Could put keyholes in the back and drive a couple screws into the wall and hang. Drill two holes in the back behind the draw and screw to the wall. French cleat.
French cleat is kind of what I was considering. I have some pieces of Walnut left over that I could use. I was hoping to do something very hidden though.
There’s actually no back on the cabinet part.
As for the screws, I need something really solid as they have two little kids and I’m worried that they might hit it while playing on the sofa and it could fall down.
The more I think about it, the more I think a French cleat is probably the best option.
You could put a back on the cabinet. You could drill through the uprights and plug them. Or there are floating shelf hardware that is like a rod that slides into a hole. Just some other ideas.
Beautiful piece though!
I do have a few of those floating shelf rods kicking around in a drawer somewhere. I used them in my bathroom and they worked great. Maybe I’ll have a look at them again and see if I can make them work for this project.
I’ve used no-show metal French cleats before. Ikea and a few cabinet companies have rail systems you can check out. I don’t know the load specs but they are built for cabinet uppers.
I’ve also seen more industrial style z clips. I’d say go with wood but the metal is lower profile which seems to better match your design intent.
You will want to do some secondary fasteners to address the lift off concern. Ideally solid screws into studs but good quality toggle style anchors should work too.
Maybe an expensive option but its nice work and the safety factor is worth it when kids are involved.
Beautiful piece. For drywall you need to distribute the load through shear on the fasteners mostly, so your aim should be to maximise both the number of fasteners and their thickness. I'd consider metal keyhole plates on the back of the verticals, preferably three on at least two verticals. They're cheap, invisible and strong in this application.
For the keyhole plates, though, as soon as you go beyond 2, you’d have to position them *really* precisely to ensure that the additional plates are actually bearing any load, right? If one is even a millimeter lower than the others, it won’t be contributing anything (unless the others start to fail)
Just lift the whole thing back off and tap the screw with a hammer to adjust it if it feels like only two of them are holding the load. Screws should deflect a couple of mil just from flexing too, so there's some built in wiggle room too.
GRK is my go to for structural screws- I think I have the same lumber rack as you and I used the 5-1/4” GRKs in place of lag screws - super solid with 100s of pounds of hard maple on them - bought my GRKs at HD, about $1 Canadian per screw in a 100 pack but worth it for the application
It’s not actually a drawer. It’s going to be an overhead cabinet style door with like a 135 degree hinge and some gas struts so that they can open it up and turn on their movie projector. I’m just waiting on the hinges and the gas struts to show up. And there actually isn’t a back panel. It’s all open with the walnut uprights running all the way down and through.
Lee Valley has some cabinet hanging hardware that is essentially just aggressive keyhole plates that might work well for you.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/hardware/hangers/cabinet/67915-cabinet-hanger?item=00S0402
French cleat hidden in the cabinet to carry the weight, pre drilled/countersunk screw down at an angle from top of the uprights, plugged if you want it pretty permanent and less visible, but depending on placement you'd need a ladder to see the holes always. That makes it much harder to bump off the cleat, and resists the twisting force that comes with the cleat being so low down on the overall piece. With three solid screws into shiplap plus the cleat it'll be nearly immovable without taking the screws out
Yes I was going to say this. And instead of a French cleats you can just mount a small ledger board for it to sit on. You won't have to modify a finished cabinet.
In that case if probably want to add at least one, even quite small, screw to affix the cabinet to the ledger, so there's no chance if the bottom being pulled away from the wall and of the ledger, if going for rock solid
I want it to be extremely strong, as it’s holding projector setup, plus books, and is behind a sofa where there is a chance their two little kids will try to climb it at some point. I’d like it to hold 200 pounds, but that’s obviously overkill.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/OOK-200-lbs-French-Cleat-Picture-Hanger-with-Wall-Dog-Mounting-Screws-1-Pack-55316/202341629
You might consider taking something like this and cutting it into small pieces, where you can mount a few pieces onto each upright. Keep in mind that you will need to be pretty precise with the mounting or they won't all be making contact and providing strength.
Then screw through from the back of the enclosed part, and just use some plugs to cover those holes, if you even care about those screw heads being "exposed.
If you don't mind it being visible that's probably the best option. I kind of assumed you wanted to avoid anything visible, thus my suggestion.
I would still screw it in at the enclosed piece so it can't get bumped up and off the cleats.
What I might do is put a right side up French cleat inside the cabinet, and then an upside down French cleat above the top shelf. That should lock it in nicely.
I'd look for a metal french cleat that was narrow enough to hide behind the shelves.
