Maximise your wall space with picture ledges and effective shelf arrangements
22.3.2024
Translation: Elicia Payne
If you’re looking for creative ways to display your images and artwork, check out these beautiful examples.
Picture ledges and narrow shelves make a perfect spot to show off your art pieces, photos and trophies. They bring everything up to eye level and extend your wall space – without pushing themselves into the foreground. Here are five examples that demonstrate how effective it looks.
1. In little nooks and crannies:
A picture ledge comes in handy when space is limited. It allows more room for your pictures and small home accessories, plus it adds a visual accent.
Source: Connie Barton, Ferm Living
2. In a row
There are many ways to arrange narrow shelves. The best way to do this is by orientating it around your furniture. For example, it looks pretty when several are hung next to each other horizontally above a long sofa. This emphasises the width of the sofa and room. Plus it gives you space for taller pictures and objects because there’s usually little space above to hang more shelves.
Source: Ferm Living
3. One above the other
Several shelves above one another, however, create a pretty picture gallery that can help structure an empty wall. As in the example below, I recommend choosing an odd number of shelves for this type of arrangement, as it looks more harmonious. The distance between the individual shelves is up to you.
Source: Woood
4. On colourful walls and wallpaper
The next example shows that narrow shelves in front of a patterned wallpaper look great together. Visually, they can even make it more calm. Tip: choose simple motifs for the works of art on display. Otherwise, it can soon look chaotic with the patterned wallpaper.
Source: Valentina Guidi Otobri, Ferm Living
5. Accentuate with paint
In this example, three white shelves are accentuated with paint. A different colour of paint starts at the edge of the bottom shelf, which makes the arrangement stand out even more.
Source: Woood
Picture ledges and trophy racks
If you fancy creating a stunning wall display with picture ledges and trophy shelves, I’ve put together a small selection of suitable models for you here.
Header image: Woood
Pia Seidel
Senior Editor
Pia.Seidel@digitecgalaxus.chLike a cheerleader, I love celebrating good design and bringing you closer to everything furniture- and interior design- related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior ideas, report on trends and interview creative minds about their work.