Bookcases & Shelves

Bookcases and shelving for living rooms, bedrooms, home offices and awkward corners. The range covers tall 6-tier bookcases with adjustable shelves, narrow units with drawers and cupboards, wall-mounted cube shelves and dedicated CD and DVD media towers.

Shelving types we stock

• Tall bookcases — 156 cm to 200 cm, with adjustable shelves on some models for taller books and folders.
• Narrow and S-shaped bookcases — slim footprints for alcoves and hallways, and the best load-to-span ratios in the range.
• Bookcases with drawers and cupboards — open display above, closed storage below.
• Corner shelving — 5-tier bamboo, metal and L-shaped units that use a corner properly.
• Cube and compartment units — internal dividers shorten the shelf span, which is why they carry books better than a wide open shelf.
• Wall-mounted shelves and display cabinets — floating cube shelves and glass-door cabinets that keep the floor clear.
• Media storage towers — 50 to 1,116 disc capacities for CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays.

How to choose a bookcase

Start with the per-shelf load, not the height or the overall capacity. A shelf of mixed books weighs roughly 1 kg for every 5 cm of its width, so a shelf rated 5 kg takes about 25 cm of books and one rated 10 kg takes about 50 cm — whatever the width of the unit. We pulled all 226 products in this collection and counted: of the 67 bookcases that publish both a per-shelf load and a shelf width, 50 cannot be filled edge to edge with books. The rating does not scale with the span either — the same 5 kg figure is applied to shelves from 27.5 cm to 87.2 cm wide. That is why, for a real book collection, two narrow units usually beat one wide one at the same price. Our bookcase load and depth guide shows how to run the sum in ten seconds.

Then check the depth. Twenty-five centimetres is the usual furniture-making standard for general bookshelves and 30 cm the figure quoted for hardbacks; 57 of our 132 freestanding bookcases are under 25 cm and 79 are under 30 cm, with a median of 29.5 cm. Shallow is not a fault — a 24 cm unit takes paperbacks and gives you back floor space — but it decides what goes on it. Shelf height matters separately: paperbacks need around 22 cm of clearance, hardbacks and box files closer to 32 cm, so adjustable shelves are worth paying for if the contents will change. In a rented home or with children around, fix tall bookcases to the wall.

If you are choosing a wall-mounted unit rather than a freestanding one, the decision changes shape, because nothing but the fixings is holding it up. Depth matters more than weight: a shallow 9.5 cm display cabinet 83 cm tall puts under a kilogram of outward pull on its screws, while a deep, short floating unit of the same rated load can put twenty times that. Our guide to wall fixings works that figure out for all 43 wall-mounted units across this collection, the TV range and home storage, and sets it against what a plasterboard wall will actually hold.

Bookcase and shelving FAQs

How much weight can a shelf hold?

Only what the per-shelf figure on the product page says — the overall figure covers the whole carcass with weight spread across every shelf, drawer and cupboard, and tells you nothing about one shelf. Across this collection the per-shelf ratings are 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 and 20 kg, and 5 kg is the most common, on 43 of the 100 bookcases that publish one. Multiply the rating by five to get the centimetres of books the shelf will take.

Do your bookcases have adjustable shelves?

Some do, and fewer than you might expect: 27 of the 132 freestanding bookcases, against 48 of the 54 media units. Shelf adjustability is stated on each product page. Note that moving a shelf changes what fits, not what it carries — adjusting it does not raise the load rating.

Is an anti-tip kit included?

On most freestanding units, yes — 113 of the 132 bookcases state that anti-tip hardware is included, including 75 of the 76 that stand 150 cm or taller. Our wall-mounted shelves and display cabinets do not state whether wall fixings are supplied, so plan to source those yourself. Whichever you buy, match the fixing to your wall: the plastic plugs in a flat-pack box are not adequate for hollow plasterboard, where a toggle fixing is needed. Our wall fixings guide has the counts and the fixing capacities in one place.

How do I know whether my wall can take a wall-mounted shelf?

Work out the outward pull first: take the published load, multiply it by half the depth, and divide by the height. UK guidance puts a good metal cavity anchor at roughly 30 kg per fixing in 12.5 mm plasterboard, and the plastic plugs in a flat-pack bag at under 10 kg in practice. UK partitions put studs at a maximum of 600 mm centres, so a unit under 60 cm wide can miss every stud and only a unit 120 cm or wider is certain to cross two. The wall fixings guide works through it.

Will these hold vinyl records?

No. A 12-inch LP in an outer sleeve is 32.4 cm square and needs about 33 cm of internal shelf depth to stand upright. Only 27 of the 214 shelving units here reach even 33 cm of overall depth, and none of the 54 CD and DVD media units does — their compartments are 14.5 to 17 cm deep. The units listed as record-player stands hold the turntable and equipment, not the records.

What is the difference between a bookcase and a shelving unit?

Bookcases have a closed back and fixed sides; open shelving units, ladder shelves and S-shaped racks are lighter-looking and suit display more than dense book storage — and their load ratings reflect that, because a staggered shelf supported at two points has nothing bracing its middle.

Also browse TV units & stands, side tables, home storage & organisation and the full furniture range. For the numbers behind this page, see the bookcase buying guide and the wall fixings guide.