The 10 Best Floating Shelves, According to an Interior Designer
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Our picks provide a stylish and functional design solution for your organizational needs.
Pottery Barn
Products that marry form with function are the Goldilocks of the design world, aiming to check all your boxes with one versatile item. They’re equal parts stylish and useful, and nothing represents this ethos better than floating shelves. At first glance, they’re totally design-forward, granting you a modern and cool spot to display your fancy new espresso cups and coffee beans or fill an empty wall with art. On the other hand, they’re organizational powerhouses, providing you ample room for storing your olive oil collection or propping up your favorite fall cookbooks.
To help you find the best floating shelves, we asked interior design expert Andi Morse, founder of Morse Design, to weigh in and provide some organizational tips and tricks. These picks are beautiful enough to contribute to the overall design of your kitchen space but utilitarian enough to safely hold your precious cargo. Browse our favorite floating shelves below, and prepare to take your kitchen organizing to stylish new heights.
Best Overall: Pottery Barn Brighton Floating Wood Shelf
Pros
These shelves are available in several different sizes and finishes to help fulfill custom needs.
Cons
Steel hardware requires that you drill into tile or the wall to mount, making this pick difficult for renters to utilize.
It’s no surprise that our best overall pick for a floating shelf comes from Pottery Barn. The design-forward retailer thought of nearly everything with their Brighton Floating Wood Shelf, which combines minimalistic aesthetics with sturdy hardware and a utilitarian ethos. You can choose from five different stain finishes (all on the same kiln-dried mango wood) and trust that the shelf will treat your dishware or drinking glasses with TLC, thanks to sturdy steel hardware that is invisible to the naked eye.
Price at time of publish: From $199
Material: Mango wood
Weight Capacity: 25 to 75 pounds, depending on size
Lip: No
Best Live Edge Wood: West Elm Takara Live Edge Wall Shelves
Pros
Thanks to their construction, every shelf is unique, so you’ll score a one-of-a-kind piece.
Cons
The natural edge of these shelves means their depth will vary, making it tougher to store certain objects, like books.
Natural finishes like wood are a great way to bring an element of the outdoors to your indoor space. Nothing says foraged from the forest more than these live edge floating shelves from West Elm. Available in four versatile sizes, they’re an organic and modern way to decorate a wall or add a tad more function to your kitchen.
Price at time of publish: From $89
Material: Teak wood
Weight Capacity: 50 pounds
Lip: No
Best Splurge: Pottery Barn Benchwright Floating Shelf
Pros
We like that Pottery Barn offers two sizes of this shelf for a customizable feel.
Cons
High-quality craftsmanship and a bespoke approach make this one of the priciest picks on our list.
The many ways these Pottery Barn designs stand out from the crowd may not be immediately visible but trust us. They’re worth the extra money. Made of sustainably sourced mango wood with an aluminum shelf holder and finished in a pretty grey-brown Livingston wood, these shelves look like pieces of art but are actually incredibly sturdy. The 48-inch shelf holds up to 60 pounds, though it only weighs 12. The 66-inch shelf holds up to 70 pounds while only weighing 38.
These shelves are ideal for hanging in a kitchen and taking advantage of empty vertical wall space to store your stoneware dinnerware collection, essential baking tools, or extra kitchen aprons and table linens.
Price at time of publish: From $249
Material: Mango wood and aluminum
Weight Capacity: 60 to 70 pounds, depending on size
Lip: No
Best Set: August Grove Abid 3 Piece Solid Wood Picture Ledge Wall Shelf
Pros
While these shelves look great hung all together, the set can also be dispersed throughout the home.
Cons
These shelves are not very deep, so they work best for artwork and small design pieces.
Think of this trio of shelves as the design equivalent to a meal delivery service. Like pre-packaged ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes, there's an ease to a collection like this — you know, without a doubt, that you can hang them up together and they will look amazing. The trio includes small, medium, and long lengths, all made of durable solid wood. Use them to prop up your heirloom recipe box or stash slim bottles of your favorite imported olive oils.
Price at time of publish: $79
Material: Solid wood
Weight Capacity: 15 pounds
Lip: Yes
Best Acrylic: CB2 Acrylic Wall Shelf
Pros
This 36-inch shelf is slim and low-profile, providing extra storage space without visual clutter.
