Litter box forcefield

[bertha79.livejournal.com]

Hi!
I just finished this project last night! Unfortunately, in our small apartment, there is no good place to put the cat litter box...So we stuck it under the kitchen table (we don't eat in the kitchen).
But since we have hardwood floors, litter would scatter all over the place which looked yucky, especially in the kitchen. We would vac every day, but everytime they used the box, litter would fly everywhere. So I needed a sort of litter forcefield to put around the box to help contain it.....

I was thinking of one of those old fashioned changing screens, but didn't want to deal with building a frame, etc. Then I though of decorative shutters people put on the inside of the house, so I went to Home Depot. Just an FYI, shutters are outrageously expensive. One pair of indoor shutters is like, $50! I needed 3-4 pairs and I wasn't about to spend that kind of cash on a cat litter issue. So I found a set of 4 weatherbeaten pairs on eBay for like $15. The slats in them were damaged on some of them, so I smashed them out with a hammer. They were old shutters and the wood was soft so this was easy (and fun).

Then I got some nice upholstery fabric, and staplegunned a panel to the back of each shutter. It was hard to decide on fabric since there are Soooo many awesome home dec fabrics available now. But I thought a modern, bright print (my first choice) would look odd on the beat up shutters, so I wanted something more neutral and I found a nice woven Waverly fabric that reminded me a little of burlap, but much more refined. Then I got some new hinges, and screwed them all together accordian style. I think they came out good. They look pleasantly weathered, and they hide the cat box, and I think they will help keep the litter from going all the way across the floor....see pics behind the cut...