My cat Tösen likes to sleep in her carrier and with winter here I moved it next to the radiator to keep her warm. This, however, also moves it into my eye-line form the couch and since it's quite ugly I decided to make a cover for it.
I spent quite a long time looking up if there were any thing I could buy and use but nothing quite had the measurements I needed so DIY it is. I considered quite a few materials and methods but in the end I decided to make the base out of cardboard- Mostly because I had some left over from when I bought a bookshelf and it's easier than some of the other ideas I had. Also if it doesn't work then at least I haven't spent too much money for it.
My idea was to cover three sides of the carrier, leaving the front open and covering the long-, short- and a bit of the next long side. Measuring it I then added a bit just in case and because i plan to fold it and that will loose me a bit of length. All in all this comes to 100 cm long and 40 cm high. Luckily one of the pieces I had were large enough. So measuring carefully I drew it out on the cardboard then cut it out. This is a horrible material to cut. It's hard and folds and doesn't want to be cut neatly. Using an x-acto knife I could do parts but it can only really cut through one or two of the layers.
A thing about cardboard is that it folds easily (too easily) but only in one direction, so to make it not do that except where I want it to I took more pieces and glued them on crosswise. Leaving gaps for where I wan't to fold it. I then used some books to weigh down the edges while the whole thing dries and I had a lunch break.
Now comes the difficult part deciding on what I want it too look like. Painting it blue would be the easiest way. I have some paint left over and it would match other things in the room. Maybe too much, there is a lot of things in that general blue shade and I hesitate to add more. Another problem is the edges, which despite my best attempt are still a bit ragged. They would need to be covered with paper first and if I'm doing that I might as well do it properly and cover it with fabric.
For now I'm doing a little test. I covered the longest side with a pillowcase. This lets me see how I like it and lets me easily try a few different colors.
I tried black (slightly faded), pale blue and red these colors mostly because these are pillow cases I'm willing to sacrifice for this.
Clearly black looks the best. But questions remain. Do I care to make the inside nice, I feel like I should but I don't want to. Do I want just black or should I add a pattern. Do I want decorative corners. Do I leave it just black clothe. I like the thought of using leather or metal to decorate and reinforce the corners. Luckily on the way back from the library I walked past a thrift store and found a large piece of faux leather. I plan to use it for the corners, the question is will the black leather look good with the black/dark gray fabric.
I decided that it will and so I'm going to try dark fabric and black edges. So I seam-ripped the pillow case and draped it over the cardboard, securing it with binder clips. I leaved it there for a few weeks making sure I actually like it. In the mean time I turned to other projects and to making a paper model of the edges.
Once I decided this is something I can live with long time I used a staple gun to attach it. I laid the fabric out on the floor and laid the cardboard on top. Folding the edges over and pulling it tight as I went along. The staples aren't the most solid, if I try I can pull them out with out to much trouble. But hopefully it's enough since they wont take any pressure. For the corners, I cut them out using the templates then glued them on folding them over the corners. I then securing them with clips while it dries.
Now for the big question will I bother to do the inside properly. Unfortunately I will have to. As you can see in the pictures the back part of the inside will be visible. I realized while testing that the fabric wasn't quite wide enough so despite most of the inside being hidden a sliver of cardboard would be visible. I just know it'll annoy me if I leave it like this. So I measured the visible cardboard on the inside and cut out a piece of the pleather that matched plus some extra for over lap and glued it on. I did this in sections letting the glue dry under weights before doing the next part. I also made sure the sides were held at the angle I wanted them to be later so the pleather helps reaffirm the 90 degree corners.
Results
