Designed by Miron Lior for Umbra, the Umbra Conceal Bookshelf is really freaking cool. I’m all over this product as I’ve always lived in smaller homes and tend to keep way too many books. With the conceal shelf, you can place books practically anywhere (in the bathroom, along walls near your ceiling, above doors, in a hallway) as you don’t have to worry about extra space taken up by a standard shelf.
Besides the space convenience, I love how neat it looks! Guests will definitely take a good minute to figure it out and if you have kids, you can bet they’ll get some wonder out of it too. If you are a cruel and / or unusual person, you will tell your young children / gullible friends that the books are being held up by a ghost – a ghost who is generally friendly and nice but becomes angry when he hears too much whining and sulking. If you are a kind parent or friend, you will explain that the books are held up by a small mounted piece of metal and that there’s a clip keeping the first book’s cover in place. Whichever route of explanation you want to take is yours. I won’t judge you … much.
I don’t recommend placing more than six or eight good sized books on the Umbra Conceal Bookshelf or it will start to sag a bit and look a little dumpy – but keep within that range and you’ll have a crisp book display with Houdini-like qualities.
The Umbra Conceal Invisible Book Shelf is available in a large version for about $20 or in small for about $13:
Jolita – you can buy them by following the link in the post (it goes to Amazon.com). You can also take a look at http://www.umbra.com and order direct or see if they sell them elsewhere.
Hello,
where can one buy these shelves?
Hi Steve,
I haven’t experienced any damage whatsoever with the clip, but I have been careful not to just jam a book in there – the possibility to blemish a cover IS possible but not super likely (so would I trust it with a much-loved first-edition? Probably not.) And yes – the first book (the one that goes in the clip and basically acts as the shelf level) needs to be a hardcover.
We love ours. In our old home, we lined them along the top of the wall, near the ceiling – it looked pretty cool and gave us tons more room.
Thanks for the comment & the q!
Does the clip mar/damage the bottom book at all? I assume you must use a hardback book for the bottom, yes?
These might be a near-perfect solution for our bedside- nothing there now, but always a handful of books on the floor.
I like this idea. A great way to store and display!