Installing shelving is a quick way to change a space, and it’s no secret that I love me some excessive shelf space (without it, how could I sustain my organized bibliophile lifestyle?).

Depending on the type of dwelling in which you reside (keeping in mind that you may be a renter, or have challenging plaster or brick walls), assess your available wall space and what it’s made of to see what kind of shelving is the right fit for you. You might just find that you have the perfect nook for built-in shelves, a cramped kitchen that would benefit from brighter, open shelving, or a blank wall just begging for some utility.

If you’re looking for a quick tip on hanging shelves in your own home, check out this article on DIY Network, and keep on reading to see a few of my favorite shelving solutions.

1. Built-in shelving 

Taking advantage of a small nook in our dining room changed the way we use the space entirely. The shelving itself is made primarily from MDF, but the framing around the front edge is 1×3″ pine. Making space for our radio, some office storage, home decor, and a lot of books, it’s very well-utilized real estate in our home.

2. Open shelving in the kitchen:

Removing oak cabinets and installing open shelves in my kitchen changed how the space looked, and how it worked from a functional perspective. We’re forced to live a neater, cleaner lifestyle, but in exchange, our kitchen is so beautiful and bright. For this project, I used simple 1×12″ boards and 11″ wooden brackets that were bought from Ikea and painted white. The brackets are spaced 24″ apart, and even loaded with plates and glasses, the shelves have held up very well with no noticeable bowing.

3. Floating shelves

So classy, and so clean-lined, there’s a reason that a lot of people opt for floating shelves in their home versus shelves with brackets. If you’re thinking of DIYing your own, one of the best constructs can be seen here in this short video tutorial by Jason Cameron.

Catching the home improvement bug at an early age, Emily Winters is a now a devoted DIYer living in Rochester, NY. The projects she covers on her blog Merrypad range from painting a wall to building a deck, so it’s only natural she landed at DIYNetwork.com. You can follow Emily on twitter at @merrypad and like her on facebook at facebook.com/merrypad.