Framed Carpet Cat Scratchers

I keep seeing pins on Pinterest of carpet in a frame on the wall for cats to use as a scratcher, yet none of the linked sites have instructions.  I loved the idea – it’s simple, takes up almost no space, and provides more vertical scratching opportunities – but how do you do it?  I showed the posts to my partner to get his thoughts on how we could make it happen.  He found a Martha Stewart video involving double-sided tape to hold the carpet inside a frame, which set us off on our journey.  It’s not as complicated as I thought it was going to be and you don’t really need many items and no tools.  Here’s how we did it.

You will need:

1. carpet remnants, squares, or samples
2. a frame
3. Command picture frame adhesive
4. A cat to help, and judge.

How you do it:

1. Pick your carpet.  We got 8×8″ carpet samples from Home Depot.  You can buy them online for $1 each (at the time of writing).  You could use any carpet you think your cat will like, especially if you had leftovers from some other project, but the super thick, long pile carpets are hard to work with.  Go for short or medium unless your kitty is really into deep pile.
2. Pick your frames: If you get carpet samples, get a frame that fits your sample.  The 8×8″ frames fit the Home Depot samples perfectly.  Or pick a frame you like and use the mat or the frame back as a template to cut your carpet.
3. Open up your frame.  Take out the glass and any mat that comes with it; save them for another project.  You’ll probably also want to remove the foot/prop/kickstand that many frames have so it will sit flat on the wall.
4. Cut your carpet to fit into the frame if needed.
5. Put the carpet into the frame, fuzzy side sticking out.
6. Put the back into place and close up the pins that keep the back on.  If you’re using a big frame and carpet, you might want to glue or tape the carpet to the frame back and tape around the opening on the back.  For the smaller squares, it’s not necessary.
7. Finally, we need to put it on the wall.  You don’t want to use the hanger the frame came with.  If you hang it on a nail, the cat will probably knock the frame off the wall or it will swing back and forth scraping the wall.  We used Command’s velcro-style picture hangers to attach it flat to the wall.  Just follow the instructions on the package.  An added bonus is that these hangers can take some weight so hopefully my 12 pound big boy won’t pull them off the wall.

Now that they are done, do the kitties love them?  No.  Of course not.  They are cats and therefore contrary.  I think the scratchers might be a little too high on the wall, so we’ll try moving them lower to see if that helps.  Catnip gets some interest.