Oak Shelving Explained

Every home in the UK requires a number of storage solutions, and what better way to fulfil these needs than with either a single, or a collection of oak shelves as we have listed here.

Why oak as opposed to other popular shelving materials such as pine or metal? Oak wood has many natural qualities to it that make it the ideal material for use with all types of furniture pieces.

Being a hardwood, it inherits a great deal of natural strength that produces both shelving and other furniture items that are robust in nature, sturdy enough to stand up to the storage demands a modern home will place upon it.

In addition to the practical reasons just mentioned, it is also an incredibly beautiful naturally occurring material, that once harvested and constructed into furniture items looks even better. Natural furniture waxes are used to bring out the true natural beauty inherited by the wood through its natural grain and variances of tones.

While the actual colour of the different types of oak can vary slightly between items, typically, each oak shelving unit will belong to a larger oak furniture family which will offer a range of complementing oak furnishings that will enable you to create a balanced and unified theme throughout your home.

More often than not the terms bookcase and shelving unit are entirely interchangeable and refer to the same models. As such, oak shelves are perfectly adapted to storing a home library collection in addition to the more commonly stored items including framed family photos, ornaments and other small bits and pieces.

Some of the typical ways to utilise this handy storage item include:

• Display / Storage unit for the living room or dining room
• Organisation in a kid's bedroom
• Furnishing either a home or professional office
• Solely as a decorative addition

As mentioned in the above list, this type of shelving system is particularly popular for use in the home office. Multiple shelves can be placed side by side to offer increased capacity as and when needed. They enable you to truly maximise the redundant vertical space which most work and living spaces have.

Please continue reading for more specific information related to the types of units you can find available throughout our listings.

Shelf Styles and Popular Models

There are various ways to implement oak shelving within the home, with the correct method being the one that best fits the particular situation and personal tastes of the home's occupants. For example, floating shelves work great in bedrooms and living rooms, while the units focussed more on design are ideally kept in a living space as a visual focal point.

One important point to consider is whether or not they are going to be used in a room with other pieces of oak furniture. If so, it is important that the different furnishings do not clash with each other, so it is a sensible idea to purchase items from the same oak furniture family for consistency.

In addition to considerations of style and function, the available space in the room will play a significant factor during the decision making process. If space is not an issue, then the larger free-standing shelving units such as this large shelving unit provide more than enough space for the average home.

Where space is limited, the wall mounted and floating models are a great way to equip a room with storage capacity, without intruding on the floor space. A floating shelf is a great way to mount a bedroom lamp close to the bed - out of the way but within arm’s reach. This is quite possibly the only viable alternative to a bedside cabinet.

In such circumstances where the budget is limited or requires exceptional value for money - such as equipping an office - two systems that fit the criteria include the popular California model and these cheap oak shelves. Cheaper doesn't necessarily have to mean lower-quality and these options certainly prove the point.

Oak Floating Shelves

Although they have been around for a while now they are still relatively unknown in some corners. Wall mounted shelves used to involve clunky, unappealing wall brackets to support the shelf itself. With an item such as these 60cm floating oak shelves, you have a trendy, highly desirable effect of a shelf that appears to float against the wall.

The above mentioned model is versatile enough to be used in practically any area of the home, whereas this bathroom oak floating shelf is designed specifically for use in the modern bathroom and in conjunction with a sink basin. The achieved visual results are nothing short of spectacular and create a standout feature in the bath or shower room.

Solid Oak Shelves / Bookcases

This interchangeable name for this style of furnishing can confuse some people when it really shouldn't. It is also a category that offers highly distinctive models, an example of which can be seen in this small solid oak table/shelf which is a great compact-form, multi-purpose stand that can be placed close to the front door of the home to create an immediate lasting first impression on guests.

More in line with the traditional and longstanding model of shelving unit are these oak wall shelves. They are sturdy, reliable, robust, and part of the huge Oakdale collection ensuring you can mix storage solutions and other furniture items all in the same attractive solid oak finish.

Contemporary / Quirky Models

Not all of the units listed here are what people would expect to see when browsing for oak shelves, but these "outside of the box" options enable you to bring something different to your living spaces yet continuing to be functional and eye catching.

Nero solid shelves are the perfect way to discreetly divide a larger room into slightly reduced sections, they have a charming quality to them and while leaning towards more the designer side of things, still offer themselves as the ideal location for displaying presentational items such as ornaments and vases.

Also from the Nero collection are these display shelves which really do run against the typical notion of a shelving unit, and are used to best effect in the lounge, proving the old adage that less is usually more.

Oak Wall Shelves

Looking at some of the wall shelves - which again can be a general term for furniture that goes by many other synonyms - these oak bookcase / wall shelves are one of the few "frame only" versions, eschewing the use of sides and shelf backs. The understated design enables focus to be equally distributed among the shelf's contents and the surrounding room space.

Other styles of oak wall shelving make use of wall visible wall brackets that give the ability to tier multiple oak shelves one above another. The height between each row can be easily adjusted to take into consideration the varying heights of the objects being displayed and stored.