I'm planning to build in-wall shelving and cabinetry into some of my walls. I understand how to do that from videos I've seen.
After seeing how much more space they add and how useful they are, I am left wondering: why do more walls not have built-in cabinetry and shelving?
Is there some kind of structural reason for not doing this?
Best Answer
This is mostly speculation, but I would say there are 3 major reasons:
Unless you're dealing with a load bearing wall, there are no structural reasons to have the wall in the first place, so you can pretty much do with it what you wish. This could even be done in a load-bearing wall. Most outside walls are load-bearing, and they have windows and doors in them, which is essentially the same concept as the built-in shelf. It just adds more complexity again, but it's entire possible.
I think today, you would see this kind of thing much more in custom / higher-end houses, versus cookie-cutter suburban ones - mostly for the reasons I mentioned above. It's interesting that this seems to be more common in older homes. The phone shelf was ubiquitous, and other built-ins are really common in old houses as well compared to today. Maybe this is due to these houses being "higher end" in their day, and therefore they are the ones more likely to survive into today? More of a question for an architecture historian I guess.