I was in the market looking for a nice sturdy table ever since the lockdown started in Singapore. Prior to that, my desk set up at home is a basic Ikea Linnmon table with Adil legs (I believe many you can relate to how wobby this set up can be especially when you start to type/write intently while working on your next master piece). I also have to deal with the never ending "accidents" of knocking my toes to the table legs while moving around. The legs also became hot spots for dust to gather over time, a minor but painful sight I will have to deal with constantly. I was considering getting a adjustable standing desk, but given how often I was actually making use of this feature while working in my office before the lockdown, I thought I should save myself the money. I was looking for a full size wall mounted table but I couldn't find one that is functional and reasonably priced (The largest wall-mounted table that Ikea sells, Norbo is only 79cm long by 59cm wide)

So the engineer in me decided that I will build my own wall-mounted table customized to my needs and I hope this will work for you too.

The Idea is simple, get a full size table top and find a suitable fixture that would be strong enough to bear the load of:

1) 2 x 24 inch monitor
2) An ATX desktop CPU
3) A work laptop
4) Other computer peripherals etc: keyboard, mouse, speaker

Material List

These are the tools/material which I got for this project.

1. Ikea Linnmon table top - $49
2. Triangular brackets  - $39.95
   link 1 - 20 inches -$29.08
   link 2 - 22 inches - $36.90
   link 3 - 22 inches (preferred) - $44.34
3. Ikea fixa screws and plugs - $14.90
4. Hilti plastic anchors
5. M6 washers - <$2
6. Bosch cordless hammer drill and cordless drill - $397
7. Tolsen cordless drill - $98
8. 8mm - SDS plus drill bit - <$5
9. Tolsen 36004 measuring tape - $7
10. Tolsen 35100 level ruler - $7
11. Tolsen 20036 screwdriver set - $19
12. Chalk 42012 line reel - $7

For the table top, I had already planned to get a larger Linnmon table to replace my existing one. Ikea have a variety of sizes that was available. The one that I was previously using was a 120cm x 60cm. But after using it for sometime, I quickly realized that it was too small because with my 24 inch monitor and keyboard set up, my arm was resting on the edge of the table and it gets uncomfortable after sometime. I eventually settled with the 150cm x 75cm version because it has the longest width(which was able to fit into my 5 seater, FYI for anyone who wants to cash and carry). The retail price was $49 but I got mine at $29 which is approximately 40% discount!. Just incase you didn't know, Ikea have a AS-IS section which basically sell goods that are rejected/slightly damaged/ex-showroom display/damaged packaging. The particular one which I picked had damaged packaging, otherwise the table was in perfect condition.

For the Triangular Bracket, I have sourced it from Aliexpress as I could not find anything suitable in the local e-commerce market. I got a total of four brackets from 2 different suppliers and it turns out that the build quality was quite similar. I would recommend getting it from link 2 however they had discontinued selling the brackets, but you can still get the 22 inches version from a third supplier in link 3. Strictly speaking, all three type of bracket will do the job but since I have chosen 75cm width table, it would be safer to choose a longer triangular bracket for more structural support.

Positioning

Now that we have all the materials, its time to start the installation. We will start by marking 70cm from ground up. This is the height of the Ikea Adils legs and I find it to be just right for me. You can of course adjust this height to your preference, but I do want to highlight 1 reason why I am leaving it at 70cm. You might have seen the Ikea Alex drawer or the Kallax shelves. This are some of the other furniture from Ikea which you can pair them up with your table. Leaving it at 70cm gives you this flexibility incase if you would like to extend your home office set-up. However, do note that may or may not align perfectly depending on the flatness of your floor and wall.

Ikea Alex drawer

Ikea Kallax Desk Combination

Once you have marked the 2 points on the wall, its time to get a buddy and make use of the chalk line reel. The name is self-explanatory and the purpose of it is simply to help us make a temporary marking on the wall. Using a levelling rule, ensure that the line is perfectly levelled if it isn’t, you can simply clean up the chalk line and redo the marking.

