Bespoke Bar Shelving

Open shelving looks straightforward until you try to fit a genuine bottle collection onto it. Shelf depth, spacing and load capacity all affect whether the finished display looks generous or crowded, which is why we treat bar shelving as a design problem in its own right rather than an afterthought to the rest of the bar.

Depth is usually the first thing to get wrong on a standard shelving unit. A shelf deep enough for a wide-based spirit bottle can look sparse when it only holds a single row, while a shallower shelf keeps bottles closer to the front edge and reads as fuller even with fewer items on it. We set shelf depth against the bottles you actually intend to display, rather than a single depth used throughout.

Spacing between shelves works the same way. Taller bottles need generous clearance, but setting every shelf to fit the tallest bottle wastes height across the rest of the run. We usually vary shelf spacing across a display, giving taller gaps where needed and tighter spacing elsewhere, so the overall composition uses the available height efficiently.

Load capacity matters more than it looks like it should, particularly for longer open spans without a supporting upright in the middle. Glass or slim timber shelves need to be specified with the actual weight of a full row of bottles in mind, not just their appearance when empty, so shelving does not visibly sag over time.

Backlighting is one of the most effective single details available on open shelving. A strip of warm LED light behind or beneath each shelf edge lifts labels and glass in a way that ambient room lighting alone rarely achieves, and it is far easier to build in from the outset than to retrofit once shelving is finished.

Mirrored backs work alongside lighting to double the sense of what is on display, reflecting bottles and glassware back into the room and bouncing light further than a plain painted or timber backing would. Bronze-tinted glass gives a warmer reflection than clear mirror, which suits some rooms better depending on the surrounding finishes.

Brass trim along shelf edges is a small detail that does a lot to finish a display properly, defining the edge of each shelf without needing a heavy frame around it. We usually specify brushed rather than polished brass, since it ages more gracefully with regular handling.

What ends up displayed matters as much as the shelving itself. We talk through with each household what is worth showing — favourite or distinctive bottles, glassware, sometimes decanters or barware — and design the shelving around those specific pieces rather than a generic assumption of what a bar shelf should hold.

Part of our home bars collection