cats, you can get creative with the tutorials on your list to make the project your own.

• Related Read: 15 Amazing DIY Cardboard Cat Toys You Can Make at Home

Featured Image Credit: RJ22, Shutterstock