Anchoring a piece of furniture in a porch

badatDIY

I am looking to buy a coat rack/shoe rack/bench type piece of furniture for my porch (I tried to provide a link but I am too new for that - the dimensions are 186cm high, 40cm deep and 100cm wide. If you really are struggling to understand what I mean google "Peters Hall Tree with Bench and Shoe Storage Wayfair" and you should find it) as the front door opens directly into the living room and I'd rather keep shoes and coats "outside" in the porch (whether this will be smart in winter is still to be worked out, but never mind).

Most furniture of that height states you must anchor it to a wall, and provides straps/screws to do so. Now I know with some furniture (particularly IKEA) this is just a legal thing - they don't want you to sue them if a piece of furniture topples on a child and hurts them. I have no children and so I am not too worried about that, but theoretically as this is quite tall and will have coats and things on it there's no guarantee it won't be a bit top heavy.

My problem is this: the porch - particularly where the furniture would fit and the straps would attach - is mostly double glazing. The window frames are uPVC so theoretically I could screw into those, but it's not something I fancy doing and I am not even sure that it's a good idea. So it's basically impossible to use screws on any kind of wall anchor for where we want to put this piece of furniture. I've tried to google no screw solutions etc. but am really struggling to find anything. Can anyone recommend a way to secure a tall piece of furniture like the one linked in a UPVC porch? Or should I not really be worried about tipping in the first place? Ultimately if tipping is a real risk and I can't secure it maybe I'll get a coat rack and separate shoe stand, but there's got to be a way to achieve this surely?

SaverRate

If you worried about it falling over put some weights on the bottom shelves assuming this is the item?

https://www.wayfair.co.uk/furniture/pdp/williston-forge-peters-hallway-unit-eqav1002.html

badatDIY

SaverRate said:

If you worried about it falling over put some weights on the bottom shelves assuming this is the item?

Hmm, I stupidly hadn't thought of that. Front garden is full of quite big stones that I could probably put on the bottom shelf at the back behind any shoes to keep it anchored. Thanks for the idea!

Mr.Generous

You could use L brackets and screw the legs to the floor.

davemorton

Loads of those on ebay a lot cheaper than Wayfair. 

ariarnia

this? 



if you want to secure it and the panel at the top lines up flush with the upvc then you could try a grab adhesive (think no more nails). or you could secure the back-bottom to the floor/kickboard so it can't tilt forward? or just keep something very heavy on the bottom to counterbalance? i'd probably buy it and put it in place before deciding if i wanted to secure it or not but looking at it i wouldn't be too worried. 

daivid

A sensible number of coats on the pictured rack would be fine, they will be hanging in the middle of the vertical planes of the feet. Also whilst one can’t be sure from a photo it looks like there is quite a weight to the section from the bench down which should make it stable so long as it is on a level surface.

Bendy_House

That's nice!

A good design too, in that the coat hooks are at the back, so most of the weight will be too. However, I can see a situation where someone 'grabs' their coat on the way out, and it doesn't unhook fully...

I like Ariarnia's idea - for that rack to fall/be pulled forward, the back legs would need to lift up. So if you do have a skirting board along there, it should be relatively simple to anchor the legs to the wall there. At it's crudest, this could be a couple (or more) of angle brackets screwed to the s'board, and coming snugly over the top of that bottom shelf. Paint the sticky-out bits black, and it'll be near invisible.

Mark height, fit the brackets, and push the rack straight back into position - it should now only topple if it's ALSO pulled out. And if that's a risk, it would be easy to mod a bracket with a downwards bent end so's it hooks over that back shelf rail = well anchored.

badatDIY

I failed to mention the whole structure is uPVC, so whether screwing into the 'skirting board' will work or not is another question entirely. Thanks for the tips/advice though, everyone, I will explore some of the options outlined here!

Thankfully in terms of weight at the bottom my mum is an avid quilter so I reckon I can get her to make a nice thing sandbag to loop around the back legs on the bottom shelf for additional weight too.

FaceHead

Agree that it's a decent design, and I wouldn't be too worried about it free standing. The belt-and-braces is to stop the back legs lifting up when the top is pulled forward. The answer is either weight at the bottom, or a couple of angle brackets into the (presumably concrete) floor to keep the legs down.

If you like it, get it. Once you've put it together take a view on how hard it is to pull over and if it needs anything else securing the back legs down. 

Bendy_House

With normal - careful - use, there should be very little risk. But you know what it's like in reality when folk grab their coats?

Any chance of a piccie of the skirting area?

Another solution could be those small self-adhesive mounts such as towel hooks. These stick very strongly to clean, smooth surfaces, and a wee lasso could then go from there to the vertical rail of the unit. They hopefully would fit near invisibly in the gap behind the rails, as there should be a wee space due to the thickness of the skirting board.