Description and selection of loft-style shelving

Although many citizens, accustomed to classic comfort, find the loft style cold and inhospitable, in fact, an industrial-style room looks very comfortable. Another thing is that even the smallest details of the furnishings must be selected so as not to go too far with "excessive" comfort and maintain the typical requirements of style, but at the same time preserve both functionality and aesthetic appeal. Since loft cabinets look too respectable and solid, it is worth replacing them with shelving.

A loft-style shelving unit is somewhat different from the same pieces of furniture used in other styles. Primarily, other styles suggest limited use of shelving - predominantly for books and souvenirs. A brutal loft does not accept alternatives in the form of cabinets, dressers, chests - more precisely, they are possible, but you cannot get carried away with them. Accordingly, their absence is compensated by the shelves that can be found throughout the home - in the hallway, in the kitchen, in the dining room.

Wherein citizens, who involuntarily created the loft style in their time, were not distinguished by their consistency, therefore they were forced to pay attention to the maximum functionality of simple things. Because of this, a rack in this style no longer has a simple description as just a piece of furniture for storing various utensils - it is responsible for the functions of both the zonal division of the room, and even decoration.

Such a “wall” does not block the penetration of light and odors, but it significantly dilutes the initially unsightly design of an industrial premises, making it surprisingly cozy. At the same time, tall, but narrow models require mandatory additional fastening to capital structures, otherwise the product will be unstable, and this may end badly.

As mentioned above, loft-style shelving is a very broad concept, so you should not be surprised that there is a huge variety of such furniture. Individual specimens sometimes do not lend themselves to any classification at all, so we will just make a small overview of possible options.without pretending to cover all varieties without exception.

First, note that there are hinged shelves that require the mandatory presence of a wall for their fastening, and growth ones - those that are themselves a kind of "wall". Growth models can have different heights - from one meter or one and a half to the full height of the room. They are almost always open in front, but they can be without a back wall.

The role of the latter can be played directly by the wall, if the furniture is attached to it, or the rack-partition allows light and odors to pass through almost freely, but it allows you to view and take the contents from two sides, in different rooms.

In general, there is a concept of "comfortable" rack depth - it ranges from 30-50 cm. It is largely determined by the purpose for which the piece of furniture is used.So, if things just need to be stored, then this will require a lot of space, and it is better to focus on models with a significant depth of shelves. A completely different matter is the deliberate demonstration of their contents, then things should be closer to the edge so that they can be clearly seen, and there is no point in occupying extra space with a deep rack.

Unlike retail shelves, which are always just boring long shelves, a product for a loft style can be functional, therefore it has not so much shelves as cells of different shapes and sizes that form an irregular grid.

Modern shelving is sometimes equipped with a small number of lockable compartments. - either these are doors, or the set is equipped with small drawers. Closed sections can be used to store documents and any other utensils that are not subject to review by every guest.

Any rack is equally suitable for zoning rooms. - using this approach allows you to cunningly introduce the loft style into a studio apartment.

Relatively low shelves are actively used for zoning due to the fact that their top shelf can be used as a table top and provide a large number of seats simultaneously in the kitchen and in the living room.

When deciding on the material, two points must be taken into account: the planned purpose of the furniture and the fact that a loft is a style not about wealth, but about the ability to create comfort without significant investment. Thus, a reliable and durable rack may well be made of solid wood, but the wooden set should look old and artistically shabby, for example, have "patches" from a material of a different shade.

As a cheaper alternative, it is worth considering shelving made of MDF or chipboard. This design is already a little less strong and durable, but it will still serve the owners for more than one year.

The first loft-style premises were decorated not at the whim of their owners, but simply because they were located in the real premises of former factories. They were rented by poor people who, for obvious reasons, could not afford good furniture, but they wanted comfort and knew how to do a lot of things with their own hands. They designed something directly from scrap materials found on the ruins of the same factories, so the metal rack is not an inflection towards steampunk, but a real reference to the roots.

Basically, metal furniture is not uncommon these days, given the strength and durability of this material. Therefore, you can go to extremes and choose a solution made from water pipes. Such an object will not be very cheerful anyway, therefore, it is usually painted in strict black.

Leaves a completely indelible impression concrete shelving - more precisely, the model that imitates this material.