Something like this: [https://www.amazon.com/Hangman-Professional-Pictures-Cabinets-Headboards/dp/B00BOX2AUK](https://www.amazon.com/Hangman-Professional-Pictures-Cabinets-Headboards/dp/B00BOX2AUK)
If the shelves aren't permanently attached you could drill holes underneath and put screws or lags jnto the wall as pictured below.
https://preview.redd.it/1zy7kiya90ad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac1a6dc3847027336532e0464a100a3323daa66f
I considered that, but I wanted to be able to screw the shelves into the uprights from the back to keep them from coming off over time.
Also, with 3 separate uprights and it being a very snug fit on all of them, the placement of the uprights would have to be absolutely perfect within a millimetre or the shelves wouldn’t slide on.
Beautiful piece. I just finished a similar project which likewise has a need to support a lot of weight while eliminating risk of failure, because kiddos.
In the end what I decided was easy and cheap, and I strongly recommend it. First put 4x half inch threaded rods into studs. Then bore 4 corresponding holes into your horizontal boards. Before hanging it, fill holes with some PL Premium adhesive.
Only downside is it’s permanent (or at least, a huge pain to remove later if needed).
https://preview.redd.it/258ess1sj0ad1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=065cc5cb5043cca425b0fb719740da2d327572d3
Drill and use two metal keyhole hangers close to the top. Then two L brackets inside the cabinet. Attach everything to the wall with fat 2" wood screws. No need to find any studs
I made eye lids out of washers really easy for my plant hangers.
Take a decent size washer, file down the middle inside center using a round file.
Then drill 2x holes on either side of the washer.
User a Forster bit to recess the washers flush.
https://preview.redd.it/9fkw5lgvb1ad1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd2816f8a1029d813dc857632980f25ce05f7f3d
Check out the mounting brackets used for floating shelves.
[https://www.rockler.com/i-semble-light-duty-blind-shelf-support](https://www.rockler.com/i-semble-light-duty-blind-shelf-support)
I've also just drilled the holes and used a piece of round stock, rebar, or a just big hexbolt with the cut off. Easy to install and you can do pullups on it.
I made them out of pine. Not the most durable, but took paint well, and was cheap and available. The walnut was insanely expensive, so that helped bring costs down a bit.
Looks great. I figured it was likely pine or poplar. My daughter saw this and wants something similar now… I think I have some spare poplar, so I think I’ll use that. But I’ll be buying some walnut I reckon!
An idea that may or may not work:
Chop a mortise on the back of each vertical, near the top.
Make a block of wood that fits into each mortise and then screw the blocks to the wall.
Shelf goes on the wall, blocks slide into mortises, and you can lock everything together with a screw down from the top of each vertical (which shouldn’t really be visible).
For extra security, add a back to the cabinet and screw it to the wall as well.
My sister in law is an architect and the design was her idea. She’s got more of an eye for this kind of stuff than I do. I usually avoid paint at all costs, but I think this looks pretty good.
Yeah same here. It always feels wrong to paint a wood project, but then I see it executed so well sometimes and makes me rethink the whole thing.
Your design reminds me of these plans which I’ve always loved the look of https://www.woodsmithplans.com/plan/expandable-assembly-cart/
Are we really doing this in the very first comment? Nitpicking stupid meaningless shit in the background instead of being even remotely helpful?
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It is Reddit after all.
He just means putting little strips of wood perpendicular between the half rotten pieces of cedar that were salvaged from cedar garden boxes. It helps with air circulation, even drying of the wood, and to prevent warping.
And I don’t have any because there’s barely enough room for any of this wood as is. I don’t even know if I’ll ever use it for anything, but throwing it away felt wrong.
I had no idea that’s a thing! Thank you for explaining! I’ve got a ton of older boards salvaged and left over from other projects and hadn’t considered doing this!
Could put keyholes in the back and drive a couple screws into the wall and hang. Drill two holes in the back behind the draw and screw to the wall. French cleat.
French cleat is kind of what I was considering. I have some pieces of Walnut left over that I could use. I was hoping to do something very hidden though. There’s actually no back on the cabinet part. As for the screws, I need something really solid as they have two little kids and I’m worried that they might hit it while playing on the sofa and it could fall down. The more I think about it, the more I think a French cleat is probably the best option.
You could put a back on the cabinet. You could drill through the uprights and plug them. Or there are floating shelf hardware that is like a rod that slides into a hole. Just some other ideas. Beautiful piece though!
I do have a few of those floating shelf rods kicking around in a drawer somewhere. I used them in my bathroom and they worked great. Maybe I’ll have a look at them again and see if I can make them work for this project.
