Are Floating Shelves Right for Your Space?

You have a room. You have knickknacks, books, and those cute figurines your best friend bought you years ago that you can’t get rid of. In the past, you’d grab a bookshelf or clutter the top of any surface you have with your belongings. 

But what if there was a way to bring a personal design touch to the function you need?

Perhaps a few floating shelves are right for you.

First things First… What Defines a Floating Shelf? 

We’ve all heard the term. We’ve seen videos and ads for the perfect floating shelf. But what exactly are floating shelves? What separates it from any other type of shelf?

Let’s Ask the Experts

Who better to ask than the “shelf geeks” themselves? To put it simply, a floating shelf appears to be attached to the wall without any “visible means of support.”

This means you can see the shelf, but you can’t see how it’s being held to the wall. A neat trick for any magic-lovers out there, and an even neater trick for those of us who just don’t enjoy looking at a bracket and nails.

How Do Shelves Float?

There are a few different options to keep your shelves seemingly held to the wall by an invisible hand. Which option you choose depends entirely upon what end result you’re aiming for. 

But let’s keep the explanation as simple as the shelf itself. 

Floating shelves require a bracket which is first attached to the wall, and from it extends the dowel supports that carry the shelf itself. 

Depending on the size of your shelf, and the load it needs to carry, this bracket and dowels will range in size and thickness. The bigger the shelf, the heavier the hardware required. Whether the dowels are recessed into the shelf (hidden entirely) or remain snuggly tucked away against the bottom of the shelf depends entirely on the look you’re going for.

And that brings us to why you’re here reading this blog in the first place.

Floating Shelves: What to Consider

As with any home-related decision, we must first consider two things: function and desired design.

Let’s begin with the first and most important.

Function, Function, Function

A beautiful design is all good and well, but a flimsy shelf is nothing but a design for disaster.  

If you’re planning to display your childhood trophies, you might be able to get away with a thinner shelf to float along your wall. Your proudest collection of encyclopedias A-Z might require a bit more strength.

This isn’t to say a sturdy floating shelf can’t also be pleasing to the eye.

Adding Floating Shelves to Your Design

There are many advantages to deciding on floating shelves in comparison to traditional shelving. 

• Make a small space feel larger
• Keep your possessions out of foot traffic
• Create unique designs other shelves just can’t offer

Floating Shelves Can Create Space

Floating shelves can help make a small space feel larger. The recessed bracket offers the freedom to stack your floating shelves as close or far from each other as you like. This helps eliminate the need for larger, clunkier furniture.

Floating Shelves Keep Your Things Off The Floor

In the same vein, a floating shelf allows you to keep your possessions mid to high up on the wall, as opposed to cluttering the baseboards. Now you can finally move that couch closer to the wall!

Design, Design, Design

Floating shelves offer unique design opportunities. 

Have you ever truly looked at a bookshelf or cabinet for longer than a few seconds? Chances are, no. You haven’t. As we’ve stated, those pieces of furniture tend to be large, clunky, and a bit outdated. Replace these means of storage with a few floating shelves, and voila! Now you’ve cleared up that unusable gap between the bulging brackets of traditional shelves.

Floating shelves also offer more control of your design and space. From displaying your possessions to the necessities, from books to your favorite plants and dishes, floating shelves can be arranged as closely above and below each other as desired. This not only aids in saving space, but allows you to have some fun with how you show off those prized possessions.

Just remember: with great floating shelves comes great opportunities to break up those boring lines. And with those opportunities comes the ability to show off that personality of yours. Either in using the shelves themselves to accent a formerly boring wall, or to bring a little depth into the space.  

Still Need A Few More Storage and Design Tips?

Albuquerque Self Storage offers solutions for those extra objects you either need off the shelves, or only like to have appear seasonally. Check us out for your storage needs, or find more tips on how to bring function and design to your home today.