attach an IKEA Lillangen cabinet to the wall above tiles

Question

I am thinking about buying an IKEA Lillangen cabinet for my bathroom. That one: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50396635/. The assembly instructions are here: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/assembly_instructions/lillangen-wall-cabinet-with-door__AA-2050534-1_pub.pdf).

The bathroom is tiled from the floor to 2m above ground, and I have to leave the tiles and the tile joints undamaged. So we would need to attach the cabinet above the tiles. The tiles are 1cm thick.

Questions:

1. Will this be possible with the provided top attachment? To me it looks as if the provided top attachment requires a straight wall (see instructions, step 14) so that in my case the cabinet would be slanted like this:

2. If it will not be possible with the provided attachment, what kind of attachments would work?

3. The instructions show that the cabinet should also be attached at the bottom (see instructions, step 15). As I said, I am not supposed to damage tiles and tile joints, so what options do I have?

The cabinet will be filled with cleaning agents, so it has to hold some actual weight. The goal is to store the cleaning agents safely away from a young child. Since the child might find the cabinet interesting, it must be stable enough to not bulge when the child tries to shake it from below.

Answer 1

You can use the supplied mounting system if you put a spacer behind the bar that mounts to the wall. ( between the bar and the wall to bring the bar out to the same plane as the tile.)

The spacer will need to be the correct thickness,

I.E. measure how far off the wall the tile sits.

If you do not have a planer or table saw You may need to sandwich a couple of things to achieve your thickness.

You need to make sure you secure the bar into structure (studs).

You could use double sided tape on the bottom corners to keep it against the tile.

Answer 2

Definitely don't mount it on an angle.

Two options:

1. Single layer, wall solution.

   • Get a piece of wood the same thickness as the tiles. It should be the same width as or just slightly less than the width of the cabinet, and the height should be from the top of the tiles to the top of the cabinet. Mount the wood to the wall into studs using appropriate screws. Mount the cabinet to the wood, preferably into studs, but alternatively into other places on the wood. If you screw the cabinet to other places on the wood then I would overdo it a bit - e.g., instead of 4 screws, I might do 6 or 8 to give it some extra strength.

2. Multilayer cabinet solution.

   • One thick piece of wood - e.g., 1/2" plywood, cut to match the back of the cabinet. Mount the cabinet to this piece of wood first, at both top and bottom.
   • One thin piece, as described in the first solution. Mount it to the top back of the cabinet+wood already assembled. You now have a sturdy cabinet that is shaped to fit the wall.
   • Mount the cabinet+wood+wood to the wall, preferably into studs.

Answer 3

1. Shim to match plane of tiles.
2. Secure cabinet to wall using screws to studs (I chuck that ikea rail thing when I do cabinets). Cabinets are typically > 16" wide and you have a stud every 16" or less with corners. Also I typically screw one cabinet into the side cabinet or into the side wall. Your cabinet is 11 3/4 wide so you should be able to hit one stud. This cabinet is 50" tall will it be resting on the ground? or suspended? The load is probably 90% the weight of the cabinet. If you are mounting close to the ceiling you could also secure the top to the ceiling joists.
3. Drill through the tile - use a carbide bit (not a big deal, unless you are renting and removing the cabinet later?). I've mounted a cabinet on top of a mirror and drilled through the mirror to anchor to studs.