Ergami LLC, a small Liberty Lake, Wash.-based e-commerce company, has launched a website, Shelfwire.com, to offer wire-shelf storage units that can be custom designed online.

Ergami President Joe Felice contends the site's online design application, called the Shelving Designer, is one of the first of its kind. The application allows customers to create their own configuration for the chrome wire shelving. Pre-designed pieces also are available.

"We're giving people the option to create storage furniture through a range of different customization options and added accessories," he says. "Our online tool allows people to customize what they want to create."

The Shelving Designer application uses an on-screen drag-and-drop method, and customers can select a variety of options that can be placed on a shelving unit, such as bars to hang clothing, flat shelves, baskets, and wheels.

Felice says the type of wire shelving that Shelfwire is selling is commonly used in restaurants as storage for cookware and has lately become popular for use as a simple storage solution in residential garages and home pantries.

Felice says that while many customers may prefer to use the shelving units for closets, pantries, or in the garage, a recent interior-design trend for condominiums and loft-style apartments is what he calls the "modern industrial" look. The site offers several storage pieces that can double as furniture, such as coffee tables, desks, and media-storage consoles, he says.

Felice says his background in Web design, having formerly worked as a design manager at Expedia Inc., in Bellevue, Wash., helped him develop the site for Shelfwire. Besides Felice, the company employs one other person, a Web programmer.

Felice is currently operating Shelfwire out of his Liberty Lake home, he says, and the components for the shelving units are shipped directly from a warehouse in the Spokane Valley area. They are shipped disassembled but are easy for a customer to put together, he says.

Felice launched the site in early January, and says he already has plans to expand the business by adding other customizable storage pieces specifically designed for closets. He says he also might eventually offer higher-end customizable cabinetry. However, he says implementing those ideas also depends heavily on whether he's able to find an appropriate manufacturer for such cabinets or closet units.

Felice says he came up with the idea for the customizable Web application for customers to put together their own shelving units after seeing other furniture retailers using similar applications, such as Minneapolis-based home furnisher, Room & Board Inc.