We will now mark the position for the four triangular brackets. If you take a close look at the underside of the Linnmon table, you will find the screw holes for the Adils legs to be mounted on (yellow dots in the image below). We will be using these holes to decide the position of the brackets. Regardless of the size of the Linnmon table you are getting, you will be able to derive the position by using this method. The five holes for each the table legs resembles that of star. By joining the top and bottom vertex of the star, it gives us the position of the outer brackets(white dotted lines). The position of the inner brackets isn’t that critical and for simplicity sake, I have equally spaced them out(blue dotted lines). However, after completing the installation, I do find myself knocking the brackets with my knees whenever I cross my legs. So for anyone who is embarking on this DIY project, I would recommend placing the inner brackets somewhere around 20cm away from the outer legs.

Now that we have the dimensions, we can proceed to mark these positions on the wall. And here comes the tricky part, marking the screw holes. Depending on the triangular bracket that you purchases, the screw position will be different. Ideally, we want to make sure that once the screws are installed, the bracket is resting equally on both top and bottom screws. To achieve this, we have to:

1. Determine A and B (refer to GIF below)
2. Add 2.5mm to both A and B

The reason why we add an additional 2.5mm is because A and B are measured from the top of the bracket to the top of the hole, the actual screw position will actually be offset by the radius of the screw that we will be using(The longest roundhead screw from Ikea Fixa which has 5mm diameter). If this sounds too complex, feel free to use A and B as your screw position, your table height will be slightly higher but it will be barely noticeable for an average person. That is also provided that you have no intention of integrating your work desk with other Ikea products(Kallax/Alex) as mentioned earlier.

Drilling

Now it is time for some action. Using this simple method of comparison, we can adjust the hammer drill stopper to ensure a correct hole depth. For this project, we will be using a 8mm drill bit and 8mm plastic anchors to secure the screws. A pro-tip to minimise the mess while drilling, you can make use of post-it note to trap most of the dust and debris. Hammer drills are mainly used for drilling into concrete and unlike a normal drill, it has the added function of hammering the drill bit into the wall, making it much easier to drill through concrete. But because of this constant hammering action while drilling, a lack in experience might result in a deviation from the intended position. To overcome this, you can switch off the hammering function initially. Once the drill bit has made a crater on the wall, you can turn on the hammering function and finish the job. Once you are done with drilling all 8 holes, you can proceed to clean up the mess. I made use of a small straw and attached it to a vacuum cleaner hose so that I could remove the debris inside the holes. This helps to ensure a maximum contact between the plastic anchors and the wall and prevents the bracket from working loose once the table is being loaded.

Plastic Anchors

DIY projects are rarely smooth sailing and this particular project is no exception. I had initially made use of the plastic anchors that came from Ikea Fixa with the intend of simplifying this whole project but these aren't exactly expansion plastic anchors for concrete. This means that the anchors do not expand as they are being tightened inside the wall as shown above. After just a week of using the table there were signs that screws and anchors were being pried out of the wall. Thankfully, I spotted it early or else my tech gadgets would have turned in to electronic waste. I knew I needed better anchors hence I reached out Titanbrackets, a TV bracket specialist in Singapore, whom I engaged to help mount my 55inch TV. They had kindly recommended using the hilti plastic anchors. They worked extremely well and I never had issues after replacing the Ikea plastic anchors with these.

Assembly

All that is left now is to assemble the brackets followed by the table. I had used the drill to fasten the bottom screws and used the Tolsen 20036 Screwdriver Set for the top screws due to the tight space constraint. Once the assembly of the brackets is completed, we can proceed to make the minor adjustments. Depending on how familiar you are with making accurate markings and operating a power tool, there might be slight inaccuracies between the contact points of all 4 brackets and the underside of the table. By holding up the table against the wall, you can make these adjustments accordingly such that once the table is secured, weight is equally distributed across all 4 brackets.

We then make markings on the underside of the table, followed by drilling a 2mm guide hole that we can use to fasten the table to the bracket. Any screws in Ikea Fixa can be used to secure the table as long as screw is not longer than the combined length of the table and bracket. I would recommend using the countersunk screws so that the underside will be flushed with the brackets.

Congratulations for making it this far in the article, we hope that you have learned something from this project and should you have any questions, please feel free to leave your comment in the section below and we will do our best to answer it. Thank you!

Disclaimer: All tools/materials were purchased out of our pockets and none of the them were sponsored.