We have a big bookshelf in the living room which is designed as a series of boxes (does that make any sense? My husband built it so I can't google a picture up for you), and the lowest shelf is divided into three 'squares'. It's stained with a Japanese black lacquer, so we went and bought three big IKEA storage boxes in black, one for each square. That hosts all the toys - one is full of soft toys, one is puzzles and games and things, one is art stuff. I've just had a clear out (my daughter is 18 months, and bored of a lot of her older stuff) so one is almost empty at the moment. But everything just gets chucked into them, and they're lightweight enough that she can pull them out from the shelves to access toys when she needs to.
We also have a low cabinet running the length of the sitting room (open plan house, two connected living areas, the big bookshelf is in one and the cabinet in the other) on which sits the TV, fish tank, ornaments, etc. Her books live in the shelf below the fish tank and she's allowed to open it herself (all the other doors on the cabinet guard CDs and breakables and are childproofed).
The nursery has a set of open shelves along one wall on which sit some teddies and a few more books for night time stories.
Not much help maybe, as my husband built all of the above, but they weren't custom-built for children's toys - we just went out and bought IKEA storage boxes for existing open shelves. It works wonderfully and looks contained.