The goal: to make a scratching post all the way from floor to ceiling. I got the inspiration after a friend suggested I should cover one post of my loft bed with sisal rope. The cats went nuts without delay.
Equipment
- About 40 meters of 14 mm sisal rope (131 feet)
- IKEA’s STOLMEN support pillar
- STOLMEN mounting fixtures
- A shelf with supports
- HESSUM door mat to cover the shelf
- Some short screws to attach the door mat to the shelf
These cost me about 60 euros.
Tools
- IKEA hex key (included in everything you buy from there)
- Screw driver
- level
- some cable ties (for temporary fixing)
- gloves (the rope gets rough on your hands)
- scissors
- lighter (to burn the edges of the mat)
I found some similar projects which were helped me a lot:
- http://www.niksa.net/kiipeilypuu.html (in Finnish)
- http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2008/01/tree-in-living-room-for-your-cat-to.html
As a base I used is IKEA’s STOLMEN support pillar. I covered it with sisal rope. On the top of the pillar is a shelf covered with HESSUM door mat.
I calculated I needed 31 meters of rope. I bought 40 meters and ended up using 38, so it pays to buy more rope than you think you would need. (40 meter equals about 131 feet)
First thing to do was to join the four 10 meters rope coils to one 40 meter rope. I did this by splicing and got enormous help from this illustrated instruction. If you manage to find the rope in one 40 meters long stretch, good for you!
A spliced joint on the finished pillar
As an afterthought perhaps an easier method would have been buying more STOLMEN mounting fixtures and fixing each section of rope using them. That would also make possible to change just a one part of the rope.
The pole is tightened between the ceiling and the floor and secured to the ceiling with 3 screws. Use a level to get it straight.
On the bottom I fixed the rope to the mountig fixture as seen in the picture. This guide helped with securing the end of the rope. My rope was 14 mm wide and if I had used more narrow rope, it would have been possible to get it through the fixture’s eye without unraveling the rope.
Fixing the bottom head of the rope
The most laborous part was coiling the rope around the pillar. These steps will help you in the work:
- Use gloves, the rope is very coarse
- Put the whole rope to a bag and pull it out as needed
- Shut the cats to another room while you are working with the rope!
Coiling the rope took about an hour. Keep the rope tight and after ever 5-10 rounds hit the top of the rope coil with a hammer to pack it even tighter. If you are using a wooden pole you can add small nails to secure the rope every now and then.
When I reached the top I fixed the rope temporarily with a cable tie and then used another end fixture to secure the rope.
The top of the pillar. Rope has been secured using an end fixture.
The top of the pillar is more narrow than the base. The end fixtures come with plastic inserts for both ends. I removed the inserts from the top fixture and got enough room to squeeze the rope in between the narrower top part of the pillar and the fixture.
For the shelf I cut the door mat to approriate size, burned the edges to prevent unraveling and attached it to the shelf with short screws. Now the cats can get a good grip on the shelf.
Done! The cats appreciated greatly.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below!
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Hi!
Thank you for posting this great idea! I have no clue how to figure out how long the rope must be for my 2,70m high room. Could you tell me how high your pole is? Then I can make a rough guess, if I need as long a rope as you used.
Thank you for the inspiration!
Thank you for your comment! My calculations were rough and ended up being far from accurate. The room height here was 265 cm and buying 40 meters of rope was a fortunate choice.
Thank you very much for your reply, fortunately my room has almost the same hight, so I now know what to do :)
This is AWESOME!GREAT IDEA!
Thanks! :)
Hi there. Great project! I’m considering doing this myself. I would be putting the post in the 1+ foot space between a tall bookshelf and the corner of a room, hoping to hide a bit while giving my kitty access to the top of the shelf for sitting and peering out the window. However, the shelf is quite tall and I wonder how he will get down. Do your cats jump, or do they climb back down the rope? I notice you have the fridge there with a little mat – is that what they use most often? Thanks so much!
The cats or the apartment in this post are not mine, but last time I saw them they jumped to the top of the fridge and to the floor from there. The little mat has a rubbery non-slip mat under it to prevent it sliding to the floor as the cats jump on it.
Climbing downward seemed to be very difficult for the cats but they still did it every now and then.
I love this. How wide was your shelf? (I am trying to decide how much space to leave between my wall and pole. . I want it to be minimal. . . but I was just wondering what you did.)
Thanks!
Thank you! The self was there before the pole and it was about 30 cm wide. It is a good idea to measure the distance between the wall and the pole. I removed the shelf before installing the pole to make room for coiling the rope and somehow forgot to measure the distance. It ended up being a tiny bit too close to the wall and it was a pain to get the shelf back to the wall.
I have a cat that is followed in love with her plastic scratching pole that was wrapped lose sisal rope. It appears that now the rope is frayed and is falling on her.
My question is has anyone secure the rope in any way other than just tying the rope in place?
I considered some type of fastener but was concerned for the little ones safety.
But I have is a plastic core the square and the height is ideal and she absolutely loves it. I prefer to keep it over purchasing something new or different.
FYI-I have found that catnip spray helped her train me in allowing her to execute and use it :-).
Any of your ideas or help with suggestions on how your rope is adhered to your poles would be very appreciated.
Many thanks in advance,
Dan
If your pole’s material can take it, I suggest small nails! I covered a wooden post with sisal rope and secured the rope to the starting point with small, 1-inch nails. A nail every five rounds helped to keep the rope tight!
Hey, We LOVE your idea and are putting into motion…problem, the pole keeps moving at the bottom, no matter how tight we get it. Did you do anything to secure it at the bottom? We have hard wood floors and we have attached it with screws on the ceiling. Please advise. We have not tied the rope around pole yet.
Thanks for the help!
Jacklyn
Hi! The poles I’ve assmbled were secured only from the top with screws and then tightened between the wooden floor and the ceiling. I really don’t know how to stop it from moving, if you’ve assembled it as the instructions show and tighten it tight enough. Sorry, I wish I could help more!
We are having the same problem as Jacklyn on 17.6.2012. Has anyone solved this?
Thanks,
Kim
I’m out of tips on this one. If anyone knows what’s wrong when STOLMEN-poles keep moving, please help us out.