Upside-down billy bathroom wall cabinet

Materials: Ikea BILLY bookcase, scraps of plywood and hardwood, cordless drill/driver, various screws

Description: We needed a tall, skinny wall cabinet above the toilet in our tiny bathroom. We could have used a kitchen cabinet but at the time the white BILLY bookcase was on sale for $20 and it was a much better size. The bookcase is constructed quite similarly to the AKURUM wall cabinet so I figured it would hold up fine for the application. With a bit of hacking, of course.

WARNING: If you try this, you do so at your own risk. This is no joke. A BILLY bookcase was just not intended to be hung on the wall. If it falls, it is going do a lot of damage to itself and anything and anyone below it. The following information is for entertainment purposes only and I can't take responsibility if you try this at home and it falls off your wall.

Here's how I did it:

First I assembled the bookcase according to the splendid pictograms provided with the BILLY bookcase.

After some noodling I decided the bookcase would work best flipped upside down and pushed against the ceiling, and secured to the wall with hardwood cleats screwed to the studs. Or rather, stud, since there was only one. Fortunately it was right in the middle of where I wanted to hang the cabinet.

I used half-inch thick, four-inch wide plywood "mounting strips" as one would use a steel mounting rail for an AKURUM cabinet. I placed one where the top of the cabinet would go and the other at the bottom. I mounted the strips to the stud with two 2" screws each so they wouldn't rotate, and more importantly, so they would not separate from the wall. I had to measure carefully to keep them centered, plumb, and located where I could screw through the cleats, the back of the bookcase, and into the mounting strips.

Then I hung the bookcase/cabinet by driving multiple 1-5/8" screws through hardwood 1x2 cleats, the fiberboard back, and into the plywood. I located the top cleat immediately below the top of the cabinet and the bottom cleat immediately above the bottom, as you might see in a typical wall cab install. I used 4 screws in each cleat, evenly spaced. I used screws long enough to penetrate the entire plywood mounting strip, ensuring 1/2" of penetration at each fastener. I used four screws in each because of the relatively shallow penetration and because the plywood strips were only secured to a single stud; I did not want the weight of the cabinet to cause the plywood to bend and pull away from the wall.

We attached a MOREBO glass door and now all our toiletries, shampoos, and hygiene products are hidden and out of reach of children. LOVE the space, clean look, and functionality.

~ Ryan McCulley, Tucson, Arizona