Gallery wall disaster: my floating shelf came crashing down last night

So I finally decided to tackle my empty hallway wall after months of staring at it. I put up three floating shelves with what I thought was heavy duty anchors, but the middle one came crashing down around 2 AM - scared me half to death. Turns out my drywall anchors were rated for 50 pounds but I had loaded that shelf with about 30 pounds of frames and plants. I'm torn between two approaches now: should I go back to anchor-based shelves and just use lighter stuff, or should I try to find the studs and mount directly into those? Has anyone else had a shelf fail on them and what did you switch to?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_rivera20d ago

@oliver811 but studs aren't always where you need them though.

oliver81120d ago

Wait did you actually use the drywall anchors that came with the shelf or buy separate ones? My buddy Greg had the EXACT same thing happen with his living room shelves, but his crash took out a whole vase collection his wife LOVED. He switched to finding the studs and screwing right into those, and honestly that stuff hasn't budged in like two years now. The anchors just feel like a gamble to me after hearing that story, even if the weight says it should hold.