Big design decisions, such as furniture, flooring, and paint colors, set the tone of a room—but little things also mean a lot when it comes to making a house a home. That’s where showcase shelves come in. These décor elements provide surfaces to hold your special items, whether they’re useful or purely decorative, that truly reflect your personal taste. Let’s explore the various types of wall shelves and learn some interesting new ways to arrange them to bring more style and—storage—to your home.
Display Shelving Ideas
Shelving should suit the setting
While showcase shelves can go in just about any room, they should serve the primary function of that space. A kitchen, for instance, can be a grease- and splash-prone zone, so delicate fabrics or other items that are challenging to clean on shelves don’t belong there. Pottery and glassware, however, are perfect pieces to display in a cooking space.
Pro Tip: Annie Mathot, an architect in Staunton, Virginia, recommends leaning into the natural beauty of kitchen items on open shelves: “I like the look of kitchen things. They add color and texture.”
Floating focus
Floating shelves mount directly to the wall without visible brackets. This minimalist approach lets you dedicate all the visual attention to the display. These shelves’ unobtrusiveness makes them a good choice in small spaces or in modern rooms where clean lines make a strong statement. Installing floating shelves is DIY-able.
How the Pros Build Them: On a recent This Old House project, carpenter Jeff constructed floating shelves from two pieces of five-quarter white oak glued together to create a beefy two-inch-thick shelf. He then ran a dado blade on the table saw to cut a slot along the back and two sides, and applied a full-size nosing on the front so the finished shelf looks like one solid piece of wood. A cleat mounted to the wall slips into the dado slot, hiding all fasteners completely.
Pro Tip: Solid blocking behind the wall makes all the difference. On the This Old House Westerly project, Jeff secured the cleat with 5-inch screws driven through solid blocking, plus screws top and bottom all the way across. When host Kevin O’Connor tested the shelf with a heavy load, Jeff confirmed: “Oh, that thing is not going anywhere.”
Bold brackets
As an alternative to floating shelves, those mounted with attractive brackets are part of the design statement. Choose a shape and material that complements the style of the room as well as the objects on display. Carved wooden corbels make beautiful shelving brackets in a room with a Victorian or traditional feel, while sleek metal looks fresh and modern.
Ornate metalwork brackets have deep roots in American home design. As TOH Magazine’s Katelin Hill noted, “Once a handwrought luxury item, ornate metalwork became accessible to all after the Civil War, as the economy boomed and the mass manufacture of decorative hardware hit its stride.” By the late 19th century, elaborately detailed brackets made of cast iron or brass turned up in houses supporting everything from wall-hung sinks to library shelves. Today, as more homeowners opt for open shelving in kitchens and baths, reproduction-style brackets are enjoying a resurgence.
Case in point
Bookcases are built to be sturdy enough for heavy tomes, but they needn’t support reading matter only. Interspersing books with a few decorative pieces creates a more inviting look than a bunch of hardcovers on their own. Just choose objects, such as photos, ceramics, candlesticks, even plants, in colors and an overall vibe that work together cohesively. Tip: Mix up the books by stacking them both horizontally and vertically for more dynamic interest.
Think “story,” not “stuff”
When arranging shelves, choose items that, taken together, reveal something about yourself as a person. If you love to travel, for instance, framed photos, guidebooks, and souvenirs from a favorite part of the world will make you smile every time you glance at them as well as inspire guests to ask about your trips. Other themes could be related to your hobbies, things you like to collect, or family artifacts.
Crowd control
Much as you may love your stuff, less is more when it comes to crafting an effective display. Overkill on objects just looks messy, making it difficult to admire individual items. So rather than put out all your other beloved bits out at once, edit your collection to a favorite few. One way to weed out the extras is to only show items in content and colors that speak to the season—autumnal hues and dried flowers in fall, for instance.
Display against simplicity
A basic backdrop with ample negative space helps make the items you want to put on display really pop. Whereas if you placed your pieces against busy patterned wallpaper or surrounded by hanging artwork, they would get lost in the mix. You can go monochromatic, with shelving painted the same color as the wall, or choose shelves in a neutral shade.
