Corner Shelf Unit
Buy the best corner shelf unit selected and recommended by interior designers. By Tara Gosselin.
A corner shelf unit is a fantastic way to turn a dull area in your home or office into a functional storage space and visual attraction all at once. You can use them to store your collectibles, books, plants, and framed photographs without taking up too much space. Available in many styles, these pieces add dimension, decoration, and function to your corners. Our design experts have picked out some of the best corner shelf unit ideas for you below.
Corner Shelf Unit
Buying Guide
Tara Gosselin
Interior Design Expert
Tara is a San Antonio-based award-winning landscape architect, writer and educator, passionate about eco-friendly solutions and growing her own food. She knows all it takes to help you create a sustainable backyard retreat that combines blissful charm with a modern take on landscaping.
Wood is the most common and best material for corner wall shelf units since it's exceptionally versatile, diversified, and available in all sorts of price ranges. The design, finish, and wood types are boundless when it comes to wood shelving.
Walnut is considered among the sturdiest woods for shelves and doesn’t need any treatment to look attractive.
Pine is flexible, affordable, and ideal for corner shelves that aren’t going to hold too much weight on them. Other types of wood with high durability are red cedar, redwood, and mahogany.
If aesthetics is your main concern, MDF, particleboard, and softwoods like pine may be right up your alley. Although these materials are budget-friendly, they aren’t as heavy-duty as the other materials out there. They do, however, make gorgeous shelves for displaying decors.
The optimal height of a corner wall shelf unit really depends on its design and your preferences:
- If you’re hanging it directly on the wall, it’s best to place it at eye level or roughly 4-5 feet from your floor
- If your corner wall shelf unit will be right above another piece of furniture like a desk or your sofa, leave at least 10 inches between them
- If it’s a freestanding shelf unit, then you’ve got more room to play with (although keeping its main section at eye level is still a handy tip).
Yes, you can have your corner wall shelf unit match the colors of your armchair, desk, or even bed for a harmonious and well-thought-out design scheme.
That said, having too much matching furniture in the exact same shade can result in a bland and characterless room. If you’d like to bring some variety to the space, your best bet would be a different-colored shelf unit. Fortunately, there’s a wide array of wood and metal finishes to choose from. You can use a white corner wall shelf to tone down a colorful room or, on the contrary, pick a unit in a vibrant color, like blue, red, or pink to add a splash of color to a neutral setting.