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Q: Anchoring bookcases to the wall without screws?

Jules Yap·
Hackers HelpIKEA Bookshelf Hacks
·27 Comments

We have 3 full width, 3 half width BILLY bookcases and 4 GNEDBY CD/DVD storage. We’re about to move to a new home where we’ve been told we can’t secure the bookcases to the wall. Has anyone found any solution to this, perhaps using something like Command strips?

Thanks,

Steve

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Hi Steve

Anchoring your tall bookcases to the wall is an important safety step and I’m glad you’re not overlooking it.

Consumer Reports recommends kits with straps made from nylon webbing or braided steel cable. The anchoring kits are typically comprised of two brackets tethered by a strap or cable. One bracket screws directly into the piece of furniture; the other fastens into a stud in the wall. The connecting strap or cable is typically affixed to each bracket, then tightened in place. The point of an anchoring kit is to prevent furniture tip over accidents.

IKEA also recommends screwing one part of the bracket directly to the wall and the other end onto the furniture with their provided wall anchor kits. You can request for one here.

Related: The best 14 IKEA BILLY hacks for every room in your home

I assume your landlord is wary of tenants making lots of holes in the walls. However, most landlords are okay if they patch up the holes and paint the wall when they move out. Do check with your landlord as safety should not be compromised.

Failing which, there are alternative anchoring kits.

#1 Furniture anti-tip kit

Qdos sells a furniture anti-tip kit which can be installed without screws. However, it still needs a picture hook, which they claim leaves a tiny pinhole with minimal damage to dry walls. Easily patched up when you leave. It’s available on Amazon.

#2 Baby safety strap locks

Reddit user found baby safety straps as a solution. Nextstopplease writes, “I have used these baby safety locks on a thin bookcase and lightweight bathroom cabinet, after one year they’re still holding up! The adhesive is very strong and I can tighten the straps to ensure the furniture doesn’t wobble or move.”

Photo: Nextstopplease

I’d suggest checking them regularly as the adhesive stickers and straps may deteriorate over time. Be aware the adhesive stickers may detach in the event of a tip over, as they will not be able to stop the force of a heavy bookshelf falling forward.

#3 Stabilise the bookcase

Other factors that may help is to always place heavy books and items on the bottom shelves to keep the bookshelves grounded.

As for Command strips, I don’t think the adhesive stickers have what it takes to anchor a bookshelf to the wall. If it’s just to stop them from wobbling when you open the doors, perhaps they’ll work. But as a safety measure, it is not what I would use.

Other methods like glue actually leave more damage on the wall and is harder to clean up when you want to move out.

All said, especially if you have kids, I would highly recommend screwing in the IKEA wall anchor kits — from the BILLY bookcases to the wall with hardware suitable for your wall. Patch up the holes when you move.

All the best in talking to your landlord.

Jules

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Jules Yap
Latest posts by Jules Yap (see all)

27 Responses

  1. Look, the likelihood of you being killed or maimed by a piece of furniture vs, hmm.. a school shooting, heart attack, stroke, cancer, other chronic thingy.. or heck, an angry bus driver, is so much exponentially and statistically predicatable that I’ll just say… go you good thing, build your weekend IKEA dream, don’t be an idiot (or a Karen/Dick) and enjoy your flat pack heaven. We all need a break sometimes. Hey, you’re here. You work hard and you are proud enough to want to have your home be a safe place.

    Do what makes you feel safe.

    And then, take a deep breath, have a cup of tea, and worry about the next thing… In the meantime, if a rogue PAX system decides it’s your turn, then hey, be grateful it wasn’t a pretentious baby grand piano or a summer festival Porta-Potty.

    Yours, the safety assurance officer.

    Reply

  2. My living room wall is pretty bare. I have an idea to hang a bookshelf on the wall just to decorate the house and put my favorite books there. But I’m a bit afraid of having to drill through the wall and my wife doesn’t seem to like it, saying it would ruin the wall. I’ve researched and found a way to hang the shelf on the wall without drilling, as far as I know, it’s easy and has 4 methods. We need some tools and to follow detailed instructions.

