Sideboard Upcycle (AKA Guinea Pig Mansion…)

I promised it was on it’s way, and now it’s here.
The Amazing Sideboard Guinea Pig Cage…!
All thanks to the lovely hubby, who has worked so hard on it every evening after work when the kids are in bed. And who has even written this blog post all about it 🙂
Take it away hubby….

They are called Gus and Arthur.
One is very hairy and ginger and the other one has a club foot and a slight limp.
I still can’t quite remember which is which. 
(Editor’s note: Gus is the hairy one who looks a bit like an orange mop, and Arthur is the one with the special feet…)

We re-homed them and they came with everything a Guinea Pig could possibly want (including toys, sleeping bags and a mirror…)
It wasn’t until we picked them up that we realised that they had always lived indoors! So an out door house was needed and fast.
Unfortunately Speedy the Tortoise’s house was still work in progress when Gus and Arthur arrived so they moved into the spare bedroom (we’ll be picking hay out of the carpet for months…..)

I wanted to build them a new outdoor house from reclaimed materials where possible (Editor’s note-and it was my genius idea to use a sideboard..!) so we set off to Wiltshire Wood Recycling to see what they had that we could use, and we came home with this, for the bargainacious sum of just £15.

Don’t ask how we got it and both of us and the Smalls in the car for the journey home…

My idea was to mesh one of the doors and adapt the drawers for them to climb through, but on inspection it was found that one door was split and would not stand up to cutting or the weather. So from the reclaimed pile I made a mesh door all from hard wood strips which were off cuts from a hard wood flooring company.

The drawer plan didn’t pan out either as they were well and truly jammed in, so out they came and in went a new floor made from gravel board off cuts. I then fashioned an upstairs bedroom with a gravel board ramp. The other door was left in its original state to make bedroom and food storage.

Where the drawers were I glazed the top section with some of the Perspex left over from Speedy’s house, with a frame from the hard wood off cuts. I then joined two drawer fronts together to make a drop down front giving the knobs a good coat of hammerite.

The drop down drawer fronts, and the ramp!

The interior was then insulated with scrap polystyrene sheet before being lined with grey hardboard from Ikea’s free scrap pile. The flooring was then added this was thick rubber matting which was sound proof flooring in a pub in its previous life. I also obtained some thick rubber floor coving off cuts to seal up the Walls to guard against poo and wee rot. PIC

The roof was made from a large sheet of hardboard that was rescued from a skip, with the angle being made from gravel board wedges. All that was left after sanding it all down (Editor’s note: I am ashamed to say the sanding was my only contribution to the whole project…) was a liberal coat of 5 year wood stain and to felt the roof. Aside from the sideboard itself all we bought was the felt, Perspex and mesh along with hinges and door catches as the existing ones were no longer very secure.

I’ve also managed to fashion a run and day shelter  from the left overs I had in stock 🙂

And there you have it. I just hope Gus and Arthur enjoy living it it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Thankyou thankyou thank you lovely hubby! It is AMAZING 🙂