How about family photos in narrow black frames. Those shelves look like they were designed for that.

Wow! Tell us more about the room. I see, on my monitor, Art Deco. How old is the house? Go to etsy for authentic Art Deco "smalls" for the shelves.

These were originally made to function as magazine rack shelving in this period home. I woud mix it up and do some beautiful coffee table books that are opened and then layer in a couple of framed pieces on the opened books. Or if you're so inclined some vintage Time and Life magzines to feature their intended function and time period.

Adding ....you can even see the change in wood coloring where the magazines would have originally sat!

The house was built in 1948. It was actually featured in Parents magazine (we have the original 1950 copy which is pretty cool!), as Parents Magazine Expandable Home. So the home has been expanded throughout the years. Here are some more photos of the rest of the room. We moved in recently and I have kids so don’t mind the mess! I also added a picture of how this living room looked and how this shelf was styled with magazines, sorry for the glare, I framed the photo because I thought it was pretty neat.

All of the walls are wood paneling. The previous owners have painted over some of them as well as put paintable wall paper on the tv wall. I’m open to changing up the paint colors in this room to compliment the wood tones AND the rock features on the wall as I do foresee us being able to remove that.

You could do books, but I also like your idea of the black and white family photos. I would suggest when you’re decorating the shelves to keep the groupings close to the center on the shelves for a linear look. I’d keep the frames all similar (don’t have to be exact) from side to side. So don’t do all gold frames on one side and none on the other.
I’m not sure about the birds in the center but was wanting something more wispy without hard lines.

There is no right or wrong. If you search shelf ledges on Pinterest, you’ll see all kinds of ideas. Suggest using smaller vs large for a layered look.

Keep testing until you like.

I should add that we will eventually update our hand-me-down furniture when we don’t have dogs or toddlers to ruin them 😆

Oh i dont see the original photos but from the ones you have shared of it currently i do think there are some furniture arrangement improvements that can be made. The room beyond the dividers should be treated as a separate space and not have the chairs floating back there. I would turn your sofa to face the TV wall and flank the sofa with a chair on each side. I would move your dining room into the room where the chaiirs are now if there isnt enough space for the table where it is with the new furniture lay out. If there is enough space for the dining table to remain there then consider using the area where tread mill and chairs are currently as a play room/area for the kids.

Here is the picture of the OG wall and shelves!

Yes, the treadmill is only temporarily there but we do already have a playroom that is actually in the room behind the wood paneled wall with the shelves. Not really sure what to do with the area/wall by the treadmill. I would like to keep it pretty open for when we use those doors to go outside

Holy moly, people on the MCM subreddit would die for this house and that clock. Really great. Are the walls in the OG picture concrete? Doesn't look like wood, even in B&W. The paneling is beautiful. Not sorry they covered the radio. The picture of the OG below the clock is a nice touch. What were the doors near the floor for? I love the mysteries of a house. These houses get more and more rare as they are town down for bigger, IMO, not better. Enjoy!

If you want to embrace the magazine cover theme, there are plenty of websites that will take your photos and make them look like covers.

It isn’t cement, it is wood paneling, the picture probably just makes it look weird. I’m not sure what the doors were for. The shelves on the left also now go all the way to the floor so they changed that too. Here is a picture of our hallway that is all wood paneling too. I haven’t done any decorating on these walls yet as I’m afraid to commit to putting nail holes in the walls since it’s not as easy to patch like drywall is.

I like what @Design Interior South proposed -- some appropriate vintage magazines, displayed face out. You only need 9 of them :-) That would maintain the original purpose of the display case and would maintain the original MCM wall in the room. As for your pictures, I would be inclined to put them elsewhere -- arranged on the TV wall or the wall visible near the treadmill, wherever you have good wall lighting so as to be able to see the photos. I am not a fan of stacking or layering framed pictures on shelves. If you have a picture that's worth looking at, enlarge it to a viewable size, mat and frame it appropriately, and hang it up. Be choosy; start with one beautiful or representative picture of each family member or memorable place. You can change them out after a few months and make a kind of rotating family wall. The wooden wall is gorgeous, as is the clock.

It might be fun to frame a picture of the original wall and display it on the shelves.

I recommend you use command strips and not nails so you don’t mark up your paneling.

I would try buying vintage/older magazines in the birth year of every family member, specially the grandparents, who would get a kick out of it!

I love the historical photos from Parent magazine.

The magazine ideas posted are great.

You can also use thin family photo albums opened up.

It is a magazine rack so use it as such . How about record covers if not into magazines .

Your MCM clock is to die for! And the wood paneling is in beautiful shape. Command strips with velcro can be good for hanging lighter pictures without damaging the wood paneling. I love the idea of putting vintage magazine covers on the shelves and a gallery of family photos in the hallway.

It would be cool to have framed vintage magazines. You could do the same magazine from different years. For example, vintage Rolling Stone magazines with certain covers (my SO would LOVE this). You could also do Architectural Digest or Vogue (for example) if either of those are an interest of yours. You could also do magazine covers from one selected magazine using ones with important historical/cultural covers (Time/Life/The New Yorker/etc.)

For example:

As an attorney, I had to throw this one in with the mix 😂

You could limit it to people or events - or a mix. You could also do all historical events.

It really is an opportunity to do something really unique + interesting!

As you move towards improving the home i would arrange the furniture as i mentioned above

the chair in the foreground of this image would be sitting opposite the other one

As you are able to make improvements I would do the wall the fireplace is on in stone. It is very much a feature found in MCM homes