11 shelving systems for the contemporary home

I love reading, and I love books; I’m not a hoarder, and I’ve never been interested in collecting anything, but books are my weakness, and despite being a library fan, I own quite a lot of them. During my life I’ve moved quite often, and at times I’ve lived in tiny apartments, but I’ve always managed to found room for a bookcase, or some shelves, to house my beloved books.

For the past 6 years, my husband and I have been fortunate enough to share our home with two beautiful cats, Cleo and Sid; unfortunately, they tend to regard shelves as ladders, dozing spots, or personal playgrounds. We’ve tried fixing shelves as high as possible, but Cleo seemed to take that as a personal challenge, and after a few accidents we’ve given up on shelving and settled for cabinets with glass doors.

If your house is cat-free, however, shelves and shelving units are an excellent option to store books, collections, and ornaments;   they can add interest to walls,  and they can even act as room dividers, or form corridors.  I spent some time researching   shelving solutions, and I selected a few that really caught my eye.

Designed by Xavier Lust for Driade,  Virgo is a dynamic, graceful  self-supporting shelving unit that plays with convex and concave surfaces; available in either black anodised aluminium, or mirror polished stainless steel.

Wavy, designed by Giuseppe Bavuso for Alivar, is a minimalist, functional modular unit that combines solidity with visual lightness. Made of HI-MACS® natural acrylic stone, Wavy consists of modules in 3 different sizes that can be combined horizontally and vertically, with no visible joints.

Toyo Ito  designed Sendai for Horm, clearly taking his inspiration from the Sendai Mediateque he designed in Japan; Sendai is a limited edition shelving unit made of 6 pressed, sanded and varnished safety glass shelves and slender, organic columns made of solid, oil-varnished walnut and alder wood.  I find this dynamic shelving unit extremely elegant and evocative.

Simple but effective, Elysée by Pierre Paulin for Magis is a contemporary, modular bookcase entirely made of maple plywood. Available in natural or black finish, Elysée was initially designed for the residence of French president François Mitterand,  in the Elysée Palace in Paris – hence the name.

Clive Wilkinson designed Honeycomb for Quinze & Milan, finding inspiration in the exagonal cellular structure of beehives.  Transparent and rigid, the polyethylene modules can be stacked horizontally and vertically, up to 7 metres in each direction. Fun and versatile, Honeycomb is ideal for creating walls, screens and room dividers.

Tangram, designed by Daniele Lago for Lago, refers to an ancient Chinese game, played with seven geometric figures derived from the decomposition of a square. The game  symbolises a way of life linked to the constant mutation of things, and in fact Tangram is dynamic, playful and versatile, and can be combined in endless ways.

LagoLinea is a practical, minimalistic storage solutions designed by Daniele Lago for Lago. Streamlined and  contemporary, this flexible   shelving system hides a patented fixing that allows the 3 cm thick vertical elements  to be suspended and installed directly on the wall. Modules can be combined in endless creative, personal ways.

Lovely Rita, designed by Ron Arad for Kartell, looks like  a folded ribbon; sinouos and organic, it can add interest to bare walls, either on its own as a single shelf, or assembled into a larger bookcase.

Sebastian Errazuriz designed Sinapsi for Horm; inspired by the ramification of cerebral cells, this modular units seem to grow into  organic, branch-like shelving systems. Sinapsi is made of  pressed  particles of wood, shaped and then veneered, and it’s available in natural ash, walnut, stained ash and several lacquered colours.

Urban, designed by Claudio Bellini for Casamania, is an  L-shaped polyethylene module that can be used in any position, and assembled seamlesslly into walls, screens, horizontal and vertical elements. Colourful, bright and modern, Urban allows infinite possibilities of composition, and looks particularly suited for contemporary, funky spaces.

Quby, designed by Stefan Bench for B-line, is a fresh, flexible bookcase module made of roto-moulded polyethylene. It can be hung on the wall, placed on the floor, or combined and re-combined at will. Available in several bright colours, Quby is perfect for informal, modern interiors.

So which shelving system do you like best? I’m curious

Photo Credit: 1 – Driade; 2 – Alivar; 3,9 – Horm; 4 – Magis; 5 – Quinze & Milan; 6,7 – Lago; 8 – Kartell; 10 – Casamania; 11 – B-line.

Tagged as: beautiful interiors, contemporary, design, furniture, interior design, modular storage, shelves, shelving unit, style guide