If you want to put up shelves cheaply, you only have a couple of options. You can head to Home Depot, buy a bunch of plywood and brackets, and spend a weekend drilling holes in your wall. Or you can buy these gorgeous designer shelving units, which manage to be sleek, sophisticated, and cheap all at once.
Designed by Evan Clabots and Louis Filosa for the e-commerce site Fab.com, the Sway shelves don't require elaborate mounting racks to install. Instead, two nylon straps with an eyehole at the end allow you to mount your new Sway shelves about as easily as you'd hang a picture on your wall.
Made of waxed beech, the Sway shelves come in both natural wood and painted black. About 4 feet long and 8 inches deep, the shelves are big enough to display books, art, CDs, DVDs, and more. And they're surprisingly inexpensive: a set of two Sway shelves can be purchased from Fab for just $35. Sure beats giving up and buying another Expedit.