Cons
Screws (not metal brackets) hold this shelf to your wall, which means it may be a bit less sturdy than other options.
Prefer your decor to whisper, not scream? This ghost shelf is for you. Made from nearly invisible acrylic, it’s an uber-modern way to add extra storage to your space without creating too much additional visual clutter. The slim depth doesn’t grant you a ton of surface area to work with, so this shelf is best used as a way of adding an artistic touch to your kitchen’s design scheme (gallery wall of pasta pics, anyone?).
Price at time of publish: $40
Material: Acrylic
Weight Capacity: 55 pounds
Lip: Yes
Best Rustic: Urbandi Rustic Floating Shelves
Pros
You can customize the primary wood color and size of these shelves to make them as long or as deep as you need.
Cons
These shelves are made of solid wood and metal, so they may be too hefty for renters to hang without risking damage to the walls.
We love customizable shelving, especially for creating extra storage space in smaller kitchens or rooms. These solid pine wood and metal shelves from Urbandi range in width size from 12 to 60 inches, and you can also customize the depth depending on your storage needs. The brand offers a handful of different rustic wood finishes, but we're partial to the natural, unfinished option.
Whether you're staggering a few of these above your stovetop range or hanging one in your kitchen to store extra pantry goods, extra cooking tools, or your coffee mug collection, these shelves add earthy, rustic charm to any interior space (plus lots of extra storage space).
Price at time of publish: From $43
Material: Pine wood and emtal
Weight Capacity: Up to 360 pounds, depending on size
Lip: Yes
Best for Kitchens: Yamazaki Magnetic Storage Caddy Spice Rack
Pros
Strong magnets make this shelf a breeze to hang anywhere where there’s a metal surface — and easy to move around.
Cons
This shelf is more shallow than some other picks on this list, which may limit what you can store on it.
As arguably the most-used room in our homes, the kitchen needs a lot of organizational love to remain functional and aesthetically pleasing. Luckily, this streamlined pick from Yamazaki Home fulfills both those needs, with a sleek white metal body and strong magnetic backing that can instantly transform the side of your refrigerator or front of your dishwasher into bonus storage space. Use it to stash oft-used oils or seasoning within arm’s reach of your stovetop so you can cook up dinner magic without disrupting your flow.
Price at time of publish: $25
Material: Alloy steel
Weight Capacity: 3.3 pounds
Lip: Yes, as well as a metal bar surround
Best Value: QEEIG Floating Shelves
Pros
These shelves come as a set of two, allowing you to design an eye-catching display with ease.
Cons
These shelves can only hold up to 25 pounds each, meaning they’re not a great option for heavier dishware or display pieces.
If you’re looking for a wallet-friendly pick that doesn’t necessarily scream “I’m the budget option!” look no further than this duo from Amazon. Made of durable engineered wood and available in four timeless finishes, they’re a petite but functional way to keep cooking necessities handy or your favorite tchotchkes on display. Installation using invisible brackets should take you under ten minutes.
Price at time of publish: $37
Material: Medium Density Fiberboard
Weight Capacity: 25 pounds
Lip: No
Best for Corners: Conamily Floating Corner Shelf
Pros
These unique shelves come in a wide variety of sizes, so you can stack several or find the right fit for your space.
Cons
Because they’re made for corners, these shelves don’t provide nearly as much surface area for styling your goodies.
Creating a functional home is all about utilizing every square inch to its full potential — including the corners. Make the most of the caddy corner near your stove or a snug spot in your pantry with these clever corner shelves. Available in a variety of sizes, they’re pretty enough to keep out in the open but solid enough to actually add to your organizational efforts, not just boost your design grade.
Price at time of publish: $25
Material: Solid wood
Weight Capacity: 48 pounds
Lip: No
Best for Bathrooms: LAIGOO Adhesive Floating Shelves
Pros
An inexpensive set of three means you can deck out your whole space with easy organization — all on a budget.
Cons
These shelves are specifically geared toward bathrooms and the smooth surfaces they typically boast. They should not be hung on painted walls, where they may damage the finish.