    Reply

    1. Thank you for the excellent article and the very helpful comments for me. I hope to see more articles like this in the future.

      Reply

  3. I was at the ikea store yesterday and noticed that they attach a lot of their storage items back to back. They had metal bars holding them together at the top. I’m not sure if they were somehow anchored to the floor. If you do try this, I’d definitely test it, seeing if you can pull it over from the top.

    Reply

  4. Perhaps you know USM Haller the internationally known furniture construction system of the Swiss manufacturer USM U. Schärer Söhne AG, founded in 1885 and based in Münsingen.

    They produce sideboards, which are equipped with anti-tilt. These are weights.
    To give you an approximate idea here:
    A frequently purchased sideboard has the following dimensions: Height 74 x Width: 75 x Depth: 50 cm. It has 2 folding doors and weighs 37.1 kg.
    The anti-tilt device weighs an additional 10 KG and is screwed under the lowest shelf.

    So you could theoretically also work with weights here, but you must be aware that it is about many kilograms. I once weighted down an IKEA CD shelf (the high one) with leftover 1-cent and 2-cent pieces. It was about 8kg and it was still way too wobbly.

    So one idea would be to cast a weight out of screed, concrete or something similar and screw it to the bottom shelf from below.
    It would not be a child safety device.
    Maybe your landlord doesn’t want to forbid you to screw holes into the wall, but it just doesn’t work?
    Maybe it is a lightweight wall made of plasterboard?
    It could also be that the insulating material in the wall is potentially carcinogenic and you should not spread it in the apartment?

    Best Regards
    Karsten

    Reply

  6. We have plaster and lathe walls, not sure how to put holes in the walls without damaging them. Plaster tends to crack, and the wall itself could be seriously damaged.

    Reply

  7. I would anchor them to the wall, then spackle and paint upon leaving. Never chance their falling over especially if you have children or pets. Better safe than sorry. If you do a good job, very easy to do it like a pro, then it will not be noticed.

    Reply

  8. As far as I know, in the U.S., it’s illegal for a landlord to prevent you from installing tip restraint security devices.

    Reply

  9. Go ahead and use IKEA’s instructions. Anchor your brackets and fill them in when you are leaving. I depended upon the wood wedge system under the front of bookcases for years until I had children. Then I noticed that when my large dogs and running kids went by, the units were moving. I anchored them all. Safety is more important than landlords. I don’t believe that any landlord can cause you a problem over anchoring wall units and bookcases.

    Reply

  10. Where I live most leases include a clause not to put holes in the walls. I always ignored it, afterwards patched holes well and when needed, touched up paint and they never noticed. If you ever have kids there, definitely attach them to the wall and just fix it well afterwards. When spackling, make sure you go over it a few times and do a good job. You can make holes disappear. Good luck!

    Reply

  11. Why Not shim it from the front so that it slightly tips up and backward, making it very difficult to tip over?

    Reply

  12. What I usually do (without kids present) is insert small slightly triangular strips of wood underneath the front end of the bookshelf, so that it tips slightly towards the wall instead of standing straight. That way you can prevent any potential wobbles and because the balance is tipped towards the wall, the shelves are less likely to topple forward. What also helps is to push the books towards the back and not align them at the front of the shelf. This method has always worked great for me, given that there are no other factors around like kids or frequent earthquakes or something like it.

    Reply

  13. In Western Australia:

    Laws to allow renters to fix furniture to walls to prevent death or injury to children from toppling furniture have passed through State Parliament.

    The Consumer Protection Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 amends the Residential Tenancies Act and means landlords must allow tenants, who submit a request form, to attach furniture to a wall to prevent a child, or a person with a disability, from being hurt or killed.

