3D printing can be used to make things that’ll improve your life and your living space. On that note, 3D printed shelves are a great home decor option, offering both aesthetic appeal and additional space in your abode.
In this article, we’ll share with you our favorite 3D printable shelves, most of which can be screwed into a wall, but some are standalone. In any case, the shelf will be primarily 3D printed and easy to assemble.
If any of these shelves are just what you need at home, but doing the 3D printing yourself isn’t an option at the moment, try Craftcloud. In a matter of a few clicks, you’ll have professional printers working on storage solutions for you, with the added bonus of minimal effort on your part.
Without further ado, here’s our list!
Hex Platform
If you’re looking for a simple shelf design that’ll be sturdy but won’t use up all your filament, here’s a great choice. Sporting the iconic hex infill pattern, this simple shelf is perfect for a workspace, office, or kid’s room.
The central reinforcement panel gives this print a surprising amount of strength, as noted in one of the comments. Although the maker doesn’t provide any specific printing tips or installation instructions, it looks like getting this shelf up and running only takes two screws and standard print settings like a 0.2-mm layer height and 25% infill.
- Who designed it? TripleGWorkshop
- How popular/printable is it? This simple but essential design has 124 downloads and a handful of satisfied commentators giving the print five stars.
- Where to find it? MakerWorld
Basic Storage
Whether in a closet or on a table, small shelves are great for versatile organization needs. This model has two levels, but adding the middle level is optional. Makers have converted the design into a single-level shelf, stacked together multiple units, and scaled the model up and down, demonstrating how easily adaptable this shelf model is to one’s storage needs.
This model can be printed in six parts without supports. You won’t need any additional hardware, as the design has even included printable dowels to assemble the pieces. The maker printed their shelf using PLA+ and a 0.2-mm layer height.
- Who designed it? MadP3D
- How popular/printable is it? The 230 downloads and 4 makes show that it is possible to replicate this without major challenges.
- Where to find it? Printables
Corner
Need a shelf for a corner spot? Those can be hard to find, but luckily this one is perfect for that situation. This corner shelf was designed to show off display items and keep them away from pets.
According to the maker, this model should be printed with a 40% infill. It takes around 18.5 hours to print and consumes approximately 90 grams of material. No supports are necessary.
- Who designed it? KaeVeeDesign
- How popular/printable is it? This design has over 1,000 downloads, as well as more than 9,200 views.
- Where to find it? MyMiniFactory
Secret
Sure, lockboxes are cool, but a secret shelf is much cooler. This shelf has a hidden sliding compartment where you can store your cash, cards, or other small stashable items. Makers have commented that scaling up the design slightly is possible without issues.
Although the designer didn’t provide any printing tips, a recorded maker suggests printing the model in PLA with a 0.2-mm layer height and 25% infill. No supports or rafts are necessary.
- Who designed it? Tosh
- How popular/printable is it? This model has 61 recorded makes and 12 remixes, including a pegboard-compatible version and one large enough to fit a passport.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Endlessly Customizable
If you love giving your interior design a regular refresh, then this customizable shelf is for you. The modular panels give you enough freedom to organize just about any collection of items in a visually interesting way. Each panel has one universal part that gets mounted to the wall and connected to other base plates, plus a cover plate that acts as the shelf and can be swapped in and out as you please.
The designer recommends not exceeding the maximum weight of 5 kg per panel. If you plan to create a shelf wall for yourself, be sure to check out the designer’s detailed instructions for helpful hints like how to space the plates for best results. Plate designs have been continuously uploaded since its initial release, so now there are 17 basic and 10 advanced plates to choose from.
- Who designed it? Kashimi
- How popular/printable is it? This model has been a hit in the community, evidenced by the more than 4,000 downloads and 7 makes, so you should be able to print this, too.
- Where to find it? Printables
Hexagon Fractal
This fractal shelf looks amazing with its hexagon shape. You can print as many hexagons as you need for storage and get creative with their arrangement on the wall!
The creator listed this model’s complexity as easy and suggests printing this shelf in PLA with a 0.25-mm layer height without supports. Judging by the comments and shared makes, this print should be as straightforward to print as it is to install.
- Who designed it? CrocodileGene3d
- How popular/printable is it? This design has 4 community prints, over 9,200 downloads, and has been remixed into a rectangle!
- Where to find it? MyMiniFactory
Headphone Holder
Ever need a safe place for your headphones? Not only can this shelf hold up 4 kg of weight, but it also includes a headphone holder underneath to keep your headphones in pristine condition when they’re not on your head.
This shelf can be mounted on your wall with just two screws, making it an easy installation. The designer recommends printing with a 0.8-mm shell thickness and 20% infill. If your slicer allows for it, it’s also suggested to print with a 100% infill around the screw holes. In total, this support-free print is 234 mm x 100 mm.
- Who designed it? pawlo444444
- How popular/printable is it? This design has been successfully printed by at least one maker in the community and almost 950 others have downloaded it.
