Our kitty Lola loves to sharpen her nails on our furniture and I was starting to notice that it was definitely leaving a mark on our couch. Don’t love that! And, while I’m not super in love with our living room furniture, it does the job so I want to make sure we are taking care of it! After searching the internet for ideas, I found one that would also allow me to hit my 2022 goal of getting into some DIY projects…a couch corner sleeve – scratching post!
So to kick us off, here is the WHY…blerg!
This was my first “dipping of the toes” into any type of wood-working project so I wanted to start small and keep my expectations low. I didn’t have “plans” so I started with measuring and drawing out what I was thinking.
I knew she could reach at least 20″ high with her stretch so I wanted to make sure what I made was at least that tall. I also wanted to make sure it covered the corner without getting in the way when sat on. So, I took a trip to Jo-Ann’s for the following materials:
- Craft Wood (6″ x 36″)
- Jute Cord
- Wood Glue
- Gorilla Glue
- Hot Glue
Now the fun began! I measured my craft wood and made marks with a pencil so I knew where to cut. The sides would be 20″ tall and the base would be a 6″ square. I wanted to make sure the cuts were straight so I used this handy tool to make sure it was level before making the cuts with a miter saw.
I sanded all the edges and prepped for the next step of gluing all the pieces into place to create my frame. Get ready for a super hi-tech process for keeping everything in place while it dries…big o books!
Now, this is when the project became a little less fun. This next step is super time consuming so just be prepared! With the first sleeve, I found that hot glue worked way better than the gorilla glue to keep the jute cord attached to the wood. I was worried that when she started scratching, the hot glue wouldn’t keep up so every once in a while I would add a little gorilla glue to give it some extra stick.
I tried two different strategies for the jute cord. For the first round, I looped the jute cord when I got to each edge. I didn’t love this method so for the second round, I cut the jute cord into strips and wrapped the beginning and ends on the inside of the sleeve. This method worked so much better in keeping the cords straight overall. You can compare the two different methods below:
To help with visuals, here are two different views on the method I thought worked best:
Once everything was glued and placed under the couch legs to properly sleeve the corners, the true test of this project still remained: Will Lola love it? And, if so, will it last?
Yes and yes! She loves scratching on these posts and my couch is protected! I finished this project in January but waited until March to post, just to make sure they were lasting and I’m happy to report that all remains well! 🙂
Are they perfect? Likely not! But I’m still super proud of this first DIY project!