Built-in Shelving When Renovating a Bedroom

Uses

• The type of shelves you decide on should depend largely on their use. If you want built-in shelving for a child's room in order to hold toys or books, you should plan on making them relatively broad and simplistic, with surfaces that can be painted with brighter colors. If you want to display the shelves in another bedroom, consider matching shelving wood with the wall or the bedroom colors. If you want to build shelves for your clothes, however, they can be strictly utilitarian.

Size and Depth

• When you are planning your shelving, you need to decide two important physical features: the size and depth of the shelves. Size will probably be dictated by the amount of wall space you have, but depth may be more flexible. Decorative shelves only need to be several inches in depth, but for storage using a foot or more of space is a better idea. Bookshelves can fall somewhere in between.

Panels

• Think about how open your shelves will be. For decorative shelves this openness is an advantages, but for some shelves, especially those in a bedroom, you may want the room and access but not necessarily the visibility. Consider using sliding panels to hide your shelves when you do not need immediate access to them. This can solve your visibility problems while giving you wood paneling accents to work with.

Simplicity vs. Ornate Work

• With the primary characteristics of the shelving decided, you should also think about shelving decoration. Built-in shelves often have trim work and borders that can give them a window-like feel. But if you do not have any other noticeable trim or wood accents in your bedroom, you may want to stick with simple shelves that blend into the wall in terms of both texture and color. This depends on how minimalistic or ornate you prefer your bedroom to be.