Home Office Pick

Narrow 5 Tier Bookshelf, Metal Frame With Wood Shelves

A tall thin shelving unit for the strip of wall that nothing standard fits, beside a desk, in an alcove or at the end of a hallway. Five open shelves stack one above another in a slim black steel frame, with a wooden baffle across part of the back of each bay so the shelf reads as furniture rather than as racking. Each shelf panel carries up to 30 pounds, which is a real row of hardbacks rather than a token load, and the open sides mean it does not close the corner in visually the way a solid cabinet does. It goes together in seven steps with the tools included, and it ships with anti tip hardware to fix it to the wall, which is worth doing on anything this tall and this narrow. It suits a study, a living room or a bedroom equally.

What you're getting

• Five open shelves in a slim black steel frame, tall and narrow by design
• Each shelf panel carries up to 30 pounds, a real row of hardbacks
• Wooden baffle across part of the back of each bay
• Seven step assembly with the tools included
• Anti tip hardware supplied to fix it to the wall

Why we picked it

Narrow shelving is usually a compromise, and the compromise is normally the shelf load, because a thin unit with weak panels can only hold ornaments. Thirty pounds a shelf is enough for books, which is what a bookshelf beside a desk actually ends up holding. The open sides matter as much as the footprint: a solid cabinet of these proportions closes a corner in, while a frame this slim lets the wall behind it keep doing the work. Fix it to the wall.