We needed a second cat litter box on the main floor of our house because one of our cats just wouldn’t venture to the basement when his primary cat box didn’t meet his standards of excellence.  The best location for the cat box was in our foyer, and happened to also be where my wife wanted to put a bench for putting on shoes. Bench + litter box == hidden cat box. 

This project went much more smoothly than previous times I built boxes. I must be learning something. Read on for more pictures & how it went together.

The Plan

Since we have small kids, and this would probably be used multiple times per day, I wanted to avoid using thin edge banding to cover the plywood edges.  I chose to make my own edge banding the hard way.  It’s a one a half inch piece of solid wood with a tongue & groove routed out of it so it would fit together with the plywood.  The light green in the picture below is where the edge banding would go.  The carcass of the box is made of 4’ x 2’ x ½” plywood.

The front & back pieces only needed the top edge cut with a groove for the tongue of the edge banding. The sides sit inside the left & right parts of the carcass so there was no extra groove on those.  Similarly, the bottom sits inside all four sides of the box so no extra cuts were necessary on that piece. The left & right sides needed grooves cut on all sides except the bottom. Since we planned to paint the bench, I wasn’t worried about the plywood & solid wood matching. They just needed to line up. 

The door

First, I measured the width of our larger cat.  He was about 6” wide, so I made the width of the opening 7”.  I made the height of the door about 7” too.  I didn’t just want the door to be a square opening though.  That would be too easy.  I found a bowl in our kitchen that was 7” in diameter.   I positioned the bowl so the top of the arc was 7” from my bottom line.  

That was too easy, I thought to myself.  I was right.  This was the first time I had ever cut a curve along the inside of a piece of wood. It’s pretty easy when you have a curve along the outside edge, but an inside curve has a lot more potential to go sideways and ruin part of your project. In hindsight, what I should have done was drilled small holes along my line so it would be harder for the jigsaw to get off course.  Then, clamp the bowl to the wood as a guide for the jigsaw.  It took me about three tries to make the arc natural looking, thus causing the opening to be taller than I expected.  But it still came out pretty decent for never having done it before.

Edge banding

In the picture above, you can see the edge banding attached.  This is the left side of the bench. I used a tongue & groove router bit on my router to make the grooves in the plywood and the tongues on the solid wood.  Having the edge banding be so thick is probably excessive, but I wanted plenty of wiggle room in case my measurements didn’t add up right, or other design problems surfaced.  I also wanted the cabinet capable of taking some hits without being obviously damaged. 

I also cut my edge banding at 45 degree angles at the corners.  I think it added a nice touch, but be sure to route all your plywood and then all your edge banding (or vice versa) so all the wood lines up.

tip: make sure your wood does no bow vertically or horizontally when using a tongue & groove. Otherwise the tongue won’t line up consistently with the groove. I don’t have a planer, but I think that might also help correct any bowing. 

There were parts of the edge banding that didn’t sit flush with the plywood.  I used a flush trim router bit to make it flush.

Clamping

It’s every woodworker’s favorite part.  It’s when multiple pieces of wood get put together to form something bigger.  It’s when you start to see your invention take shape.  They’re also just fun to use.

Some of my clamps were long enough:

Other spans of wood were just too long for the clamps I had, so I got creative. Pipe clamps are too specific and limiting in my opinion.  Straps, on the other hand, can be used to tie things down, hold things together, even hold things up temporarily. I bought a four pack of ratcheting straps.  If I need them to be longer, I just tie them together. 

The picture above is the lid for the bench. Some people don’t like knots in their furniture. To me, it really depends on the project. Sometimes it looks rustic & gives the piece extra charm and character.  In this case, the knot you see above will be covered by a cushion so it really didn’t matter.

Support Brackets

I planned to use pocket screws when I designed this project because they form such strong joints at 90 degrees.  That didn’t pan out because I didn’t have & couldn’t find pocket hole screws that would accommodate plywood that was just shy of ½”.  Instead, I cut some 2x4s into triangles and tried to glue them at the corners.  Then I realized I didn’t have a corner clamp and couldn’t make one because I don’t yet have a miter box.  I stacked the triangles and then put a solid 2x4 behind them to hold them in place while the glue dried.

Then my wife walked in the garage and had a different idea. She rummaged around through the spare wood pile and found some ½” square wood. Those pieces were long enough to run the whole height of the bench & would almost certainly form a stronger joint than the 2x4s. The glue wasn’t dry on the triangle yet, so I took it off & switched gears. 

Assembly

I rushed the drying process on these supports and the whole box fell apart when I tried to attach the perpendicular pieces. 

(un)pro tip: don’t lose your temper when you fail. It doesn’t help. 

After my wife calmed me down, we made some progress..

I used wood filler to fill any gaps. I planned to use caulk to fill the gaps along the base of the cabinet so that the cat litter couldn’t escape. My caulk gun wouldn’t work, so I resorted to wood filler for the base too. 

My daughter helped me by adding her artwork on the inside of the door panel. 

The Lid

I put the same edge edge banding on the lid.  I wanted to put no-slam hinges on the box, but I couldn’t find ones I liked that were affordable  We decided to just make the lid removable. I still wanted the lid to stay square on the box though.  

We placed the lid on the box, squared the lid to the box, and traced two opposing corners on the underside of the lid.  This let me see where to attach blocks that would keep the lid square to the box.

Painting

My daughters helped me paint the box with chalk paint we made ourselves.  You can find the recipe in our Kid Table with Chalk Paint project. 

My wife is very artistically talented. Especially in the visual arts. She added faux barn siding to the box & painted flowers on it. I honestly don’t know how she does these things. It’s magic. 

We also bought a cushion and some fabric. My wife sewed the cover and added a liner so the cushion wouldn’t get wet (just in case). 

 The dark blue around the curved opening hides the minor imperfections. This is easily the best looking box I’ve ever made. I hope it inspires you to make something yourself!