When I was decorating my 1 bedroom apartment, I had one mission: maximize all 650 square feet. The entry foyer—being long and underutilized—was the perfect spot to add wall mounted shelves and squeeze out more space from the small apartment.

I searched for weeks for the perfect bookshelves that would be both functional, attractive, and slim. I had about 8-12″ of depth to work with—anything deeper would be too bulky and not leave enough room to get by. I checked out the usual suspects: West Elm Parsons Tower (pretty, but too deep at 16″), IKEA Expedit/Kallax (too deep at 15 3/8″, and ugh, IKEA), everything on Overstock,  and everything on Wayfair. I kept searching until I found the best wall mounted shelves ever: the CB2 Tesso Shelves. They’re modern, attractive, and perfectly sized at 10″ deep, 28″ wide, and 84″ high. I ordered 2 to place side by side and squeeze as much storage out of that entry foyer as I could.

Installing the CB2 Tesso Wall Mounted Shelves

Then came the installation. Having successfully put together quite a few pieces of furniture over the course many apartments, I figured I could handle the Tesso wall mounted shelves. And I was partially right. I assembled the chrome part of the shelves in about 15 minutes each. Next, I attempted to mount the shelves into the wall with a screwdriver. You know, the kind of flimsy screwdriver that came in the toolkit my dad bought me for my first apartment.

Total fail.

I was left with dust on the floor and holes in the wall.

Next, I went to Home Depot and bought a power screwdriver. I thought that would be enough to be able to screw in the plastic thingamajigs to mount the shelves.

Nope. I was wrong. $50 down the drain on a power screwdriver and still no mounted shelves.

Finally, I brought in the big guns and paid the super to install them with a power drill. Took him all of 5 minutes to mount both Tesso wall mounted shelves.

And voila! The absolute perfect wall mounted shelves and best storage maximizing solution for an entry foyer.

The Verdict: CB2 Tesso Wall Mounted Shelves are Functional, Sleek, and Maximize Storage in Small Apartments—All at a Reasonable Price

Price: $299 on CB2 plus $99 for delivery

Check out CB2’s Tesso Shelves now.