Recently, I had a reader-turned-good-friend specifically request this tutorial and I AM ON IT. Like a my face on cheese and baguettes if I ever go to Paris.
Mmmmm…. what? Oh, yeah, the point.
Well, we converted this weird little space off the kitchen (literally a narrow/hallway-like room with a door to outside and the water heater) into a laundry room right before Melanie was born.
On one side, there's the front load washer and dryer (side-by-side) and on the other, we boxed in the enormous water heater (it was too expensive for our not forever home to switch to a tankless one), and had a small spot next to it for a cabinet. A cabinet that we converted into a Cat Cabinet!
Here's How We Created A Cat Cabinet in Our Laundry Room
First off, let me tell you why we decided to have a dedicated cabinet just for our cat. It came about as we were remodeling an awkward little niche off the kitchen (it held our water heater) into an indoor laundry room.
We made the decision to place the washer and dryer on the opposite side from the water heater and then to frame around the WH to enclose it and also add some extra storage.
That left us with a small 24″ section, located below a hatch into the attic crawlspace, for… something.
We couldn't put much storage there since we needed to leave access to the attic. We debated putting a sink in because there were water lines right there but didn't have the time or money to pick up a sink.
That's when we realized that we could install a sink cabinet there, leave access to the water lines, and just top it with a counter.
Later, we could easily open the access point and add a sink. In the meantime, we could create a spot for my cat's food, water, and litter box – safe from an overzealous puppy and a curious baby.
Creating the cat cabinet was really simple. I found an unassembled white cabinet at the ReStore for $50. I assembled it at home but left one cabinet door off. Once assembled, the cabinet was installed (without a back to make access to the water lines easier).
After the cabinet was put in, we attached a piece of plywood as a temporary countertop (the actual countertop will be decided later in order to coordinate with the ones we select for the kitchen).
Next, our friend Billy took the remaining cabinet door and installed a pet door right into (he just followed the directions that came with it).
He then popped it right back into place with no problems.
The cat's water fountain and food bowl go on the countertop and her litter box goes inside the cabinet. She can access it via the pet door and I can open the cabinet doors to change her litter.
And… that's it. See? Simple. The only really personalized thing we did was install an outlet above the cabinet for a fresh water fountain for Caira.
My parents cared for her whenever I would visit The Boy in Texas and my dad got her addicted to fresh water – now she won't drink anything else.
In the future, we plan to upgrade the cabinet and add a better countertop that coordinate with the ones in the kitchen.
We're also going to install floating shelves on the wall above the cabinet to hold her extra food and litter and her other random kitty odds-and-ends.
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