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Updated on June 12, 2024
DIY Pallet Cat Bed. Build a cat bed for your favorite felines out of pallet wood. This easy to build bed is sturdy enough to hold more than one kitty.
If you follow me on Instagram, I am sure you have seen pictures of my sweet furbabies before. We have three cats – Tigger, Smeagol, and Baby Kitty. Our cats are like family to us. And since they are like family we tend to spoil them.
How to Make a Cat Bed Out of Pallets
We have quite a bit of cat “stuff” all around the house. We have small pet beds, a large cat tree, smaller scratching posts, toys, etc. I don’t mind it but I do try to blend those items in with our decor whenever possible. Our big, old kitty, Tigger, has a favorite large squishy cat bed that usually sits right outside of our kitchen. It doesn’t look bad, but I wanted to create something that looked more like a piece of furniture that he would still love to snuggle up in.
I came up with an idea to create a DIY pallet cat bed. We have three pallets sitting in our backyard and I knew the wood would be perfect for this project.
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How to Disassemble a Pallet
I started by disassembling the pallet. There are a few ways to do this. We tried two different methods. First, you can simply use a reciprocating saw to cut the nails. The board comes off and you don’t have to do anything further if you are careful to cut close to the board.
Note: If you have trouble getting the blade between the boards, you can gently pry them apart a little with the back of your hammer.
The second method is using some type of pry bar and a hammer. This can be a little trickier. If you are not careful the board will split where it is nailed in. And then, once the board is pulled from the pallet you have to hammer out all the nails. We tried both methods and opted for simply cutting the boards with the saw. After we had dismantled the pallets I gave all of the boards a good scrub with hot soapy water and allowed them to dry.
Since we disassembled the entire pallet, we were able to use the middle portion of the pallet as the base for the cat bed. Each section had three large cubes of wood attached to a single board.
We cut the board right at the edge of the middle block of wood using a circular saw.
Now we had two little “legs” for the bottom of the bed.
We cut the pallet boards to fit across the base using a circular saw. We ended up using five pallet boards that were approximately 19″ long.
I attached the pallet boards to the base using a brad nail gun. You could also use screws or nails to attach the boards.
To create the sides of the bed, we used larger boards from a second pallet. These boards were taller than the small boards we used for the base of the bed. We cut them to fit around the pallet bed base using the circular saw. I attached all of these boards using my brad nail gun.
I placed a folded afghan at the bottom of the bed.
This bed is pretty large, but I wanted it to be able to fit two of our cats if they wanted. Tigger and Baby Kitty often snuggle up together and now they can do it in their own spot rather than taking up half the couch!
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Elise says
This one is awesome!!! I can’t believe how good it looks at the end – so lovely!
Laura Silva says
Thank you so much Elise! Have a great week.
xo,
Laura
the cape on the corner says
so cute. i can not believe your cats use that bed! mine don’t use anything that i buy them.
b
Laura Silva says
My cats love it! Almost the whole day at least one of them is on it. We have two other store bought cat beds and they use those, too. Often they are just on the back of the couch though. Cats can be so picky!
Oriana @Mommyhood's Diary says
That pallet cat bed looks amazing! We’re happy your kitties liked Purina Muse®. Thanks #client
Laura Silva says
Thanks so much! The kitties are loving the bed AND the Purina Muse®. They think it is delicious.