We’ve been making wall cabinets and shipping them all over the world for five years now! Five years! It seems like just yesterday Graeme was going to his accounting office in slacks and shoes so shiny I had to shade my eyes. Look at him now, with his scraggly beard and Jesus hair making furniture…
Anyways…we always use wooden French cleats to hang our wall cabinets, and metal ones for frames and mirrors (you can see a tutorial for that HERE). French cleats are definitely our favorite hanging hardware as they are quick, safe, and easy to install.
If you’ve ordered a wall cabinet from our shop, keep reading and in a few minutes you’ll be ready to hang it up!
By the way, French cleats are kind of invisible. This cabinet already has all the hanging hardware it needs:
Weird, isn’t it? That little strip of wood at the top is one of the French cleats, and another one goes on the wall. A confused fellow contacted us recently and said there was no hanging hardware on the wall cabinet we sent him, just a random stick taped to the back which was flung into the trash can immediately.
Sorry, man. This post is for you. A bit late, but…you know, for future reference.
Step 1: Mark the location of wall cleat and studs
Measure the distance from the top of the cabinet to the bottom of the cabinet cleat. Decide where you want the top of the cabinet to be on the wall and mark this measurement on the wall. This will be the mounting location of the cleat.
Using a stud-finder, check the wall for any studs and mark them where the cleat is going to be. A stud is not absolutely necessary for hanging a cabinet, but it is much more secure and provides, peace of mind.
If there are no studs available, make sure to use some good anchors. And maybe don’t hang from the cabinet.
Step 2: Attach the cleat to the wall
Place the cleat under the mark you made in step one. Make sure to have the angle going up and away from the wall. Place a level on top and adjust the cleat until it’s level.
Drill holes through the cleat into the studs. Attach the cleat to the wall with two screws. If there is only one stud to mount the cleat to, attach one screw to the stud, then attach a wall anchor and screw to stabilize the cleat.
Step 3: Hang the cabinet on the wall cleat
Lift the cabinet and push it against the wall above the cleat. Then slide the cabinet down until the two cleats come into contact and the cabinet feels secure.
You can give it a little tug just to make sure it’s attached. If the top doesn’t budge, you’re all set. Stand back and check that the cabinet is level. If not, you can pull it off and adjust the cleat as necessary.
So now you know! This is the way we hang all our dish racks, surface-mount medicine cabinets and wall storage cabinets. French cleats are very safe, hold a lot of weight, and are pretty easy to install.
We use a different kind of French cleats for mirrors and frames. If you aren’t sure how to hang a heavy wall mirror safely, check out our quick guide on how to install metal French cleats on frames over HERE. So quick and totally worth it.
🙂
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