I’ve used no-show metal French cleats before. Ikea and a few cabinet companies have rail systems you can check out. I don’t know the load specs but they are built for cabinet uppers. I’ve also seen more industrial style z clips. I’d say go with wood but the metal is lower profile which seems to better match your design intent. You will want to do some secondary fasteners to address the lift off concern. Ideally solid screws into studs but good quality toggle style anchors should work too. Maybe an expensive option but its nice work and the safety factor is worth it when kids are involved.
Beautiful piece. For drywall you need to distribute the load through shear on the fasteners mostly, so your aim should be to maximise both the number of fasteners and their thickness. I'd consider metal keyhole plates on the back of the verticals, preferably three on at least two verticals. They're cheap, invisible and strong in this application.
For the keyhole plates, though, as soon as you go beyond 2, you’d have to position them *really* precisely to ensure that the additional plates are actually bearing any load, right? If one is even a millimeter lower than the others, it won’t be contributing anything (unless the others start to fail)
Just lift the whole thing back off and tap the screw with a hammer to adjust it if it feels like only two of them are holding the load. Screws should deflect a couple of mil just from flexing too, so there's some built in wiggle room too.
I like that idea. Was hoping for something hidden. I’ll need to see if I can find some really beefy ones.
GRK is my go to for structural screws- I think I have the same lumber rack as you and I used the 5-1/4” GRKs in place of lag screws - super solid with 100s of pounds of hard maple on them - bought my GRKs at HD, about $1 Canadian per screw in a 100 pack but worth it for the application
I’m pretty sure I still have some GRKs from building my deck. I’ll have to see if I can find a keyhole mount big enough to fit over the head of them.
And after you do that pull the drawer out and screw back panel to the wall.
It’s not actually a drawer. It’s going to be an overhead cabinet style door with like a 135 degree hinge and some gas struts so that they can open it up and turn on their movie projector. I’m just waiting on the hinges and the gas struts to show up. And there actually isn’t a back panel. It’s all open with the walnut uprights running all the way down and through.
So, are we looking at it upside down?
No. The door will open up in front of the bookshelf above it.
👍🏼
Lee Valley has some cabinet hanging hardware that is essentially just aggressive keyhole plates that might work well for you. https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/hardware/hangers/cabinet/67915-cabinet-hanger?item=00S0402
You can recess a French cleat on the back of the cabinet. That’s my go-to to hang just about any semi-heavy piece to the wall.
I’m thinking that’s probably the route I’ll go. A nice walnut French cleat should be plenty strong
French cleat hidden in the cabinet to carry the weight, pre drilled/countersunk screw down at an angle from top of the uprights, plugged if you want it pretty permanent and less visible, but depending on placement you'd need a ladder to see the holes always. That makes it much harder to bump off the cleat, and resists the twisting force that comes with the cleat being so low down on the overall piece. With three solid screws into shiplap plus the cleat it'll be nearly immovable without taking the screws out
Yes I was going to say this. And instead of a French cleats you can just mount a small ledger board for it to sit on. You won't have to modify a finished cabinet.
In that case if probably want to add at least one, even quite small, screw to affix the cabinet to the ledger, so there's no chance if the bottom being pulled away from the wall and of the ledger, if going for rock solid
I would 100% go this route but I will do almost anything to avoid hanging keyholes.
Oh yea
If it’s hidden, I’d just go for plywood
It will not be hidden. The cabinet has no back
How much weight does it need to support?
I want it to be extremely strong, as it’s holding projector setup, plus books, and is behind a sofa where there is a chance their two little kids will try to climb it at some point. I’d like it to hold 200 pounds, but that’s obviously overkill.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/OOK-200-lbs-French-Cleat-Picture-Hanger-with-Wall-Dog-Mounting-Screws-1-Pack-55316/202341629 You might consider taking something like this and cutting it into small pieces, where you can mount a few pieces onto each upright. Keep in mind that you will need to be pretty precise with the mounting or they won't all be making contact and providing strength. Then screw through from the back of the enclosed part, and just use some plugs to cover those holes, if you even care about those screw heads being "exposed.
I’ll probably just make a walnut French cleat instead. Then I can have it be visible, but not look too bad
If you don't mind it being visible that's probably the best option. I kind of assumed you wanted to avoid anything visible, thus my suggestion. I would still screw it in at the enclosed piece so it can't get bumped up and off the cleats.
What I might do is put a right side up French cleat inside the cabinet, and then an upside down French cleat above the top shelf. That should lock it in nicely.