Calling all skincare fanatics! We suspect you may need some extra surface area for all your lotions and potions, and if our suspicion is true, you need to click *add to cart* on these easy Amazon beauties. With a streamlined design that looks right out of the nearest spa and the ability to stick securely to any smooth surface (including tile, stone, and mirrors), they’re a waterproof and durable answer to your bathroom’s organizational woes.
Price at time of publish: $28
Material: Plastic
Weight Capacity: 11 pounds
Lip: No
Factors to Consider
Material
Floating shelves are available in a variety of materials and styles, ranging from rustic wood options to sleek and modern metal designs. When shopping for a floating shelf for your home, it’s important to consider what material would work best to accent or complement your existing home decor. If you’re planning to put the shelf in your kitchen or bathroom, you also want to consider a material that can stand up to the “elements” of those locations, which can include excessive moisture or things like grease and food splatters.
Weight Capacity
How much stuff a style can handle is perhaps the most important factor to consider when shopping for a floating shelf for your home. Pile too much onto a design that isn’t capable of handling it and you risk ruining the wall, tile, or backsplash that it’s attached to. Before purchasing any floating shelf, take a moment to consider what you’ll be storing/displaying on it and gather a (general) idea of how much those objects may weigh. The product info for each shelf should be accompanied by a weight limit online, and we’ve done the work of including that for our picks.
Lips
There are two styles of floating shelves out there: those with a lip and those without. A lip refers to any type of edge to the shelf, whose main purpose is to keep the items displayed from falling off. This is most often seen in shelves that are designated as picture ledges, but it’s possible to find traditional floating shelves that have one too. Ultimately, shopping for a shelf with this feature is totally up to you and your needs—if you plan to display basic design or kitchen accessories (versus leaning items like books, art, or albums), it’s not a must-have.
Installation
If you’re someone who considers themselves confidently handy, installation probably isn’t a big factor in your shopping decision. For the rest of us (we see you, DIY newbies), how a floating shelf gets attached to a wall is something to consider. Beyond choosing a shelf that is in line with your installation comfort level (totally fine if you’d rather skip wielding a drill), it’s also important to consider the means of installation. Some shelves need to be screwed directly into a wall stud to be used to their full weight potential, while others on our list can be hung using simple features like magnets or adhesive. Factors like renting your home or not wanting to ruin the backsplash tile will impact your shopping
Frequently Asked Questions
How much weight can a free-floating shelf hold?
The amount of weight a floating shelf can hold can vary by design. To ensure you’re not putting too much weight onto your chosen shelf, it’s important to read how much it’s capable of handling before you start styling it up. In general, most of the shelves on our list can handle anywhere from 15 to 55 pounds, with some able to withstand as much as 300 pounds.
What is the best material for a floating shelf?
When it comes to choosing a material for your floating shelf, think first about durability. “With floating shelves, you want to make sure they are made of heavy material like metal or solid wood,” says Morse. “Generally, the heavier the material, the heavier the load it can hold.” Beyond that, the best floating shelf for you is one that feels like your style and fits in with the design of your home!
What is the standard size for a floating shelf?
Just like the weight capacity of floating shelves can vary, so too can their exact dimensions. Shallower shelves are great for decorative displays, like a spot to store your collection of finishing salts. If you’re looking for a floating shelf that adds functional storage to your space, you’ll want to option a deeper style, with enough surface area (and/or length) to fit dishware or overflow cookware.
Do floating shelves need studs?
“Installing shelves with wall studs is the best way to ensure they are safe, stay put, and can hold heavier items,” says Morse. “I recommend having an expert take a look before putting any holes in the wall, especially if installing the shelf means drilling into tile or a backsplash.”
Where should floating shelves be placed?
The exact spot where you hang your floating shelves is up to you. We recommend choosing a location that is accessible to your cooking zone for easy access, or somewhere where it will catch the eye of guests if your application is purely aesthetic. When it comes to the proper height to hang your shelves, Morse recommends between 4 and 6 feet off the ground. “I like floating shelves to be hung like artwork,” she adds.
Our Expertise
Alyssa Longobucco is a freelance writer, editor, and stylist living in New York with over a decade of experience in the food, home, and lifestyle categories. When she's not diving into the latest trends and products, she's restoring an 1820s farmhouse in the Hudson Valley alongside her husband and children.
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