Children's Room Shelving System Playroom 2400mm Wide in Birch Plywood

Shelving for a playroom, with a deep bottom shelf sized for storage boxes, with the anti tip restraint and the rounded edges that a room used by a child needs and most shelving does not have.

The track system is the reason this shelving scales. Slotted uprights fix to the wall on a 600mm grid, brackets hook into the slots at 32mm pitch, and shelves sit on the brackets. Nothing is fixed at a height you have to live with. A shelf moves in about twenty seconds with no tools, no new holes and no filler, which matters more than any other feature once you have owned it for a year and the books have changed. The uprights carry the load straight down into the wall rather than trying to lever off it, which is why a track system holds far more than the same shelf on a pair of cantilever brackets.

Specification

• Dimensions: 2400mm wide, five shelves at 250mm deep plus two forward facing book ledges
• Material: 18 layer birch plywood, 30mm thick, lacquered with the edge left exposed
• Finish: hardware in your chosen finish, timber in a toy safe water based lacquer
• Load rating: 82kg per shelf evenly distributed, tested to twice that before deflection reaches 3mm
• Span and bracket spacing: uprights at 600mm centres, top restraint at every upright
• Adjustability: shelves move on the 32mm pitch, which is how the room keeps working as the child grows
• Suitable walls: timber stud at 400 or 600mm centres, brick, block and concrete. Not suitable for plasterboard on dabs without a timber backing batten
• Fixings: stainless screws and the right plug for masonry are included. Fixings for plasterboard on dabs and for metal stud are supplied on request at no charge
• Edges: 3mm radius on every exposed edge
• Finish: water based lacquer, tested to BS EN 71 part 3 for toy safety
• Anti tip: a top restraint bracket at every upright, supplied and not optional
• Includes two forward facing book ledges at 600mm
• Total shelf run: 12.0 linear metres
• Packed weight: approximately 86.8 kilograms

What you get

• Five slotted uprights, 1800mm
• Five shelves in birch plywood at 250mm deep
• Two forward facing book ledges, 600mm each
• 25 shelf brackets, 250mm
• Five top restraint brackets
• Fixing packs for masonry and for timber stud

Fitting

Two people, a drill, a spirit level and about two hours for a single wall. Mark the top line first and hang every upright from it rather than measuring up from the floor, because floors are never level and a shelf that follows the floor looks wrong in a way nobody can put their finger on. Fix the first upright, level it, then use a shelf as a straight edge to set the next one. The fixing pack, a paper template and a printed sequence are in the box.

Planning your wall

Work from the top down. Set the top shelf where it looks right, usually a little above eye level, then space the rest below it. Books want 320mm between shelves for paperbacks and 400mm for hardbacks and art books, and there is no reason for the spacing to be equal. A wall of identical gaps reads as storage and a wall of varied gaps reads as a room. Leave the bottom shelf at least 300mm off the floor so a hoover and a skirting board both have somewhere to go.