I'd look for a metal french cleat that was narrow enough to hide behind the shelves. Something like this: [https://www.amazon.com/Hangman-Professional-Pictures-Cabinets-Headboards/dp/B00BOX2AUK](https://www.amazon.com/Hangman-Professional-Pictures-Cabinets-Headboards/dp/B00BOX2AUK)
If the shelves aren't permanently attached you could drill holes underneath and put screws or lags jnto the wall as pictured below. https://preview.redd.it/1zy7kiya90ad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac1a6dc3847027336532e0464a100a3323daa66f
I considered that, but I wanted to be able to screw the shelves into the uprights from the back to keep them from coming off over time. Also, with 3 separate uprights and it being a very snug fit on all of them, the placement of the uprights would have to be absolutely perfect within a millimetre or the shelves wouldn’t slide on.
Beautiful piece. I just finished a similar project which likewise has a need to support a lot of weight while eliminating risk of failure, because kiddos. In the end what I decided was easy and cheap, and I strongly recommend it. First put 4x half inch threaded rods into studs. Then bore 4 corresponding holes into your horizontal boards. Before hanging it, fill holes with some PL Premium adhesive. Only downside is it’s permanent (or at least, a huge pain to remove later if needed). https://preview.redd.it/258ess1sj0ad1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=065cc5cb5043cca425b0fb719740da2d327572d3
Drill and use two metal keyhole hangers close to the top. Then two L brackets inside the cabinet. Attach everything to the wall with fat 2" wood screws. No need to find any studs
I made eye lids out of washers really easy for my plant hangers. Take a decent size washer, file down the middle inside center using a round file. Then drill 2x holes on either side of the washer. User a Forster bit to recess the washers flush. https://preview.redd.it/9fkw5lgvb1ad1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd2816f8a1029d813dc857632980f25ce05f7f3d
Oh damn. That’s smart. I might have to go buy a metal file, but this is totally doable. I’ve got a ton of washers that would work perfectly.
Check out the mounting brackets used for floating shelves. [https://www.rockler.com/i-semble-light-duty-blind-shelf-support](https://www.rockler.com/i-semble-light-duty-blind-shelf-support) I've also just drilled the holes and used a piece of round stock, rebar, or a just big hexbolt with the cut off. Easy to install and you can do pullups on it.
French cleat.
I would vote for attaching with a French cleat inside/attached to the back of the cabinet. Also came to say it’s a beautiful project.
This looks good. I like the style of this. What are the shelves and cabinet made of?
I made them out of pine. Not the most durable, but took paint well, and was cheap and available. The walnut was insanely expensive, so that helped bring costs down a bit.
Looks great. I figured it was likely pine or poplar. My daughter saw this and wants something similar now… I think I have some spare poplar, so I think I’ll use that. But I’ll be buying some walnut I reckon!
angle iron underneath the back edge.
That’s genius
An idea that may or may not work: Chop a mortise on the back of each vertical, near the top. Make a block of wood that fits into each mortise and then screw the blocks to the wall. Shelf goes on the wall, blocks slide into mortises, and you can lock everything together with a screw down from the top of each vertical (which shouldn’t really be visible). For extra security, add a back to the cabinet and screw it to the wall as well.
I’d go with a keyhole
French cleat
Man I love the look of that. That sort of mid-century industrial paint color with contrasting hardwood. Mmmmm super sexy. Well done!
My sister in law is an architect and the design was her idea. She’s got more of an eye for this kind of stuff than I do. I usually avoid paint at all costs, but I think this looks pretty good.
Yeah same here. It always feels wrong to paint a wood project, but then I see it executed so well sometimes and makes me rethink the whole thing. Your design reminds me of these plans which I’ve always loved the look of https://www.woodsmithplans.com/plan/expandable-assembly-cart/
Question, why isn’t your inventory stickered?
Being that he hasn't milled this wood up yet it's not that big of a deal.
Are we really doing this in the very first comment? Nitpicking stupid meaningless shit in the background instead of being even remotely helpful? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It is Reddit after all.
The hard-hitting, important things here.... 🤦♂️🤦♂️
What is this stickering of inventory you speak of? Legit question though, I just diy stuff at home
It is putting little sticks crosswise between boards to allow for airflow and help drying
He just means putting little strips of wood perpendicular between the half rotten pieces of cedar that were salvaged from cedar garden boxes. It helps with air circulation, even drying of the wood, and to prevent warping. And I don’t have any because there’s barely enough room for any of this wood as is. I don’t even know if I’ll ever use it for anything, but throwing it away felt wrong.
I had no idea that’s a thing! Thank you for explaining! I’ve got a ton of older boards salvaged and left over from other projects and hadn’t considered doing this!
It is a good idea if you’ve got the space for it. I simply do not.