@alissat @olldroo @lorrainecrawford @laura @elskerdesign Those are excellent leads, thanks! @looleyjule Nick Scali stuff is gorgeous, but a little outside my budget and quite large for my space. @pazz I absolutely love the unit you’ve posted. I prefer distressed timber and metal but most true blue industrial units were too large for my space. The one I finally bought is a bit of a mix with distressed timber and metal, but also white and clean... and it matches everything beautifully!

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I would go with 30cm depth as it allows more flexibility. I understand what you are saying about paperbacks and wasted space to the front not being a great look, but in my mind it is better to have that space at the front than to have larger books projecting beyond the front of the shelves which is what you would have with 20cm deep shelves. If it is a working library then the number and size of books may change over time and the 30cm depth allows for maximum flexibility. On a side note the 78cm long shelves need to be strong enough to support all of the weight of those books. The string shelving you are looking at is usually presented fairly sparsely (as in your photos). Nothing worse than sagging shelves.... Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls