The advantages of glass as a material for shelves
Shelves are everywhere we look. Most rooms in the home will have them, from the bathroom to the kitchen, bedroom, lounge and garage. Outside the home we see shelves of all types too, in schools, colleges, libraries, chemists, small shops and large department stores. You will come across many types of shelves in the world of work, whether you work in one of the places already mentioned, or in an office, laboratory, factory or warehouse or massive industrial facility. All of these different shelves will be made of a wide variety of materials. The choice of material really depends on the use for the shelf, its size and the kind of load it will be carrying. Glass is an excellent material for shelves in the right circumstances. As it is transparent, glass has powerful aesthetic features, so a glass shelf with elegant mountings and in the right setting can look beautiful in its own right. Glass can also have colours added to it to add to the aesthetic effect. For this reason you often see glass shelves in places where the aim is create something artistic and visually pleasing. It may be an entrance lobby to some plush offices, or in a company office or boardroom. Here glass shelves are often used to create a grand display of the gifts and awards that have been given to the top managers by prestigious organisations or government departments. The aesthetic properties of glass shelves make them excellent for displaying jewellery and highly polished decorative items. The glass shelf will play an important part in reflecting the light from the object placed on it, adding to the glamorous effect. for this reason glass shelves are commonly used in jewellers, museums and other places where glittering artefacts are being shown off. Bars clubs and restaurants also use glass shelves to create a refined, classy atmosphere, and there is also a synergy between the glass of the shelf and the glass bottles and drinking glasses that the glass shelves are holding. Glass is obviously quite a brittle and fragile material, and dangerous if it breaks. So it is clearly not suitable for long shelves which could flex and shatter, or for holding heavy loads, or for areas where people could accidentally walk into them. But in bathrooms, the heaviest thing that a glass shelf would be carrying is likely to be a bottle of mouthwash or shower-gel, so they are ideal. Also, in bathrooms there's going to be a lot of water splashes and air-borne moisture would cause problems with metal or wooden shelves. The inertness of glass shelves makes them ideal where they may get chemicals on them, so you often see glass shelves in laboratories for supporting bottles of acid and other chemicals. Glass shelves are perfect under these circumstances, and any other material would quickly get stained, discoloured, corroded or otherwise damaged. A glass shelf can take any chemical under the sun and just needs a wipe over to bring it back to its former glory.
