Decorative shelving types

Organizing the Kids
The most unorganized rooms in the house belong to the kids. Kids' wall shelves and kids' bookcases can eliminate the mountainous masses of junk that clutter floors. Install library shelves near the bed to hold bedtime reading. Ledge shelves placed a couple of feet from the ceiling display doll and model car collections. Decorative shelves with pegs, offer a place to hang baseball caps. Modular shelving and cubes hold a lot of kid junk, and give the option of restructuring storage space.

Organizing with the Usual and Unusual
If you have the flair for the unusual, there are decorative shelves with sections that roll back to allow for storage of taller items. Ladder shelves can be used to hold cookbooks in kitchens, towels and necessities in bathrooms, books in the study, or collectibles in the living room. Track shelves give the illusion of built-in shelves in any room.

Wall bracket shelves are the most common display shelves - common becomes unusual with ornate brackets rich in artistic detail. Sconces that were common in the 17th century have returned as decorative shelves; some are illuminated to spotlight a collectible. Tempered-glass shelves can be installed with brackets or as floating shelves and overhead or under-shelf lighting creates a seductive ambiance.

Glass or wood floating shelves can be used in any room. Individual corner shelves also seem to float in space. These wedge or square shelves elegantly make use of dead corner space and can be tiered from just above the floor to just below the ceiling.

If there's a need to divide a room, consider bookcase room dividers. Bookcases and freestanding shelves have a place in any decor. There are endless bookshelf designs: some encompass the entire wall from floor to ceiling with rows of shelves or numerous cubicles; some have built-in seating, or collapsible and rotating shelves, even suspended cables that create invisible shelves so items seem suspended in air.