    Reply

  14. This item I’m about to tell you about is not exactly a screw but a steel stud anchor.
    It’s designed specifically for Ikea products like Besta, and Sektion rails and also works great with ikeas anti tip hardware.
    It can be used like a standard drywall anchor (twist it in and ad a screw) or most importantly it can be used to fasten heavy loads directly to metal studs so popular in today’s apartments and offices.
    This product is ideal for any Homeowner or contractor wall mounting Ikea goods.
    Go have a look at http://www.steelstudanchor.com

    Have a great day.

    Reply

  16. I used a large picture hook with large nail and strong wire to secure a small bookcase to the wall and it’s worked wonderfully. You probably would want to use multiples, depending on the size of the bookcase. (Similar to picture #1 in this article, only homemade)

    I’d say “no!” to Command hooks. I love them and use them a lot but they are for lighter weight hanging. And I’ve had them fall off occasionally.

    And, as Jules recommended, putting heavier items on the bottom shelves is a must.
    Good luck!

    Reply

  17. GRX trim screws anchored into a stud would do the trick and leave a very small hole that could be easily spackled. It’s not quite the solution you asked for but would be safe and repair would be nearly if not completely invisible if you could find some touch up paint for the wall.

    Reply

  18. I concur on the Command strips. I tried to put up a yarn wall with peg board and Command strips. Mathematically I had enough strips for the weight of everything and it lasted about 8 months before it all came down. I think the temperature on that wall (faces the afternoon sun) might have contributed but it’s not worth the effort in my opinion.

    Reply

  19. Just anchor it, when you move out, screw the anchor slightly further into the drywall, toss a little drywall mud/quickdry spackle on there and paint. It’s not that difficult. With a tall bookcase there isn’t another safe way. You can use command strips but you’ll need a lot of them. Also, if you have kids you’re tempting fate as several kids have literally died due to unintended tip overs. Not worth the risk.

    Reply

  20. Il y a la possibilité de caler le meuble. Ceci fera bousculer un peu le meuble vers l’arrière, mais le résultat est bon.

    Reply

  21. What I do when I cannot drill is put wedges under the bookcase sides. At least it then leans backward. I admit, not a perfect solution. Also as suggested below: heavy books on the bottom shelves

    Reply

  22. Maybe use some small wedges underneath the front-side of the sides ? That way the bookcase is already tipping backwards and it makes it somewhat more difficult to tipover to the front. It’s of course not as safe as fixing it to the wall, but at least your consolodating the risk for a (big) part. You can use this method for any kind of furniture that you want to “secure”.

    Reply

  23. I had 2 tall and skinny Billy bookcases I couldn’t secure to my walls. Instead, I used wood shims to ensure the bookcases were somewhat tilted back toward the wall, and then loaded my heavy books onto the bottom 2 shelves. All of the upper shelves only held relatively light collectible items, though. I also had carpet, so there was no issue with the shims damaging the floor. And I don’t have kids or cats who would knock into or climb onto furniture.
    If your landlord is worried that you are not “professional enough” to keep from damaging the walls, you could ask if they or their maintenance person(s) could come install the wall anchor.

    Reply

  24. Depending on how tall the bookcases are, is it possible to put a securing pole to the ceiling? A threaded bar with an outer pipe which can be tightened using nuts could prevent tipping and careful padding could minimise any marking.

    Reply

  25. I hung an IKEA HÅRTE work lamp on my wall with a 3M Command strip with hook.

    That lamp is about 360g in weight.

    The 3M Command strip pulled the paint off the wall.

    A bookcase, even empty, will not be stopped from tipping over with a 3M Command strip.

    Ask your landlord to be reasonable – I’m sure he/she would want your home to be a safe environment to live in.

    Reply

  26. If you have kids, or if kids ever visit your home, their life and safety is far more important than the potential loss of deposit. I’d secure the bookshelves as needed and take great care to patch the holes when you move.

    The only other thought I had was if the room in question has crown molding, it might be possible to remove a section of it and store it without damaging it. Use a securing cable fastened into where the molding usually covers. When moving out, replace the molding over the holes you made and fill any new tack holes from the new finishing nails in the trim.

    Reply

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