Standard Bookcases > Materials - Wood

A standard bookcase gives your private office, library, or shared room the open-shelf storage you need for binders, books, awards, plants, and reference materials. You get a wallet-friendly storage piece that anchors a wall and pairs with desks and credenzas in the same finish family.

Most standard bookcases run 30 to 36 inches wide, 12 to 14 inches deep, and 48 to 84 inches tall. The 5-shelf and 6-shelf versions hit 72 to 84 inches, which fills the wall to ceiling in most 8 to 9 foot offices. Pull out a tape measure on your wall first.

You can grab 3-shelf (low, 48 inch tall), 4-shelf (62 to 66 inch), 5-shelf (72 to 76 inch), or 6-shelf (80 to 84 inch) bookcases. Most have 1 fixed shelf at the midpoint with the rest adjustable on a pin-hole grid. Each shelf holds 35 to 50 pounds.

You can grab thermally fused laminate (TFL) for the wallet-friendly pick, high-pressure laminate (HPL) for harder-use rooms, or wood veneer over engineered core for the executive coordinated look. Pick the material against your existing desk and credenza finish.

Yes — bookcases taller than 42 inches need a wall anchor under the standard commercial tip-over rule. The anchor kit attaches to a wall stud and ties into the back panel. That's the right move for any office with kids, public access, or seismic zone requirements.

You can grab a finished back (the cleaner pick for floating placement in the middle of a room) or a hardboard back (the wallet-friendly pick when the bookcase sits against a wall). Pick the back style against where the bookcase lands in the room.

Most standard bookcase lines pair with a matching desk, credenza, and storage cabinet in the same finish family. That's a great way to lock in a coordinated office look. Order the bookcase from the same product line as the desk to keep the finishes matching.

You can grab a 3mm PVC edge band as the standard pick (matches the laminate top color and survives years of daily use), or a 2mm matching edge for the wallet-friendly version. Wood veneer versions get a matching wood edge band.

The lower 3 shelves on a 5 or 6-shelf bookcase land in the ADA forward-reach range (15 to 48 inches off the floor). Store the most-used contents on those lower shelves for accessible programs. The bookcase footprint shouldn't block the 36-inch accessible aisle.

Commercial standard bookcases built to the BIFMA X5.9 testing standard for storage duty carry a 10 to 12-year warranty in the industry against consumer-grade bookcases at 1 year, but we offer a Free Lifetime Warranty unless specifically noted. The case, the shelf clips, the adjustable shelves, the back panel, and the edge band are all covered.