There is nothing like the sound of a record needle hitting a piece of vinyl. Those few moments right before the song starts, you just can’t replicate that sound. I have been collecting vinyl records for about 8 years now. Growing up my grandmother had this huge record player, it was like a piece of furniture. I loved going over and listening to her records. Most were christian albums, but tucked in there was Nancy Sinatra’s “These boots are made for walking” I have a sneaky suspicion this record belonged to my Aunt Connie. It was my favorite to listen to.
Storing vinyl records is tricky. You need to have them kept vertically and in a cool/dry spot. Seems simple enough until you start accumulating more, only then do you realize how much space they take up.
Our home is seriously lacking in the storage department. We have to utilize every square inch in the most efficient way. Building our forever home is years down the road and I didn’t want my records boxed up in storage until we had “more space”. But the reality of the situation was, where were we going to put them? Light bulb – a functional faux fireplace.
I’m the idea girl, my father in law and husband are in charge of the labor and bringing my vision to life. I had no idea where to start so of course I consult Pinterest and Google surely someone has had this idea and already done the hard work designing the blue print. I searched, searched and searched some more until I found one that mirrored my vision. Without a visual guide it would have been hard to explain to builders exactly what I wanted. After a few days of searching, voila. Clicking here will take you to the exact guide we used. We had to play with the dimensions to customize it to our space. Our faux fireplace is taller and not quiet as long. We also left the backside of our side panels open. This allows us to conceal unsightly cables.
I couldn’t love this piece more. The record player itself sits in the center, vinyl records are on the side along with books and baskets that hold items we frequently use. The first Christmas we were in our house we didn’t have anywhere to hang our stockings, this solved that problem too. The center of the fireplace is ideal for decorating throughout the year, ours is currently vacant because Maren is now crawling and loves touching all the things that shouldn’t be touched, she would wreak havoc on whatever decor was located there.
Now if I can only think of how to make all of my china fit in my cabinets…stand by.
Materials for fireplace – Lowes, Hooks- Anthroplogie, Rug- Amazon, Baskets, TJMaxx, Vinyl Record Player: Sony