The shield will be in whatever location you put it in when you made it. Most people put the traditional "shields" on the character's left hand (camera right). But there's nothing stopping you from putting a traditional shield on the other side (if I'm not mistaken, the original character on the old Graal logo had his shield on the other side).

There is, however, a long-running bug that causes a player's shield to sometimes change position when said player is attacked (it moves back the moment the player moves, but it's still an annoyance).

Edit - One more thing (it's completely unrelated but I didn't want to double-post), someone brought up the torch furniture item (in the wrong thread, that's why I'm posting here) and how it behaves a little oddly with layers. I'm begging you not to change it. Because currently just the fire part shows through furniture (increasing the layer increases how much of it shows through) and this is awesome as it allows us to make it look like furniture it on fire. Please keep this as is, as many of is love how it currently works.