Once again Modern Shelving has been showcased by Architectural Digest for its innovative custom shelving system for a hip Brooklyn apartment. In the article “Inside a Brooklyn Apartment That Mixes Classic Antiques With Whimsical Finds” by Carrie Bluth, we see the elegant solution of a custom pole mounted shelving unit.
What sets this apart is smart use of shallow shelf depths paired with innovative rounded corner shelves. This allowed for the client to store and show this large collection without taking up a lot of room, while having that modern look.
In Brooklyn, New Your City, photographer Sean Litchfield and architectural historian Zachary Violette reside in a hip apartment near the border of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Sean tells us at first that he and Zachary wanted to store a sizable book collection in the small area they had already dedicated to be an office space, “I wanted to have quick access to them and not have any in boxes where it’s out of sight and out of mind.
We definitely needed a desk in there somewhere but again, we were working with such a small space that any freestanding desk would immediately cut off the space.” he describes the challenge.”
At first while considering other brands, Sean and Zachary shopped around only to find what they needed was beginning to seem near impossible to find. Eventually they came across an article on Architectural Digest mentioning Modern Shelving as an innovative California company that does custom shelving units for a reasonable cost. Sean says, “To be frank, the solutions we were looking at were quite expensive and I was not excited about the prospect of putting some books away in a box. Zachary pointed out that we would still need to find a place for that box anyhow.”
“So we called the Modern Shelving custom design team to see what possible solutions they might have. We had never done anything custom like this before, so honestly did not know what to expect. Providing basic measurements of the space and what we had in mind, we received a call shortly thereafter from a Modern Shelving designer
Surprisingly amicable, he asked us a few questions about the room, entryways, windows, lighting, color and style while confirming our measurements” Sean added, “Within days, when we received our first set of 3D renderings, that was really exciting. To see our napkin sketch visually produced like that and so fast was just plain cool!”
There was some back and forth deciding on aluminum vs the wood finishes available comparing the impact of how it looks vs cost, but eventually the verdict was a walnut finish for the desk and a white thermally fused laminate for the shelves. An anodized aluminum natural finish was used for the brackets and poles. One of the best parts was a surprise as Sean tells us when he was the curved corner shelves he knew then this was a great decision, “That just looked so slick and I had never seen this before. and we stand by Modern Shelving as the place to get custom shelving solutions. We love the final product”.
