Perspex® from Lucite® is excellent for manufacturing shelves, the fact that it is durable and is excellent at transmitting light means that unique shelves can be made, the only limitation is the imagination of the designer!
This shelf below is made from 12mm Thick clear Perspex®, it spans over 4 feet and is held to the wall with only 4 small brackets which clamp the sheet in place.
Making a shelf like this is extremely easy and just requires cutting and then the edge polishing, I polished this by hand using wet and dry paper then a rubbing compound that is used on motor vehicles for polishing the paint work.
Flame polishing would have been easier and a lot quicker but without the correct equipment you risk burning the Perspex®.
You can make an Acrylic shelf in almost any shape imaginable
You can cut a shelf to virtually any shape you like from acrylic and the good thing is that it will never require painting!
This is a set of shelves that I made a few years back for my Nephew
