Adding a suspension bridge and corner nook to cat shelves
Part 1, installing the shelves: • Making cat shelves
00:00 - Assembling the big corner shelf
00:33 - Staining
00:45 - Drilling holes in bridge slats
00:57 - Wooden knobs as slat spacers
01:02 - Spray painting knobs to match iron brackets
01:09 - Centering brackets on corner shelf
02:14 - Before of steps only
02:56 - Levelling & marking the corner shelf
03:41 - Pilot holes & drywall anchors
03:52 - Installing corner shelf
04:13 - Ahem
04:36 - Heavy Duty armed support brackets
05:28 - Threading bridge slats
06:02 - Burning & electrical taping ends prevented rope fray
06:20 - Patterns are hard
06:38 - Completed bridge assembly
07:56 - Pilot holes & eye hooks
08:28 - Knots are hard
09:20 - Half knots + superglue
09:53 - Burn ends to prevent fraying
10:24 - Ho god what is this sorcery
10:59 - It's finished! Playtime!
11:54 - Shaky BunBao vroooom
12:54 - Brave Sushi
13:27 - Stephan does not want
13:59 - My bridge
14:03 - Exploring
15:03 - After
Wood:
Untreated Cedar 2in thick
Brackets:
Heavy Duty 10" Industrial Steel J brackets
10" deep, 5" high
www.etsy.com/listing/25685645...
and extra large shelf brackets with arm for corner square
Drywall anchors:
Toggler Heavy Duty 1/4" Toggle Bolts - 265lb weight rating in drywall
www.lowes.com/pd/TOGGLER-30-P...
Stain:
Cabot Gold in Satin Sunlit Walnut
Starring:
Stephan, Sushi, & BunBao
Instagram:
/ takethevongwayhome
I don't know who is cuter the pets or the humans. Great idea 🐾❤
This is by far the BEST diy cat walk and bridge, thank you so much for posting this video, I'm heading to Lowe's now. Also thank you for posting the Etsy store for the best ever brackets!
So nice to see humans so kind with pets!!! :) Pleased to discover you!
thank you!! ❤️
Fun to see how much fun you both had putting it together and getting them started in getting used to new things.
Best DIY cat wall I've seen!
Thank you!!
Thank you so much for demonstrating how one might do this, amidst your beautiful animals you love so much. God bless you for your kindness and for sharing ways to make our dear ones happier. It's very helpful to me.
3rd cat, "I'm not stupid. If I lay here long enough, I know someone will pick me up and take me to the top. I don't have to waste energy climbing." =^.^=
Stephan has life figured out 😆
The butt smooshing part 🤣🤣 Edit: Animal lovers are the sweetest couples >.
Lucky kitties ! Thank you Rachel , Mr Vong, supervising doggos and kitties. 💕✨
Awww… so glad i came across your channel!! Such loving parents and lucky fur kids ☺️🌿💗
thank you so much!!
Brilliant! I'll be trying something like this eventually. Its lovely to see a red and tan dobie with the cats and other dogs, how i miss my red girl ,and my black and tans too 🐾🐕
Aren't they the sweetest? People who have never been loved by one have no idea what golden hearts they have. Just the biggest mush
Lucky cats (and dogs)! Great video
Thanks for the corner idea
Love the cleanup crew at 3:47!
Not sure if you guys noticed the bear casually hanging out next to your garage watching you do this project 👀
You should build a hammock for the one who likes the bridge. Great build you guys!
That's a great idea!!
the cat so lucky to have a good mom and daddy. Create a new thing for them.
After the quarantine most of us was looking like Bouvier 🤦💔 Thanks for the video 🥰❤️
Definitely 😂
that was a fun video thanks for sharing ideas!
that's amazing thank you for the video
thank you!
Good job, you guys
Gosh, you guys are great!
Great idea
Nice looking work. Well done! Good to see how to make your own suspension bridge; not that hard so that's on my list of things to make too :)
So lovely 😊 all of them..❤
that was pawesome
glue down a piece of carpet accross the bridge. they''ll feel more comfortable and even use it as a hammock bed
Needed this to finally get the pieces together for my cat shelves!! Thank you so much for the content :) hope your kitties love it
Awesome, so happy to hear it helped!
Love a Bouvier 🤗 he is gorgeous
Your husband is a handsome fellow!
He’s dreamy 😍
Cool, I have a Bouvier too
That dog looks like a bear!!
Great job ! I want to be your cat ! :): ......and I love your dog(s) ! Happy holidays!
Haha they have a pretty ok life. We want to build them an outdoor catio next. Thank you, Happy holidays!!
@@takethevongwayhome Hi ! I'm looking to do the same in the Spring. I'm collecting ideas now. :) Happy building and stay safe in our crazy world ! :)
Cool! I'm trying to convert half our front porch/deck into a cat area
OOOO I would watch that if you made a video!! Catio is next on our list too! We don't have a porch so we haven't figured out our placement yet
I love it, and the part one!! Best DIY cat shelves on KZhead. Did you cut and smooth the bridge slats yourself?
