A Bottle Display Above a Plaster Reception Counter
A bottle display above a plaster reception counter: a veined marble wall, a curved white counter standing clear of it, and shelves recessed into the stone. Three frames of one lobby, taken from the door, from the side and from the seating.
What the photographs show
A double height lobby with a marble clad wall and a curved white plaster counter, bottle shelves recessed into the stone above the counter, a black low table and a grey rug in front, sofas along a dark timber wall and planting at the ends. Two dark columns frame the view, and the ceiling carries concealed lighting rather than pendants.
What the build had to solve
A reception counter is a working surface, and bottles do not belong on one. The shelves here start above shoulder height, which also puts them in the sightline of a guest standing at the counter rather than sitting in the waiting area. The wall is stone, so the fixing positions have to be agreed before the slabs are hung: a recessed band is set out with the stone, and a bottle shelf cannot be added afterwards without cutting into a finished face.
What to copy, and what to avoid
Worth copying is the recess. Setting the shelves into the wall instead of hanging a cabinet on it keeps the lobby looking like architecture rather than furniture. Worth avoiding is lighting the shelves from the ceiling: at this height the beam lands in the eyes of the receptionist instead of on the bottles.
- Setting
- Recessed band, agreed with the stone
- Shelf height
- Above shoulder, in the guest eyeline
- Frame
- Bronze, 18 mm sightline
- Lighting
- In the recess, not from the ceiling
- Fixings
- Set out before the slabs are hung
- Production
- 30 to 40 days, quoted per project
Frame 18 mm · glass panes up to 2,400 mm · scribe 40 mm · door reveal 3 mm · lead time 30 to 40 days, quoted per project · crated to a numbered setting-out drawing
The same scene, frame by frame
Photographs from our project archive, grouped by room type rather than by client. No client and no address is named on these pages.
What clients ask about a room like this one
Can shelves be added to a finished stone wall?
Badly and expensively. Cutting a recess into hung stone means removing slabs, and the fixings have to reach the substrate behind. It is set out with the stone or it is surface mounted.
What height should reception shelves sit at?
Above the counter and above shoulder height of the person working behind it, so the bottles are seen by a guest standing at the desk and are out of the way of everything that lands on a desk.
A room like this one, to your dimensions
Send three photographs of the wall and the bottle count. What comes back is a scheme, a drawing and a fixed price.