![[final.jpg]] Hiding away the beautiful artwork on the album covers in my collection would be a damn shame. I wanted a place to display some of my favourite's where they would remain easily accessible. I had nothing going on above my TV set so a vinyl shelf there was a no-brainer 🎵 ## Plan Here is the [guide](https://imgur.com/r/DIY/pJVe2) that I more or less followed to make my own shelves. The plan is to mount these rails to the wall parallel with each other and with slightly more than a records-worth of vertical space between them. To remove the record you lift it vertically into the gap in the rail above and then are able to freely swing out the bottom. Putting one back is simply the reverse. So off to The Home Depot we go, with a plan and a dream 💭 Thanks to @YushYushhh and @tristanrozay for driving and accompanying me and my carless-butt 🙏 and then hitting up BK for a quick coupon-financed meal afterwards 🍔👑 ## Materials needed - Baseboard - 3/8" square dowel - Wood glue - Black spray paint - 2" screws - Sandpaper - Drill - Level - Tape measure - Clamps I ended up going with baseboard instead of just a basic wood [slatt](https://genius.com/a/what-does-slatt-mean) since I easily found it at The Home Depot, it looked pretty cool, came in 8' lengths, and the price was right! The square rods came in 3' lengths, so each rail was made with 3 of them. I was able to get them cut at the store 🙂 I glued and clamped each rod segment for 30 minutes, which ended up taking a long time since I only have 3 clamps. [Mistakes were made](https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/Killfeed) when I chose 1" screws,  too short to even make it through the baseboard and rod, let alone enough into the drywall. Actually, I'm not sure what the walls in my apartment are made of... ![[glue.jpg]] After they dowel was securely glued to the baseboard I took the shelves to my back alley with some cardboard and a can of black spray paint. I ended up using the entire can. None left for graffiti 😒 ![[paint.jpg]] ## Protection I found some recommendations online to keep my vinyl collection healthy and alive for decades - Use a [cleaning kit](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DG3GT9F) - Use both outer and inner [plastic sleeves](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CYJ5LFN) - Keeping records vertical is the best way to avoid warp damage - Close the lid otherwise your cat will [turn the tables](https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the%20tables%20are%20turned) and become a DJ 😼 I have moved the speakers that I listen to the records on to a separate desk. At higher volumes the needle to skip due to the vibrations. Now I just run a longer aux cable from the record player to the speakers I use at my PC, always ready to go 🔥 ## Final Product ![[Static/Images/posts/vinyl-shelf/side.jpg]] This project was completed on `July 22, 2021`. Here's a [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6EDthCaGnY50plWMGZH7nr?si=0fca5faed6c44d18) I add a song to from any vinyl I get, ordered chronologically. March 5, 2022