Shelving For The Home Office Redesign

With the chalkboard wall complete and the art hung, I can now move on to another project in the Home Office Redesign. The cabinet in the room will provide a lot of storage, but there also needs to be a place to stack magazines, books and various other items. I had considered bringing in a bookcase, but this little animal table needs to stay in the room. If I put a bookcase on this wall there wouldn't be a space left to place the table, a item my husband purchased long before I knew him. (And I'm not saying I don't like it, I actually do...)


The solution? Hang three ledges on the wall above the animal table to provide the needed shelving. Ikea sells the Lack wall shelf shown above. They were my first choice: right size, right color and very very affordable. The problem? The maximum weight for each shelf is just 33 pounds. I took a small stack of magazines and weighed them...10 pounds! That was a surprise. Well, that isn't going to work, these shelves need to hold a lot of weight should the magazines and books pile up.


There are endless shelf and ledge options on the market right now. But the ones I finally selected are the Holman Shelves from Pottery Barn. They are available in the four foot length perfect for this wall, are the right width with a lip to stop items from slipping off, the black color coordinates with the other finishes in the room, and the deciding factor? Each shelf can hold up to 70 pounds. So while this style comes with a higher price tag, because they provide all the required function the cost is worth it.


To get the shelves hung I decided to indicate the position of each shelf with tape. I went to the bin in the closet where I store all my tape, including the painters tape I wanted to use, and guess what? No blue tape, not even any Frog tape. I had some there, I know I did. Do you ever have this problem in your house? Oh well, luckily there was a roll of duct tape. That ought to work, add it to the list.


Three four foot lengths of tape were cut and I played around with the placement on the wall. The height of items to be placed on the shelves and the maximum height the top shelf could be hung were taken into consideration. My husband is tall, but still, I wanted to make sure the items placed there could be reached.


This is the arrangement I decided on, I think it is going to work...check back tomorrow to see!

p.s. If you've read this blog for awhile you might remember my saying if you want to see a space with fresh eyes take a photo, you'll see things you don't see looking at the space in person. What do I see looking at photos of this room? I see I need to paint the little patch on the ceiling, a repair from a popped nail. In person you don't even notice it. It really does work!