Wall Shelves: Friend of Collectibles
If there is anything as satisfying as building a fantastic collection (no matter what it is) it's probably displaying that collection with the appropriate fanfare it deserves. Turning walls, nooks and whole rooms of your home into showcases for your hard-earned collectibles is fun and worthwhile. At Smart Furniture, our wall shelving has the strength and the versatility to show off any collection in any room.
Essential to any great collection display is the marriage of the items in the collection to the materials of the display. You don't necessarily want to mix something as playful as antique action figures with something as stern and modern as glass shelving. And you certainly wouldn't want your hand carved puppets to be displayed on something as impersonal as metal. So before you start investigating which kind of shelving you're interested in, make decisions about the aesthetic feel you're trying to go for, and how you're going to match what you've spent years collecting to what you'll be displaying that collection on for all to see. At Smart Furniture we have dozens and dozens of options in all types of material, in all lengths and depths, and by almost any major shelving designer you can think of. This is a great place to start your search for the ultimate display.
There are dozens of ways to build a great showcase. One is to literally put the things in a case -a bookcase. There are several advantages to this style of collectible display. For one, bookcases are often a bit safer from accidents - it's hard to knock something to the floor from a shelf on a bookcase than it is from a standard free wall shelf. Another built in advantage is the flexible space between shelves - they are often designed to hold books of varying heights, and with collections there is often a need to organize in that same way.
Even when there's not a need, it's fun to give the most impressive collectibles a prime spot in your display, perhaps even on a pedestal, and bookshelves accommodate that. A third benefit of using a bookshelf is that they can go all the way to the floor without looking odd or out of place. Wall shelves can look a bit strange when they're hung very close to the ground - one of the main reasons wall shelves are so popular is because they free up floor space and can seem to "float" high up on the wall. If you've got a large collection and need something that floor to ceiling, a bookcase is a good option.
Of course wall shelves have their advantages as well. The feeling of "openness" they provide isn't necessarily the safest, as we discussed earlier, but it is probably the most attractive. Wall shelves are much more capable of versatility than bookshelves, meaning you can use them to make your display just as impressive and personal as your collection (okay, maybe not as impressive but definitely as personal!).
One of the ways wall shelves can make a difference is in terms of horizontal space. With a single wall shelf you can span an entire wall (without actually rendering the wall useless except as a place to shelve things, like a standard bookshelf). That means you have more options when it comes to actually arranging your collectibles. You can go in order of the year they were issued, in order of their "evolution," or in any other order you can think of. But of course no one said the best way to use wall shelves is only to use one.
Using multiple wall shelves arranged in a unique and eye-pleasing manner will really set off your collection, and make your design sensibility as impressive as your collection. Using several wall shelves in combination on a single wall or throughout an entire room or home makes your collection even more unique and attractive than it already is. It allows you to bring your own creativity to displaying your valuables, and makes it easy for you to create something that complements them in every way.
With our wide selection of wall shelves, you don't have to worry about your collection being too heavy either. Shelves like the Sumo line are built to carry significant weight and never strain under the pressure. You can build and arrange your collection however you want, aaaaaaaaaaand...put the weight (put the weight) right on them.
A subset of wall shelving is floating shelving. And floating shelves are a great option for collectibles as well. The primary reason for that is because floating shelves are unique and interesting (just like your collection) but they don't draw attention to themselves - they draw attention to what they're holding, or storing. Floating shelves utilize small or even hidden brackets, and when they're mounted on a wall and carrying your things, the brackets are hard to see and the shelf appears to be suspended by absolutely nothing - merely floating on the wall in defiance of gravity and common sense. That's what makes them cool, but it's the absence of bells and whistles that makes them a great way to show off what they're actually carrying. They're simple, and they let the collectibles get all the attention they deserve.
Bookshelves, wall shelves, floating shelves - at Smart Furniture we've got them all in a wide range of styles and materials, and from a large and renowned stable of designers and design firms. No matter what you're collecting, you can be sure that the perfect display shelving can be found right here at Smart Furniture. Not only will you be able to find it, you'll often be able to customize it (either through our online tool or when you get them home) and make them even more perfect for you and your display. Happy collecting!