Posted byI have recently come into a pretty amazing vintage record collection, and it has become a labour of love listening to my new treasures and adding more albums I love. Right now the only shelf in my home that’s tall enough to allow for them is pretty small, and if I want to add to my collection and keep it in good condition, I need a better storage system.
Ideally, I hope to find a way to incorporate the album art into my decor. I love that I have some of the most iconic albums in rock history, from amazing artists like Fleetwood Mac, Meatloaf, Dire Straights, Pink Floyd, Z Z Top, AC/DC and The Band, and it makes me proud in a weird way to display them, especially since most of them come from family members with memories attached.
Does anyone have a good system for showing their vinyl the love it deserves, beyond the bookcase? -SmashedTogether
I have recently come into a pretty amazing vintage record collection, and it has become a labour of love listening to my new treasures and adding more albums I love. Right now the only shelf in my home that’s tall enough to allow for them is pretty small, and if I want to add to my collection and keep it in good condition, I need a better storage system.
Absolutely! My favorite way to display records is using album frames such as these:
These record frames make changing your album art super-easy.
If you have records that are, themselves, mort artistic than the album cover, these types of frames are perfect for displaying.
Check out the way that Offbeat Homie Natalie used her frames to show off her record collection — “Disney artwork from storybook/music record sleeves, given to me by my mother-in-law (retired special ed teacher).”
You can always invest in some furniture that also does double-duty displaying your records, like this entertainment center stand.
Or this $15 thrift store coffee table find, from Offbeat Homie AliKonkel.
Or take some inspiration from Homie “found and sewn” who uploaded this pic to our Flickr pool. Paint a record storage crate a bright color and pop a few of your favorite records inside and put it on display on a desk top.
If you happen to find some records that are scratched up beyond repair, you might want to check out Offbeat Homie Misty’s fabulous vinyl art. She explains: “My artist friend Kristen McKain made these for me. Painted on old vinyl records (the old raver in me totally fell in love with this idea).”
If you don’t have room to display ALL your records, you can utilize my favorite way to display them on a bookshelf — in a rainbow formation! Thanks to Offbeat Homie Mod Mischief for uploading this to our Flickr Pool.
So, Homies, what are YOUR favorite ways to show off your vinyl collection?
I love these ideas! My hubs and I used old 45s for our wedding guest book and now they’re in a record box (albeit a funky tie-dyed one) and we don’t know what to do with them. I’m tempted just to nail ’em to the wall, but that could look dorm-roomy. Record frames would be perfect to make a collage if we can find them at a discount and Amazon has smaller ones that might fit 45s. Yay!
I am a big fan of a picture rail running the length of a room (like, this sort of thing, but easy to do yourself – just a thin shelf with a lip) – http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/50152595/
That way you can change things out, intersperse different sized pieces and it always looks like a ‘collection.’
Damn I love this idea!
This way you could put up records and occasionally you could mix in other stuff with the display, ie framed ticket stubs, cardboard posters, pictures from concerts.
And if you don’t live by an Ikea you could make your own ledges: ana-white.com/2010/10/plans/ten-dollar-ledges
When we first got into vinyl but my boyfriend and I used to switch displays out on the mantle above our tv and feature whatever albums we were listening to lately. Now we have a more permanent display of framed Bob Dylan pictures and some busts that have been “KISS-ified. The records reside in old milk crates on the floor, which work for me because I keep my favorites in the front where I can enjoy the art.
Great ideas for improving your interior design. It will both personalize your space and give it unique and stylish whiff. Thanks for great ideas!
This is a nice idea for displaying a small amount of chosen vinyl records, but if you have a lot of them you’re going to need some serious storage solution. As LPs are coming back in popularity on the wave of retro fashion (it’s just my thought, but the fact is real, even Mashable published an article about it recently, you can google for it), there are a lot of nice possibilities out there – from IKEA Expedit units to some high end media cabinets (for a lot of cash usually). A popular idea is to hold vinyl records in crates – it’s got a trandy DIY look to it. And DIY move itself is also very busy with reusing old vinyls in a lot of different ways. I like to collect all this stuff on Pinterest boards – take a look if you are interested: http://www.pinterest.com/LPrecordstorage/ (these are not my ideas, usually things pinned from internet, I hope it’s OK to post it here).
There are a lot of mini stands people use to display decorative plates (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, they look a little like miniature easels) that are easy to come by in thrift stores and etc. which should work pretty well! But if your collection is huge this might take up a lot of surface space, so my best suggestion would be to only display a few favorites or to rotate them. Maybe to match your seasonal decor?