If you have cats at home or the homestead, you’ve probably have had a plant destroyed by one of these fur friends. I build a grow light stand that keeps that cats away from the plants.
For a few years, I’ve started plants underneath grow lights that were held up by a small stand. This works great, until my cats sit on the humidity domes, eat the plants, or dig the dirt out of the pot and throw the plants out. Haha.
I needed to come up with a solution to protect my seedlings, especially from my youngest cat. She’s just a terrorist when it comes to plants.
Building the Frame
I started out this grow light stand project with building a one-tier base. It is four-foot-long, two-foot-wide, and two foot in height. I wanted this bottom layer to have more height when needing to bend down, and bring out the plants. This also allows me to have space for any taller plants as well.
I know I could have bought a metal shelving unit, and surrounded it with chicken wire, but I didn’t have enough bottom trays without holes or cracks. I wanted something that would catch water. Nothing is worse than having to wipe up water from good flooring. I bought these jumbo boot trays from Gardener’s Supply Company.
For the grow lights, I used what I had. I already had some grow lights on hand, but I also used some LED shop lights. Then, during random trips to Lowe’s, we found other grow lights on clearance. I think some were about $10 each, when originally they were around $60.
I do have the lights on chains that can be adjusted. It is nothing pretty, but it works.
To begin building, measure the length and the width of the boot tray that you plan to use. I made a rough estimate, and then adjusted it as needed. The wood I use was given to me by my one brother. With an abundance of wood, I didn’t mind needing to recut to find the size.
For the front and rear pieces, measure, draw a line with a straight edge, and then cut your wood. Here, I use a battery powered circular saw. Then repeat with the right and left sides.
Pre-drill your holes, then add your screws. Pre-drilling prevents the wood from splitting from the screws. Also, make sure to use a square as well to find your right angles.
Double check the length and the width of the boards, make any adjustments on your design. The one major adjustment I make is I add two boards on the right and left sides. My grow lights are essentially four foot long. With the chicken wire encompassing the whole stand, I couldn’t have my grow lights sticking out the sides. I added two more boards to create the stand four foot long. I needed to make this grow stand long enough for them to fit inside.
When adding the legs to the stand, I place the base on the workbench, and stand the leg up, starting to attach it on the bottom.
Working from the bottom of the leg, measure where you would like the bottom of the next layer to go. Here, I want about 18 inches between each tier.
After making another base for the boot trays, I attached it with two screws to each leg.
Work on completing the final base to support the top of the legs. This is to hold the grow stand together.
Once, it is built, continue assemble the grow stand. If you temporarily add a boot tray, it can work as a work bench. It worked great for my project here.
Sanding & Painting
Using an electric sander, sand all sides of the boards.
Before painting, place some plastic protective layer on the flooring. This could be a tarp, or I used pellet bags and some Walmart bags just underneath where the boards would be getting painted.
For the paint, I used some discount paint we had on hand. I love painting projects white, so having a large 5 gallon bucket of white paint is a life saver. I reused a plastic container that lunch meat comes in. Wash it out and use to keep a small amount of paint. I used a regular paint brush versus using a paint roller or foam brushes.
Making the Doors
Moving onto creating the doors, my husband uses the radial arm saw to quickly cut the wood to size for the doors.
Since I want both sides of the wood for the doors to be painted, and I don’t want any pieces of wood showing, I end up sanding and painting the wood first.
I build the first door. The chicken wire is stapled on, as well as the top and side boards held it together.
I start by unraveling the chicken wire, laying it on top of the top and bottom boards. Using wire cutters, cut the chicken wire. Then use a staple gun to staple the wire to the board. We ran into problems here where the staple gun would jam. Then jam. And jam again. What I discovered is the staple gun needs to be level with the board and the staple should center the wire. If these two things aren’t done, the staple gun will jam. If the staples do not go down the whole way, which a lot of mine did not, use a hammer to pound them in.
When attaching the bottom and side boards for the door, use a square to double check the angle. As you can see here, I sandwich the chicken wire between the boards.
I use a pair of plyers to face the edges of the wire upward to then pound down with the hammer.
I finish stapling the chicken wire to the board.
Adding the Chicken Wire to the Grow Stand
With the doors complete, I work on stapling the chicken wire to the main frame of the grow stand. The original plan was to cut out pieces for the left, back, and right sides. While completing the base grow stand, my husband suggested we keep the wire together. After moving the stand so the one side faces upwards, drape the chicken wire over top of that side. Begin stapling at the edge, and work your way towards the other side.
Once that is complete, turn the grow stand so that the back side faces upward. It is easier to use the staple gun when it faces downwards. Begin stapling along the side that you left off on. Work your way down to the other edge.
Move the stand again so that the top will be the second side. Cut the chicken wire, leaving enough to staple to the leg. Then finish stapling. Place staples in the middle of the frame so that there is no chance of a fur friend climbing up through.
Add the Hinges
It’s almost done. I work on adding the hinges to the doors. I pre-drill a small hole to then screw in the screws by hand.
This may not be a technical way to add a hinge, but it was my creative way. I placed some duct tape on the inside of the hinge, lined up the door to where I would like it, and placed the other side of the tape onto the leg that the door will attach to. To catch the door, I use a chair with a box of rags. With leaving the tape on, drill a hole. Then add the screws before removing the tape. Do the same on the other door to finish.
Moving the Grow Light Stand & Adding Lights
To move it upstairs, I leave out the boot trays and the grow lights. It is easier to transport that all separate. In the original design, I wanted to have some locking mechanism to keep the doors shut. At this point, I use a small chain to loop between the wires. It keeps it shut enough to keep the cats away from the plants, but I do plan on replacing this in the future.
With the grow lights, my husband added in hooks for chains to hook on. The chains attach to the grow lights. When buying grow lights, majority of them do have chains with them. If you use LED lights you already have, Lowes and Walmart sell links of chain that you can use, as well as the hooks for the lights.
Reflections on My Grow Light Stand
Is this grow stand truly cat proof? Does it really keep the cats out?
Well, let’s take a look. Majority of the time yes. Unless you leave the door open. My cat has snuck into the grow stand before, hiding in there acting as if she is a plant that needs light to grow.
