DIY Record Shelves

About two months ago, Mark and I moved from our tiny little 3rd floor apartment (that had a bee infestation, 3 mice, no washer or dryer, and a slanted kitchen) to a beautiful apartment in the midtown area of Harrisburg. The differences in the apartments is pretty extreme and I want to cry everytime I think about how blessed we were to find this place in our budget. (I mean, having laundry now is pretty amazing!!) I am super excited to get an apartment tour up on the blog, but in the meantime I wanted to share a couple of our DIY projects that we've been working on.

Today I'm going to show you how to make your own record shelves! Mark and I love music and all throughout college we both collected records, even though neither of us owned a record player. This past year for our first Christmas as a married couple I bought us a record player so now we are finally able to listen to our favorites! In our new place there is a good amount of empty wall space that we wanted to fill up, so we decided to make our own record shelves to display our favorites.

*image by Courtney Kurtz

I found a photo on Pinterest that really gave us inspiration (pictured below) but the tutorial was just a little too advanced for our small space and lack of tools. So, today I bring you the simplest way to make record/photo shelves yourself!

Our inspiration for the project.

You'll need the following:

+ White window frame siding (we chose a piece long enough to be cut into 3 equal pieces) that is also at least 1.5" thick

+ Screws

+ Screwdriver or power drill (the drill makes it easier)

+ Angle brackets

+ Records (duh!)

** In order for this to work properly you should also know where you can drill in your wall. We sort of took a risk and didn't use a stud finder (so far, so good) but you might want to get help from someone who knows how to use one if you don't. I don't have a clue! 

Step One: When you get your window frame siding from your local hardware store, it'll be a long piece of wood. Find an employee that can help you get it down and cut it into 3 equal pieces. Our's measured about 8 ft. before we cut it into three.

Step Two: Using a stud finder, find a good place to hang your shelves and mark where you want to hang it lightly with a pencil. Level your shelf and mark where the holes for the angle bracket and shelf line up. Screw one side of the bracket into the wall and then the other side into the shelf. Its important that you do the wall side first so you can set the shelf in the angle of the bracket. Repeat on the other side, making sure that your shelf is level.

 

Step Three: Measure the height of a record on the shelf and then hang the next shelf (same as step two) a few inches higher. You don't want your records looking squished. 

Ta-da!

Now, we had our wood cut into 3 pieces which was originally how many shelves we wanted. You could get your piece cut into 2 for longer shelves or even 4 or 5 for individual record shelving. These shelves also make great photo ledges and can hold small knick-knacks and flower vases. Make sure you don't put too much weight on them, however, because they are only held up by 2 angle brackets. When we went to hang our third shelf, we decided we didn't like the look of 3 together so the last shelf is a photo ledge in our bedroom.