Thank you so much!! Yes, we used the leftover wood and scraps from the shelves for the slats, and a router to smooth the edges
The DIY was awesome but the bride was a bit excessive, because of cuts into the doorway an extended board would've been just fine...they're most likely going to jump the bride because its unstable from a cats perspective, but all in all, it came out great
Thank you! They hopped across it for the first couple weeks because it was scary, but now they're used to it and walk across it normally to go take naps. Sushi the calico likes laying in the middle and letting her feet dangle to bird watch out the door. Only the left side of the door slides open so it isn't in our way
I was confused if the gray one was a dog
That turned out great! Could you please tell me what the spacing is between the shelves they climb up to get to the top shelves?
Thanks so much! The steps are 14" apart vertically from surface to surface, and about 5" apart in the middle. They seem to do well with that spacing, our littlest one manages them easily
Rachel Vong Thank you! I’m going to get two cats in January so I’m excited to try and make something similar for them 😁
@@Jasper_Tree aww congrats!! It's super fun and so satisfying when they love them after you put so much work in to make them happy
Nice Bouvier i saw there aswell?
Great Video! Your cats look really happy. Could you let me know if you use drywall anchors only, or anchor + studs?
Thank you! We ended up having to do almost all anchors only. The only stud we hit was with one side of the top shelf. That’s why we ordered the strongest anchors we knew of!
Love it, I'm in the process of building one myself. What size eye nuts did you use to tie the bridge onto?
I can't remember exactly what it was, but it's fairly small. The head diameter is about 5/8" with about a 2" thread. We basically picked the smallest eye that our rope would pass through and looked appropriate with the thickness of the board that we used. We'd love to see how it turns out when you're finished!
For a split second I thought ur dog was a bear at the beginning my brain lmao
Mini bear with big bear snack drive 😆
They need steps down on the other side, too, so that they don't have a traffic jam!
Agreed! We're planning on putting more shelves in our computer room too though so there isn't competition over one spot
i want those cat shelves
could add some carpet to give the cats grip so they dont accidently fall
👍🏻
They need to be able to go down from the other side too. So they are not trapped.
Agreed. They only go up one at a time now and can tell when someone’s already sleeping in the corner shelf, but we’d like to make another access point on the other side. Haven’t decided where we want it to go yet though! Maybe around the corner and into the bedroom hallway..
07:30 I'm still 5. I died laughing.
🤣 same when I went back to see which part
Your thumbnail is funny because the cat is not even on your shelves. Great job though. I'm starting mine this week!
Where did you purchase the round wood pieces used to space the slats?
They're just little raw wooden beads that already had a hole in the center from our local hardware store! They were stored next to some wooden cabinet knobs in drawers and weren't really labeled. Any wooden beads would work for spacers, ours are a little less than half an inch wide for the slat spacing
@@takethevongwayhome couldn't find anything to my liking. I ended up just tying a knot.
Turned out super cool! Btw what breed is your cat Stephan? 😌
Thank you! He’s just considered a Domestic Shorthair. He and Sushi are brother and sister and were strays, we adopted them from a local place when they were little
@@takethevongwayhome thats awesome! They all seem like great friends. Keep up the videos!
The best part is when she pats his bum...hahaha
😆 that’s always my favorite part..
Just curious why you didn't carpet them?
They just didn’t seem to need it. Easier to clean and they all have claws so no trouble gripping the wood shelves
Did you buy these shelves from somewhere or make them? Thank you.
We made them! It's a stained cedar board and the brackets we used are from CsonkasCustomRustics on etsy.
@@takethevongwayhome Thank you. What about that bridge with the rope through it? Did you make that too?
@@bhumane8642same for those, sliced the board into slats and drilled small holes for rope!
The bridge,, its too curve.. The feeling is like almost fall when they walk in there..
They actually love it now that they’re accustomed to it! They like to lay in the middle and look out the window
I bought my cat a very expensive wooden cat jungle. I took me days to put it up. He won’t touch it and wants to play in the box it came in.
😂 have you tried catnip? We put a lot of nip up there and fed them their dessert treats on the shelves every night for a while, that seemed to help!
Sometimes u have to use treats n play to show them what it is. Also put it n front of a window
@@eustacia82 my cat knows what it is he just likes to torcher me lol
Oo putting in front of a window is a good idea! I'll try that next if I can find a spot that isn't already taken over by plants..
What kind of dog is that? Not talking about gorgeous doberman.
Has a coat similar to deerhound but it’s not that breed though. Watch the kennel club videos I sure there will be that breed in the show ring
He's a Bouvier des Flandres with a werewolf haircut!
I’m about to adopt a kitten, and I so want to do this for her. Where do I start? I started laughing at the grab ass.
Helping 😆 To start we decided where we wanted the topmost perch shelf to be, then played with the access route to get there. We knew we wanted a larger lounging area up top big enough for a cat bed to fit, so we put ours in a corner. We used our tape measure and penciled lightly on the wall so we could visualize how long we wanted each section before buying supplies, then picked our shelf brackets next so we could buy the correct width of board to fit them. We also can't recommend enough the drywall anchors we linked in the description and ended up using. All of the supposedly heavy duty anchors we tried before that one ripped out of the wall and just didn't hold up when the cats started bouncing on them. The bridge is a little more time consuming but isn't difficult to add in after you have the layout figured out!
@Rachel Vong Much obliged, I’ll do my research and definitely invest on heavy duty anchors. Have a nice day, and stay safe.
Standard User you too! If we can answer any more questions or help as you go, we’d be happy to
Nah, very boring
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