There are too many people who choose to put their friends and family in danger by not anchoring furniture just because they think it will affect the look of the room. This is no reason to potentially put people at risk, especially when there are ways to anchor furniture without anybody realizing it. There doesn't have to be unsightly brackets and wires hanging out of every wall just for the furniture to be secure, a proper investment can be made into equipment that is designed to be safe, secure and unseen.
Why Does Furniture Need to be Anchored?
First and foremost: anchoring furniture is a safety issue. This isn't just for families with small children either, large bookcases and shelving units can topple over unexpectedly with dangerous consequences. It also doesn't matter how careful people are when living on the west coast, where major and minor earthquakes can realistically take place in the coming years. Anchoring furniture to the walls can go a long way in preventing damage to the home and, more importantly, to family and friends. Properly anchoring furniture doesn't have to be as unsightly as some imagine, there are ways to safely secure every bookcase or electronic without anybody noticing.
Find the Stud & Arrange Your Furniture Around It
If there's a common theme for properly decorating and designing a room it's this: plan in advance. An all too familiar sequence is the family that finds the perfect arrangement for every piece in the living room, only to leave anchoring until the last step. Then at that point, the family has the choice to either not anchor the furniture or to find unsightly ways to do it. If the hypothetical family had found the studs in advance, they could have planned their entire layout with anchoring in mind, placing the largest pieces of furniture next to areas where they can be secured properly from behind, where nobody will notice.
Don't Forget the Electronics
Now that televisions are designed to be as large and as light as possible, they have become the one thing in the living room that is just as likely to fall over if a pet pushes it as it is during an earthquake. Thankfully there are many ways to anchor a television that are both safe and pleasing to the eyes. The most popular option is to have the television professionally wall mounted. By securing it directly to the wall it removes the need to use cables and wires to anchor a television stand to a wall or to anchor the television to a shelving unit. Anchoring furniture is an important step in creating the perfect living space. Safety should always be a priority, especially in houses that have young children running around. It doesn't matter how careful a family is, accidents can happen, so taking the steps to properly anchor the furniture is a necessity. By locating studs in advanced and investing in proper equipment, all your furniture can be safely secured without anybody noticing.