Consider cubbies
Be they true cubes or a mix of squares and rectangles, cubbies are convenient for organizing functional and decorative items—and the bonus is that the grid effect always makes everything look nice and neat. These boxes are especially helpful in a mudroom or children’s bedroom, where multiple household members can have their own spot for stuff.
Pro Tip: TOH host Kevin O’Connor notes that cubbies are a great family project for kids’ rooms because the design is endlessly customizable: “The great thing about these cubbies is that the panel inside the back comes out so you can change your look whenever you want—you can put in fabric, corkboard, or any other decoration you like.”
Add warmth with wood
Few materials are as welcoming as wood, so placing your favorite pieces on wooden shelves invites folks to come closer and appreciate your collection. Wood works in traditional and formal settings as well as casual and contemporary ones—and just about anything in between. Whether a stately bookcase, box-style shelving, or an eclectic mix of different-sized floating and bracketed shelves, it’s hard to go wrong with wood.
When architect Barbara Bestor designed built-in bookcases for her own home office, she lined an entire wall of a former bedroom with floor-to-ceiling shelving using simple 1×10 pine boards. “I needed complete coverage on a minimum budget,” she says. The result was a spare beauty that meshes perfectly with her preference for Modernist styling — proof that even the simplest wood shelving can make a striking statement.
Collect in a corner
Why let the corners of a room waste precious space when they can show off your stuff? There are various types of corner shelves in different shapes and sizes that can turn an empty angle into an attractive, useful spot. Arrange some books, position a lamp, and—ta-da!—instant reading nook!
Expert Insight: New York-based architect Gil Schafer, author of A Place to Call Home, notes the enduring appeal of cozy built-in nooks: “These kinds of built-ins trigger so many memories and emotions. It might be the bunk bed you had as a child, or feelings of other places you remember, like being belowdecks in a boat.”
Surround a workstation
In a home office or a child’s room where studying takes place, installing shelves around the desk is a practical move for storing books and supplies. But when it comes to adding some decoration, think: inspiring, not distracting. When concentration is key, it’s essential to keep a display curated, not cluttered. So in a kid’s homework zone, for instance, one or two toys, not ten.
Play with length and thickness
There’s no rule that says that shelving must be symmetrical. Mount a shorter shelf over a longer shelf and make them each of varying thickness—from half an inch on up to a chunky three inches. Keeping them in the same color family or material keeps the look purposeful and playful.
Keep it casual
Wondering how to arrange shelves when you’ve got a trove of treasures? Think: eclectic yet cohesive. Cull a variety of shapes, heights, materials, and textures within an appealing color palette. Anchor the display with a few larger pieces, then cluster the smaller objects around them. Go for an odd rather than even number of items, which has a way of attracting the eye. Tip: To show off small things like rocks and seashells so they won’t look scattered, gather them together in see-through containers, such as wire baskets or glass jars.
Go for greenery
All on their own or mixed in among other items, potted plants are enormously popular for display shelves. They literally add life to any setting, even helping improve indoor air quality. Select a variety of species for different shapes and sizes—a tall, spiky snake plant, a compact begonia, a fluffy fern. Just beware of plants that drape if there are curious felines present—cats might find the tendrils irresistible!
Work a window
Storage can already be scarce in a small room, so finding space to show off pretty things can be even more challenging. Consider installing a shelf or two in a recessed window, spacing them widely enough to let in natural light.
Displaying transparent items like glass bottles and vases also allows in light.
Reader Project: TOH reader Matt Totaro of Catonsville, Md., put this idea to work in his kitchen. After thickening existing walls to accommodate extra insulation and new plumbing, he ended up with deep-set windows above his sink — and an extra 9 inches of space. He and his wife, Connie, installed ½-inch-thick glass shelves for their potted plants, choosing glass so as not to block the sunlight. Small strips of molding, painted to match the casing, act as supports.
Repurpose a ladder
You couldn’t resist that old wooden ladder at a recent yard sale—now you know what to do with it! Give it a coat of chalk paint and slide in shelves to rest on the steps. You can even unite two old ladders with extra-long wooden boards between the rungs.
