Overview of how to build a floating cat shelf

A couple weeks ago, I finished a project to build some floating so that my cats could access a high perch in the house that they jump up to anyway. So I scoured the internet and came up with some plans. I changed them a little bit and I'm going to do a walkthrough on how I built these this first video is just going to be laying out how I did it and what makes them up. I might do a second video on how to actually build one for anybody that doesn't do much woodworking anybody that's used to doing this should be able to just see what I've done and build it to their own specifications. The three shelves I put in one right there, one there a top one and then that's the area that they've been accessing. So I built a fourth shelf: that's going to go right in this area, just to make it easier for them to run up the shelves. So, let's do a walk through on what this is and we'll go from there. So this is the shelf before it's mounted here's the front edge, here's the back edge. It is basically a hollow shelf. There'S nothing much to these to hang them. A lot of floating shelves use a single cleat that they mount off the wall and they put the shelf in what I did was I made an extended cleat and cats already checking it out. This board mounts to the wall, I'm mounting it, I've pre-drilled it so that it can mount 16 inches on center, and I made - or I made a series of 4 protrusions that'll, stick into the Shelf to add some extra support and take some of the load. I glued these, I stapled them and then, when everything was dry I drilled them and ran one screw into them. I think they're strong enough to support anything that my cats will throw at it there or she's trying to throw stuff at it right now. The Shelf dimensions are pretty simple: the overall shelf is 21 and a half inches by 8 inches wide weight cat doesn't make this easy inside the shell. I used one by two and it runs the entire perimeter of the inside of the shelf, so the plywood is quarter-inch. I just nailed the plywood nailed and stapled the sari glued and stapled the plywood to the 1 by 2, and then I put a finish board on the outside that I did miter cuts on and then I round my edges a little bit just because of cats. Jumping around it the carpets, the same carpet. I just put in my house it's stapled down, except for this back edge, because I want to put screws in this back edge to hold the shelf to the cleat. So I'm going to mount this to the wall and get it attached. Okay, here's the cleat installed on the wall. It'S ready! It'S good and solid. I do have it four screws in two studs and I'm just going to slide the outer shell on it's on now. These holes are not pre-drilled into the cleat, yet take a drill, bits bent, but it'll be enough. That hole is going to be a bit of a problem, I'm probably hitting a staple underneath so I'll address that that one grabbed really good. This one grabbed really good. Pull this one out and just move the whole over about 3/4 of an inch, and that's addressed just pick up these little flakes of sawdust and I just need to grab the stapler attach the back of this carpet and we're done. Okay, I'm ready to do the last bit and staple the back of the carpet done. I already have my product tester sitting on it just going to meet with her approval. I do have my supervisor sitting right there, just watching the goings-on. So, let's get these final staples in and if the camera mount wobbles, it's because cheetah is attacking a camera like come on, get out of there. Okay, these staples do ride up a little bit, I'm going to push them in with a hammer, but the idea is, I want just enough that the cats can't work that edge up and peel it back. So this will hold it good enough, but also if I need to take the Shelf off, to paint the wall which looks like it's coming soon. I can still get this apart, so the last shelf is on and done. look at here now of the project is done so now I have, I can get back far enough. I have four shelves that let them get on top of the curio cabinet and then I also have an insert up there. That'S carpeted. wipe on poly over paint is to eventually take shelves. All the way up toward the peak come back down right along that window, so that they can get down onto their tree, stand right there between the two windows, since these are the first ones I've made of this design, I'm going to see how these hold up. When I do the further up shelves, I'm probably going to make the cleats out of oak so that I have a little bit camera doesn't want to focus so that I have a little bit stronger of a support since I sit right below that. So if anybody wants to make one of these they're simple, they really don't take a lot of time. I think they look pretty decent feel free to enhance the design. One thing I didn't mention during the construction is why I picked eight inches wide, as you can see a cat's less than 8 inches wide. I didn't want to go really wide because, as they get toward the edge, just the just that weight shift out toward the edge is going to put more stress on where the mount is along the wall Plus. With these guys running around these, I was worried that if I gave it too far out, I was going to create too many forces and it was going to be harder to keep to the wall. I just picked eight-inch because it looked aesthetically pleasing to me. You can make that choice on your own. If you build one well, that's it for this project. Caps are already up and playing on it thanks for watching, and if anybody has any questions you can leave a comment below or if you're in the Savannah group. You can comment when I post this link thanks a lot bye.