Choosing a Drywall / Pasterboard Anchor

The majority  of our internal walls are plasterboard on timber studs with 60cm or 24″ centres. As such we have had to use a lot of anchors when we put anything on our walls. This includes putting up:

  • Photos
  • Clocks
  • Shelves
  • Prints
  • Artwork
  • Coatrack
  • etc.

Having the timber framing 60cm, or 24″, apart adds to the weakness of the walls. Our home in Canada had 16″ centres, which seemed to make a significant difference in strength. I’m also not too sure how thick the plasterboard / drywall is, but I reckon it’s pretty thin, as it is far weaker than the walls we had back in Canada.

This video by Project Farm does a very good breakdown of different kind of wall anchors that can be used in our plasterboard. Many I have tried myself, but this is a great test:

The winner according to this video is the E-Z Ancor Drywall Toggle Anchor, which of course is not available here in Australia. The best that I can find that is close is the Ramset Super Wallmate, which is available at Bunnings for about $2.00 each.

Ramset Super WallMate 8 x 64mm Zinc Alloy Toggle With Screw

While I have not tried that specific anchor myself, next time I need to purchase some anchors to put a large item on our plasterboard wall I reckon I’ll give the Ramset Super Wallmate a try.

New Ikea 2019 Catalogue

It’s always an exciting time of year when the new Ikea 2019 catalogue comes out. They are always full of interesting new European designs and furniture, and inevitably lead to a trip to the store.Already today we had the book

Already today we had it out looking at some options for our daughter’s bedroom. There are many different options for furniture and furnishings, and it’s fun to see what’s new …

Are there any new products from Ikea that interest you?

Wooden Animal Heads

Having animal heads on the wall is a Canadian tradition. Unfortunately though I have a feeling that Australia Customs and Quarantine wouldn’t allow stuffed animal heads into the country…

A very cool option that I saw today was a wooden animal head.

Wall Mounted Wooden Animal Heads

I think that the wooden animal head here is an elk, but either way I think it looks pretty cool. Not sure I could talk my wife into it though … 😉

To see the full post that I found this cool mounted wooden animal head at check out Apartment Therapy – Joe & Brad’s Small Space with Big Style.

The Finished Wall Mounted Photo Shelf

After a minor mishap that involved a slipped screw driver and a few extra holes while installing the shelf, we have finally finished and mounted the wall mounted photo shelf that our daughter is using as a bookshelf in her bedroom.

Wall Mounted Picture and Book Shelf

We described how we built the self in the Build a Wall Mounted Photo Shelf Article. Our daughter loves the shelf and quickly went to work putting as many books as she could on it.

Wall Mounted Photo and Book Shelf

Profile of the Wall Mounted Picture and Book ShelfSo that it could hold as much weight as possible we mounted it directly into two wall studs using 2 inch wood screws. Unfortunately screwing it into the studs left it looking lopsided, so I put one screw on the right side of the shelf into a drywall anchor. We then covered up the end of the screws with white screw hole plugs that seemed to do the trick pretty well.

We placed the bookshelf at the head of our daughters Ikea Hemnes Daybed. Given the fact that the books are always in different places come the morning I can guess that she is using the book shelf a lot…