How to Anchor Furniture to the Wall, and Which Pieces Actually Need It

A chest of drawers standing against a wall is one of the most stable objects in a house. A chest of drawers with the top drawer open and a two year old standing in it is one of the least stable, and the change takes about a second.

That is the whole physics of toppling furniture. The base stays where it is, the centre of gravity moves forward past the front edge, and after that nothing about the timber or the quality of the build matters. The only thing that stops it is a fixing into the wall.

Key Takeaways

• Since 2000, 28 people have died in Australia from toppling furniture, 17 of them children under five.
• About 2,600 Australians a year are treated in hospital for toppling furniture and television injuries, roughly 50 a week.
• Australia's mandatory information standard, in force since 4 May 2025, covers case furniture 686mm or taller, and entertainment units of any height.
• Use two metal brackets or straps into studs, pulled tight. A slack strap is decoration.
• Load the heaviest things into the bottom drawers, and never store anything a child wants on top.

Why an Open Drawer Changes Everything

Stability is about where the centre of gravity sits relative to the footprint. A Cedora tallboy is 100cm wide, 45cm deep and up to 120cm tall, so the base it balances on is 45cm front to back. That is enough while everything is inside the box.

Open the top drawer and you move a loaded mass 37cm forward, out past the front edge. Add the weight of a child holding on, or leaning on it, and the combined centre of gravity crosses the front feet. At that point the piece is not tipping because it is badly made. It is tipping because it is now a lever.

Height makes it worse and depth makes it better, which is why a tallboy at 100 x 45cm is the highest risk piece in a bedroom and a chest at 140 x 45cm is more forgiving. Both still need anchoring.

What the Australian Rules Actually Say

Australia introduced a mandatory information standard for toppling furniture that came into effect on 4 May 2025. It is worth understanding what it does and does not do.

It requires suppliers to warn. Permanent warning labels on the product, warnings at the point of sale and in the instructions, with recognised safety symbols showing a child climbing on furniture. It is an information standard, not a design standard, so it does not require the furniture itself to pass a stability test and it does not require an anchor kit in the box.

The scope is defined by height. It covers chests of drawers, wardrobes, bookcases, hall tables, display cabinets, buffets and sideboards that are 686mm or taller, plus entertainment units of any height at all. Televisions sit under it too.

The practical reading for a household: the standard tells you which pieces the regulator considers a risk. Anchoring them is still your job. The current consumer guidance is on the Product Safety Australia site and is worth five minutes if you have small children.

Which Cedora Pieces Sit Above the Line

Six hundred and eighty six millimetres is 68.6cm, which sorts the catalogue cleanly.

The two that surprise people are the TV unit and the console table. A TV unit is in scope at any height because the television on top of it does the work: a large panel mounted or standing on a low cabinet raises the centre of gravity far above the cabinet's own. A console at 76cm and only 36cm to 38cm deep has the narrowest base in the house.

Newcastle Acacia 5 Drawer Tallboy

How to Fit the Anchor

1. Find two studs. Timber framed walls here run studs at 450mm or 600mm centres. A magnet dragged slowly across the plasterboard finds the screws that fix the sheet and gives you the centre line. Newer apartments often use steel studs, which need a different screw.
2. Use metal, not nylon. Rigid metal brackets or metal restraint straps rated in kilograms. The thin nylon strap in a generic baby proofing kit is not a furniture anchor. Two of them, spread as wide as the back of the piece allows.
3. Fix into the stud, not the sheet. A 10 gauge 50mm screw into the centre of a timber stud holds far more than any bedroom furniture. Where no stud lands where you need it, use metal toggle anchors rated in kilograms, or screw a timber batten across two studs and fix to that.
4. Pull it tight. A strap with slack in it lets the piece build momentum before the strap does anything, and that momentum is what breaks the fixing. It should be under light tension with the furniture flat against the wall.
5. Anchor the television as well. The cabinet being fixed to the wall does not stop a TV sliding off the top of it. A TV needs its own strap to the cabinet or a wall mount.
6. Test it. Pull the top drawer right out and apply firm pressure downward on the open drawer. Nothing should lift at the back.

Richmond Pine 2 Drawer TV Unit - Natural

The Four Habits That Matter as Much as the Bracket

Heaviest at the bottom. Jeans, jumpers and books go in the lowest drawers, light things up top. This lowers the centre of gravity of the whole piece and it is free.

Nothing a child wants on top. A remote, a favourite toy, a device on a charger. A child who wants the thing on top will use the drawers as a ladder, which is exactly the failure mode the statistics describe.

One drawer at a time. Two or three drawers open at once moves several loaded masses forward together. Adults do this while packing and it is the moment an unanchored piece is least stable.

Check the anchor once a year. Timber moves, screws back out, and a strap that was tight in March can have slack in it by spring. It takes ten seconds.

If You Rent

This comes up constantly and the answer is straightforward: two screw holes in a wall, each about 5mm across, filled and touched up at the end of a lease, is not damage any reasonable landlord will pursue. The alternative is a piece of furniture that can fall on someone.

If you genuinely cannot screw into the wall, the fallback is to reduce the risk rather than pretend it is gone. Choose lower and deeper pieces, put child locks on the drawers so they cannot be used as steps, keep the heaviest weight low, and put nothing attractive on top. A Bristol Pine 6 Drawer Chest at 140 x 45 x 85cm is meaningfully more stable than a 120cm tallboy on the same 45cm base, and in a rental with small children that is a real consideration when choosing.

Bristol Pine 6 Drawer Chest

The Rest of the Room

Anchoring is the same conversation as hanging anything heavy, and the same wall skills apply. If you are already up a ladder with a stud finder, do the mirror at the same time: a 100cm timber framed mirror weighs 15kg to 17kg and belongs on the same fixings logic. We went through that in how to hang a heavy mirror.

A mirror leaning on top of a chest is the one arrangement that needs both jobs done: the chest anchored to the wall, and a restraint at the top of the mirror so it cannot walk forward off a 45cm deep top.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which furniture needs to be anchored to the wall?

Anything tall enough to fall on someone and anything with drawers that can be climbed. Australia's mandatory information standard covers chests of drawers, wardrobes, bookcases, hall tables, display cabinets, buffets and sideboards 686mm or taller, plus entertainment units of any height.

How do you anchor a chest of drawers to the wall?

Use two metal brackets or rated metal straps, fixed into timber studs at 450mm or 600mm centres, pulled tight so there is no slack. Where no stud lands in the right place, use metal toggle anchors rated in kilograms or screw a timber batten across two studs and fix to that.

Is a nylon baby proofing strap enough for a tallboy?

No. Use rigid metal brackets or metal restraint straps rated in kilograms, two of them spread wide. The thin nylon straps in generic child safety kits are not rated for the load a loaded tallboy applies when it starts to move.

Where should heavy items go in a chest of drawers?

In the bottom drawers. Weight low in the piece keeps the centre of gravity inside the footprint, which is exactly what stops it tipping when an upper drawer is open. It costs nothing and it works.

Can you anchor furniture in a rental?

Yes. Two screw holes about 5mm across, filled and touched up at the end of the lease, is not damage a reasonable landlord will pursue. If you truly cannot, choose lower and deeper pieces, fit drawer locks, keep weight low and put nothing attractive on top.