Look! Tension Wire Shelving at Michelle Varian

Colorful Michelle Varian on Crosby Street (our new neck of the woods) needed some simple, light shelving on which to display her beautiful pillows and textiles. They chose a simple solution that is both inexpensive and industrial-chic attractive. The whole thing is assembled out of stained planks of wood mounted on aircraft cable attached to the floor and ceiling. Similar to our How To: Hang Curtains Across Any Space demo, Michelle created a solid tension with turnbuckles and wire rope clips.

The connection to the ceiling:
10-4-varian (4).jpg

The rope clip holds each shelf up:
10-4-varian (1).jpg

You need solid floors and ceilings to sink these hooks into:
10-4-varian (2).jpg

Comments (4)

Like it.
What hardware is required besides the rope? Where can you buy this stuff?
Thanks

posted by Brownstoner on 2005-10-05 13:03:02

flaxart.com has one version...

Search for "Cable Shelf Bracket" on the site.

posted by patrick (the other one) on 2005-10-05 13:12:32

Does anyone else remember the episode of "Changing Rooms" where a woman had a collection of decorative teapots, and Linda Barker decided to put in tension-wire shelves just like this? She put teapots on the upper shelves, but IIRC she put books on the bottom shelf. The whole thing came crashing down, all the teapots were smashed, and the show wound up giving the woman a bunch of extra money.

This is what I think of whenever I see tension-wire shelves.

But I'm sure they're OK for pillows. Just don't get carried away with the weight?

posted by miranda on 2005-10-06 02:05:53

... and i thought i'd beat someone to the punch by adding that the loss of a collection of decorative ceramic teapots is not a great one, except in sentimental terms to the collector. *shudder*

posted by miranda on 2005-10-06 11:00:33