I Tried Installing This New DTC Wall Shelving Myself (and Lived to Tell the Tale)

Generally, I’m wary of direct-to-consumer furniture that promises to be easy to assemble. Despite what I do for work, I don’t consider myself particularly handy and perhaps carry some trauma from my attempt at assembling an Ikea MALM dresser some 15 years ago—a memory so rough that it haunts me to this day. In the time since, I’ve gotten slightly more confident in my skills, and have successfully assembled a couch that is still standing some three years later, and also, didn’t take me that long to do. This recent success is what led me to take on a task that I’d never considered before: installing and assembling wall-mounted shelves. 

My apartment’s living room is narrow and on the smaller side and I have a lot of books, trinkets, candles, and objects to store and display. The centerpiece of this space is the track shelving unit I got at a hardware store that serves as a media console of sorts, holding my TV, a Sonos, a lot of books and various odds and ends. The shelves are functional, they are strong, and so plain as to be inoffensive. When I moved to this apartment three years ago, I hired a Taskrabbit to install them, because I didn’t trust myself or my capabilities. The man did a better job than I would have and saved me an afternoon of frustration.

Wall mounted shelving is a fantastic solution for small spaces because, at the very least, it gets stuff up and off the floor, making the room feel bigger, even if it’s not. When I turned my attention to the large, battered Ikea BILLY in the living room, I knew that I needed to get rid of it—and Cozey, a Montreal-based DTC furniture company stepped in with the assist. They offered to send me some shelving from their new Altitude storage line, with the promise that these shelves would be easy to install by myself. I was ready to step up to the challenge—and unfortunately, was humbled by my own hubris in the process.

The prettier track shelving

The Altitude shelving system comes in three different finishes and is made from solid ash wood; I went with oak after agonizing over whether or not black would look too harsh and/or bad. What’s appealing about the Altitude shelving system is that it’s modular, meaning that you can arrange the shelves either horizontally or vertically, and you can add on units as you see fit. I was sent two units, meant to be stacked vertically—a perfect solution for a very tight little corner in my apartment that would benefit from getting the books and things up off the floor.

The track shelving that holds my television that I purchased from the hardware store is around six feet tall and four feet wide, with four shelves, and cost around $232, which does not include the price of the TaskRabbit I hired to hang them. The Cozey shelves are roughly the same dimension and at $330, are reasonably priced and attractive. Vitsoe’s iconic Dieter Rams-designed shelving units are classics for a reason, but a unit comparable in size would cost $900 or more. All told, Cozey's offerings are affordable and aesthetically, are a good step up from the utilitarian track shelving found at hardware stores and the like. 

Can I do it myself?

Part of the appeal of Cozey’s shelving units is that they come with everything you need to install them yourself. The package comes with the shelves, wall anchors, screws, and a poster for aligning the shelves properly on your walls before you install them. Tool-wise, a standard Allen wrench is included and you do need a hammer, but other than that, the box supposedly includes everything you’d need to hang these shelves in an afternoon. And part of the benefit of these shelving units is that you don’t need a drill—just a hammer and some gumption, and you’re ready to go.

I do not consider myself to be a particularly handy person, but I can follow clearly-written instructions; Altitude’s instructions were very clear and also very simple. All I had to do was assemble the shelves, align them on the wall, and then hang them. The man in the video on the website made this look very easy; I watched it at least four times to make sure that I was going to do this right. Then, once I was confident in my abilities, I took every single book off the tired BILLY and dragged it to my office/closet area, where it now holds every pair of shoes I own. The wall was clear and I was ready to hang some shelves.

Hubris or…?

Assembling the shelves was easy; the shelves slipped neatly into the brackets and while they were slightly awkward to navigate around in my living room, they felt sturdy and solid. It is at this point in the process where my confidence started to falter. The alignment poster provided by Cozey was useful in helping me figure out where to mark my wall for the anchors, but what I really needed (and didn’t have) was a level. I used the one on my phone and double, then triple-checked my measurements to make sure that I was going to hang these things straight. Once that was sorted to my liking, I met a formidable foe: the provided Wallclaw wall anchors and accompanying screws, both of which proved to be my downfall.

Per the video instructions, all I needed to do was gently hammer the wall anchor into my wall, as the man in the video was doing. Wallclaw anchors are nylon and designed with a "blade-like" body that supposedly penetrates drywall with ease. As far as I know, the walls in my apartment aren’t plaster or anything other than your standard Sheetrock. I assumed that this would be easy enough. I was wrong! I found my hammer and tried to get this thing in my wall, but it was extremely difficult. I tried every wall anchor they provided. I hammered gently, then with more force. I watched one of the videos the company provides of a man hammering a Wallclaw into a piece of Sheetrock like it was nothing. I hammered some more. I consulted the video instructions from Cozey; the man in question was using just a hammer and his own brute strength and the anchor was practically sinking into the wall. Nothing worked. 

Cozey’s excellent and very helpful customer service people suggested that I go find different wall anchors at a hardware store. The hardware store sold me anchors that they said would work; when I got home and tried to get these into my wall using the power screwdriver I found in the box under the sink, I failed. Disheartened, exhausted, and nursing a thumb swollen from hammering, I abandoned this project for the evening and scheduled a TaskRabbit for the next day; the man who showed up installed my shelves within 15 minutes, using all of the tools one might need to do this right, including a level, a stud finder, and a drill.

Would I do this again?

Now that the shelves are up and secure, I’m quite pleased with the end results, though the process left a little to be desired. The promise of good DTC furniture is empowerment: the consumer should feel comfortable and confident in both their skills and the product they purchased to be able to assemble it largely unaided. I did feel a sense of this when I got the shelves put together, but I wish there were more wall anchor options provided. (According to the man who hung my new shelves, my walls are particularly thick.) A level would’ve been useful! More wall anchors as backups, in case your ineffectual hammering somehow damaged one also would’ve helped. But, in the end, the shelves are up (thanks to the Taskrabbit), and I do love them. And I learned a lesson about my own capabilities—when in doubt, hire someone to do it right the first time.

Top image courtesy of Cozey

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