- Where to find it? MyMiniFactory
Mushroom
If you’re still in doubt about how shelves can be as decoration in their own right, this option may change your mind. This extremely detailed mushroom design brings the delicacy of nature to your home and extra space to store or display your stuff. These mushrooms can easily be scaled up and down to be suitable as a wall-mounted shelf or a refrigerator magnet.
For the wall shelves, you’ll need a fixing bracket to mount the print, and for the refrigerator accessory, there’s space for 10×2 mm neodymium magnets to be inserted. Try printing this with glow-in-the-dark filament for a mystical fairy atmosphere!
- Who designed it? BenjaminAnde
- How popular/printable is it? 29 makers in the community have shared their make of this design, and a few more makes of the magnet remix have been shared on MakerWorld.
- Where to find it? Printables
Drippy
If what your space needs is some pops of color, this fun shelf is perfect! The dripping drop look is great for displaying fun prints or other knick-knacks. The designer notes, and is evident from the image above, that printing and hanging several of these together is a nice look. It’s also designed so that multiple of these shelves can sit next to create a longer, drippier shelf.
All you’ll need to get these hanging is a few screws. Go ahead and try this in your favorite filament colors to show off your hand-painted prints, it will be a hot combination!
- Who designed it? MultiPrints
- How popular/printable is it? This quirky model has been downloaded over 1,000 times from the community and 3 have shared their successful makes in action!
- Where to find it? Printables
Phone Charger
We’ve all been in a position where you need to charge a phone, but the outlet is inconveniently located in a place where you don’t want your phone just lying around. This design resolves that issue by offering a shelf that hangs from the adapter. The adapter goes through the hole, plugs into the outlet, and becomes the support for the shelf itself.
You can rest your phone on the shelf for an easy charge without the risk of it falling or being tripped over. Further, the shelf can fold up, making it easily portable and perfect for road trips. Unfortunately, the maker provided no printing suggestions, so look at other models to get an idea of how you should print this shelf.
Stair Step
This shelf has multiple layers (literally) of display space. The maker suggests using double-sided tape to stick the shelf to a wall. Therefore, the design doesn’t have any holes, but you can always add them yourself, which is not a bad idea if you’d want to display things of considerable weight or scale up the model.
No printing advice was provided by the designer, but a maker shared that they used 18% infill, 0.25-mm layer height, and a skirt for their successful print. Wood-filled filament could be a cool filament choice to give it a realistic look.
Filament Rack
There comes a point where you need to organize your supplies not only to prevent clutter but also to keep it all properly maintained. Filament spools can be tricky to organize due to their cylindrical shape, not to mention that they add considerable weight to some fragile shelves. This filament shelf is a great idea to keep everything dry and within easy reach.
In addition to the printable brackets, wooden dowels will also be needed to complete this shelf. The designer notes that they used two 36-inch dowels, which means the brackets could be installed on the wall 32 inches apart. Intermediate brackets can be added at 16-inch intervals for additional support. Other important tips are that this design works well with a 0.4-mm printing nozzle, 30% infill, and PETG, ABS, or ASA filament.
- Who designed it? LayerLabs
- How popular/printable is it? At least 32 other makers have their own version of this shelf installed in their printer workshop!
- Where to find it? Printables
Moidules
Next up, this shelf, known as Moidules, allows you to customize the size of your shelves to fit your needs. The 3D printable parts are, essentially, joints that connect planks together to form the shelf. The slots in the joints can fit 9-mm, 12-mm, or 1/2-inch boards.
Because this shelf design uses wooden boards and customizable joints, you can make it standalone (no drilling necessary). Although the designer offered no printing suggestions, a maker posted a great print and shared some of their printing recommendations: a 0.2-mm layer height and with a raft, but no supports. Check out the other makes to see some different designs of this shelf.
- Who designed it? Moidules
- How popular/printable is it? This model has 22 recorded makes, 22 remixes, and over 49,000 downloads!
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Pencil
Need a shelf without wanting to buy some hardware? This pencil shelf can be made with two 3D printed parts and some home supplies, including thumbtacks and pencils. It’s basically upcycling!
This design is a great, non-intrusive design for a school or work desk that gives you just enough space to store a pencil case, phone, or other office supplies.
Steampunk
Steampunk is a genre within art, design, literature, and other creative disciplines that draws inspiration from nineteenth-century steam-powered technology and mechanistic aesthetics. With its creative use of gears, this design definitely taps into the genre.
Designed in the defunct 123D Design, the model makes use of the stock sample gears offered by the program. It’s more of a shelf bracket than a shelf proper: The gears hold up a board, as seen in the image above. The designer provides multiple files that have varying amounts of attaching holes.
The designer printed it in PLA and notes that the use of supports doesn’t matter and that a raft is unnecessary.
- Who designed it? Ferjerez
- How popular/printable is it? In addition to over 11,000 downloads, this model has nine recorded makes and two remixes.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
License: The text of "3D Printed Shelves: 15 Great Storage Solutions" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.