In the loft style, the shelving is in fact the fundamental element of all furniture - it is simply difficult to imagine an apartment without it. The owners of the living space allegedly do not have money for all these types of cabinets and nightstands, so they replace everything they can with simple and inexpensive shelving, many of which look like homemade ones.

The living room is a place where shelving in a loft-style apartment simply cannot be. In apartment design, there are still practically no styles that would dispute the fact that the living room is an exhibition room where guests are not only invited to relax, but also where various family heirlooms are bragged to them.

Considering that a classic loft shelving unit is versatile; on its shelves you can place souvenirs, jewelry, flowers, and books. The TV can also be put on one of the shelves of the rack, because allegedly there was not enough money for a full-fledged bedside table. The same framed photographs can complement the picture.

Another place where you cannot do without a shelf is, of course, the kitchen. In any apartment, this room is intended not only for cooking, but also for storing various kitchen utensils - primarily dishes for eating and culinary experiences, as well as cutlery and so on. A full-fledged wardrobe with doors, for obvious reasons, would cost the family more, therefore, for an unpretentious loft, a colorful shelving unit will be a very interesting solution.

The rack is also appropriate in the hallway, where it can be made in the form of an open wardrobe. Imagine a piece of furniture with compartments for outerwear and several shelves or drawers at the bottom, but without doors to block the view. Do not think that this will significantly affect the safety of clothes, because in many apartments, instead of wardrobes in the hallway, ordinary open hangers are still used - and nothing.

A typical loft-style shelving unit can be made with your own hands - and this is all the more simple, since the industrial style does not require any stunning design, and even vice versa - it allows and welcomes the visible handicraft, slight negligence of the product. The frame is slightly skewed - so what, if only the product stood confidently and objects did not fall off the shelves! And the fact that the structure is assembled from wood or metal only simplifies the task - these are the very materials that are quite easy to find and process.

In any case, the production of a homemade shelving begins with measuring the place where it is planned to install the future headset. The creator must be sure of two things: that the furniture will cope with the functions assigned to it, and that it will fit in the apartment without leaving small free areas where you cannot put anything.

Although designing a rack seems like a simple task, you should not skip the drawing stage.This is especially true if the sections are of different sizes and shapes - without accurate calculations it will necessarily turn out that some parts simply do not fit, the rack itself turned out to be larger or smaller than the expected size, some of its sections do not correspond to the tasks set.

In the drawing, it is imperative to indicate all dimensions without exception - general, parameters of individual sections, thickness of partitions. After making a plan, double-check the correctness of all calculations several times, once again think about whether each section is large enough to be productive. Only then can you proceed directly to cutting out parts and assembling.

How you process and join parts depends to a large extent on which material you choose.

• Wood is usually hammered together with nails - although the issue could theoretically be solved with glue, but we need maximum reliability, and the use of "good old" methods of furniture assembly is also encouraged.
• If you are making a shelving unit from MDF or chipboard, then the material will most likely be tiled, and you should choose it in such a way that the dimensions of the sheets logically correspond to the proportions of the future furniture. In addition, such panels are often already laminated or painted, therefore, after assembly, you will not have to deal with further design.
• Plain boards will require more attention to adjusting the dimensions, and they should at least be formally sanded and painted.
• Metal processing looks a little more complicated, but in this case, a person with access to the workshop can assemble a frame from pipes or a profile. Theoretically, the shelves themselves could be made of the same material, but the furniture will turn out to be too "ringing", therefore it is most often made with wooden inserts. The advantage of this solution is the increased durability of the product, and the less durable wooden shelves can be periodically replaced with new ones without high costs.

Some of the fans of urban design most of all bother with maximum believability, full immersion in an industrial atmosphere. For such people, the ideal solution would be a rack, which at one time could be used for the needs of a factory or warehouse and did not carry absolutely any aesthetic meaning.

The second example shows what a minimalist shelving unit might look like. So few materials have been spent on the presented sample that you simply wonder how it can perform so many different functions. The creator didn't bother highlighting the difference in the functions of the sections, but simply made them all the same. There is no not only the back wall, but even the side ones, and nevertheless it is also an analogue of the wall, zoning the space.

With a design approach, the theme of cozy things made from uncomfortable materials can be developed almost indefinitely. The rack from the third example is the same primitive frame made of metal profiles, but inserts in the form of wooden boxes and live greenery add a touch of indescribable warmth to the furniture.

For information on how to make a loft-style shelving unit with your own hands, see the next video.