stay

available only at heal's in the uk, the stay line of shelving has been "specially designed to lean against a wall and brace under its own weight", though it doesn't seem terribly necessary: the design looks bulky enough to handle two back legs without changing its look substantially. still, i find something quite endearing about the low unit. now, when does heal's open in the us?

tight spots

anyone who rents a variety of apartments in new york (or many other big cities with cramped spaces) will inevitably be vexed with the problem of narrow spaces between windows or doors. often these types of spaces may represent the only wall space in an apartment, creating a big problem for storage. a long history in furniture has taught me that very few companies make bookcases for very narrow spaces, and those that do seem to discontinue them quickly. so if you are one of those who've been faced with this dilemma, get your hands on a carlson white tower from cb2 before cb2 stops making them. while much of cb2's storage throws me off with features like "champagne stained nickel" and "frosted glass", the carlson comes in a bright white powdercoat finish that i can live with.


i've also seen people place a few ikea lerberg wall shelves (below) sideways, stacked above one another, in a narrow spot, as its spaces then become high enough and deep enough for books (smallish paperbacks, really). shown here in grey, it also comes in a clean, bright green.

art of the grid

an eye-opening project sent to me by abby low. these shelves were designed by astrid stavro using the layout grids of swiss graphic designer josef muller brockman as part of a project called "the art of the grid" at the royal college of art. classic rules of graphic design could bring some proportion and harmony to much of the gimmick-ridden contemporary product design world. a trend i wouldn't mind seeing.

jeep

cool name. cool shelves. designed in 1971 and made of abs plastic (a favorite material of the era), the stacking jeep system is one of the few plastic options out there to show such a great sense of style. but, then again, just about everything on bbb emmebonacina's website does.

railroad ties

does wanting your shelves to show a little texture mean your home has to look like a lodge? not necessarily. these railroad tie shelves are visually light enough to bring in a bit of natural/industrial ruggedness without hijacking the beauty of the books it holds.

home libraries

some nice personal libraries from flickr.

muji pulp unit system

many plain inexpensive bookcases look something like the units that make up this muji system. what's the advantage? it's even plainer. the perfectly proportioned cubbies and lack of a footboard allow these units to be either stood up or stacked on their sides (as shown above) to get the proportions needed. and they are actually priced well, so stacking several isn't just theoretical.

colorful edges

have the good people at hertz furniture systems been learning from david hicks and jonathan adler? the work of both designers displays a penchant for outlining edges in strong colors. hertz, the library supplier who makes these cases, probably had a different aesthetic in mind, but the colorfully traced out edges of their shelves could be used in many ways.

quick update

the very first images i posted on this blog were of a stack of painted mdf i called my shelves. they were custom cut to fit into two wall recesses that essentially held them in place. i worried that my little physics based system might not work in another space, but i'm glad to say that they are working out nicely in our new home. it seems if they are wedged snugly into a corner, they are quite stable. i've placed the separate sections side-by side, floor to ceiling.

jean prouvé

a beautiful interior layout in this month's elle decoration italia showcases an adjustable shelving system by french master jean prouvé. a similar example from the '50s is shown at top. the smaller piece is from the the '30s. the library ladder (also '50's) is a bit "involved" but stunning nonetheless. the only really readily available prouvé shelving today is the small unit shown below, manufactured by vitra.

eiermann shelving

of all the "leaning" shelving i've seen, this seems the most straightforward, classic, and flexible. originally designed for a handful of houses he designed, egon eiermann created an archetype which never went into mass production. currently manufactured by richard lampert in germany. the system can build up to 20 feet high(!). yet more inspiration for a great home project.

rolling step stools

thankfully for those who want that perfect library touch next to their shelves, this staple of public library furniture is now widely available in home-friendly materials and colors. (though i understand if some still have a soft spot for the clunky brown metal version). above is the melio at dwr.





a single and two-step stool by jasco.




white plastic stool by wedo.

gio ponti

super-thin designs from ponti's own home, circa 1950's.

truck furniture

truck is a furniture company based in osaka, japan. this is the fm shelf, typical of truck's design aesthetic; beautifully plain, strong designs with a classically danish simplicity and use of natural materials. below is the tk shelf, which looks like an archetype of straightforward industrial shelving. but how often do we actually see industrial shelving this beautiful?

egg-crate shelves

built-ins are the ultimate bookcase luxury, and my favorites are designed by architect hugh newell jacobsen. jacobsen [pictured at top} builds floor-to-ceiling walls of his signature bookcases into his all white, flooded-by-sunlight interiors. the nearly paper thin shelves are called "egg-crate cases", based on the design of antique wooden egg crates [see bottom image, above]. this means there is a basic outer frame to fit the wall recess, filled with slotted horizontal shelves that are then fitted with slotted vertical supports. he explained: “You are always taking books off the shelves and the rest all fall down... With this design, you can remove a whole foot and they won’t.” while these shelves are not commercially available, plans can be found here.



if you want a similar look ready-made, german company interlübke manufacture the studimo system [below], which promises to fill "the entire height of a room down to the last millimeter". studimo is not as thin and elegant as the jacobsen egg-crates, but at least you won't need a carpenter.

front and back

this modular system was designed by ugo la pietra for berdonini in 1967, and re-issued last year. it uses slotted, stackable elements to create an extremely unique two-sided bookcase with the straightforward logic of a folk solution. at first glance it seems a little bulky, but a longer look at the design shows it to be virtually irreducible, which is the essence of minimalism. while i'm sure there's nothing "minimal" about the pricing, this seems like very good thinking for a basic but stable stacking system. the single-file stack [at top] would be a great space-saver with the flat side pushed against a wall.

boxes

finding a good bedside bookshelf should be simple. something small and unobtrusive, providing easy access to books while still maintaining a surface for a clock, lamp, etc. "yes", i hear you say, "you are describing a typical nightstand, what's the problem?". for me, a traditional nightstand is too bulky and busy, and books usually end up stacked horizontally on a lower level of the nightstand. if the book i want happens to be underneath other books, i'll hesitate to attempt the maneuver from the awkward angle of being in bed. i'm trying to relax there, i don't want a juggling act. also, once books are stacked in a pile, my ocd won't let them be a haphazard pile; they will have to look neat, creating yet another level of apprehension at disturbing the stack. "so", i hear someone say, "line them up vertically with bookends". but, i counter, that would look stupid. currently, i've addressed the problem by stashing a few bedtime reads in a white componibili i'm using as a nightstand. years ago, i used a very simple dresser drawer found on the street in exactly the same way as this "crate" designed by jasper morrison for established & sons. my drawer wasn't sufficiently deep to hold most books, so i tossed it. the morrison design looks a little more ample, but a found dresser drawer, nice & roomy, could do the trick.

speaking of found dresser drawers, the unit below is made from such drawers as well as aluminum angles from the hardware store. a nice project found in the readymade dyi primer.