Decorative Shelving Buying Guide

What Are You Waiting For?
Every home has dead wall space that can be turned into creative and functional space. Whether you are a shopper who trudges from store to store, sure you will know the right shelves when you see them, or the shopper who lets a search engine do the work, check the quality and assembly of materials. Also consider style relative to your home decor, depth and length of the shelf and how it conforms to space in your home, and the maximum load that the shelves will hold.

Not Just Another Shelf
Shelving units: practical and/or decorative, fixed or adjustable shelves; frames of metal with solid or mesh metal shelves, stackable modular units, particleboard masquerading as expensive decorative wall shelves, or solid wood constructions that offer years of beauty and dependability.

Bookcases: shelving units with a back and shelves that range from 10 to 14 inches deep. Materials range from pressed wood particles and veneers to solid woods with a variety of finishes. Some bookcases have glass or decorative wood doors. Use ranges from freestanding or wall-mounted to room-dividing bookcases.

Wall-mounted shelves: fixed shelves mounted to the wall, supported by brackets or metal rails, or secured onto nails or screws in the wall - decorative display and practical storage for above furniture or in groupings with pictures and sconce shelves.

Villages Decorative Corner Wall Shelf

Corner shelves: individual wedge- or square-shaped shelves that make use of dead corner space. Corner shelves support lightweight items and can be tiered from floor to ceiling.

Floating shelves: elegant glass or wood decorative shelves that use space efficiently and magically extend out of walls and corners from a small, almost-invisible bracket in the wall.

Glass shelves: decorative shelves that add ambiance when used with overhead or under-shelf lighting - tempered glass is able to hold 100 pounds with standard glass shelf brackets. Rail or clip brackets make smaller glass decorative shelves look like they are floating on the wall.