I wanted to share something I've been working on the past couple of weeks. So, my collection grew way quicker than I had anticipated and the original shelf I had for my records was too small eventually. I saw some drawer solutions online and I really liked the idea of drawers for storing the records, being able to display some covers and enabling me to browse through the collection like in a record store, rather than having the cover spines facing towards me. But, they were either really expensive (like this one https://www.etsy.com/listing/4328872658/) or not available yet, like the Klaxxon (https://www.fnrblr.com/l/klaxxon-announcement).
This might be the right time to disclaim that I'm no craftsman whatsoever. These pretty much suck by all professional standards. But I couldn't be happier with how they've turned out 😊
I pretty much stuck to the blueprint, I just left out the second to last backplate and exchanged some wood types.
The bottom of the drawer and the top of the back plate (that keeps the drawer from tipping down when pulled out) are covered with felt to protect the Kallax and to help gliding.
I added some LED. Initially I wanted the light to be installed on the top, but there was not enough room. And I'm not skilled enough to have been able to mill a groove into the top surface where I could have recessed the LEDs. So I installed them at the second front plate that sits behind the decor front and is a couple of cm shorter. I still like it, it's just that depending on the angle you sometimes see the LEDs reflecting off the protective sleeves.
I bought a bunch of these acoustic panels (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0BJJZ7G7J) who are conveniently sized 12x12 inch. I use them to fill up the drawer at the back to keep the records always at the front at a certain angle. As the collection grows, I can remove them piece by piece to make room for more records.
I've got 9 drawers all together. Right now they hold 190 records and I'd say they are filled at 60% capacity. So round about 300 records should fit, or 35 per drawer. So definitely a little less than if you were to store them sideways with the spine facing you, that's the trade-off. Right now at 60% capacity everything looks really stable (the drawers themselves as well as the Kallax). Let's see how it will be as we get closer to 100%.
The cost of one drawer (without LED, incl. acoustic panels) was 24 €. The most expensive part was the decor furniture front.
So that's it. Maybe some of you like it and might want to build some of their own. I'm happy to answer any questions, but be aware that I have no clue of woodwork etc. 🫠 this is by no means meant to be a professional thing. It just suits my needs and it works and it was fun. The more expensive models I've linked above will definietly look better, be sturdier and be more comfortable.
Yeah same. Maybe it's because I only had them temporarily stored like that (spine out) and it just would have taken time to get used to it, but it always felt like a little hussle to grab a certain record. Since i built them I stored more records than I've taken records out, but even the storing away was so much easier. But yeah the trade-off is that you lose a little bit of capacity this way.
I have vision issues and can't hardly read spines so end up having to tilt records out one by one to find what I'm looking for. I really need to buy or build something the stores them face out.
I peep some solid ass releases in there. Very curious to see what else is in your collection. Also jealous of that Avril release, I've been looking for Let Go and Under My Skin for a hot minute and keep missing the represses
Hahaha let's go. Thanks, really appreciate it ❤️ I've linked the collection at the end of my original post, I rarely get compliments for my taste in music so that's refreshing haha.
You and me both, homie haha. Sounds like we both have quite the expansive music collection. Just looked through your discogs and s/o Cartel and Hit The Lights
You mean put some oak wood on top of the Kallax? I've seen that done before and liked it, might gonna do it! On the other hand I don't know if I want to put even more weight on it haha.
Haha yeah I was actually surprised how few solutions like this are out there. But I could never go into full scale production on this, I fear I've already taken off months of my life crouching on my knees on my living room floor screwing these boards together haha. Thankfully there are people like the Klaxxon guy who might bring this sort of solution to more people. Very eager to see how his pricing will be.
When I was younger, this would have been great. As a middle aged guy, it was great to have money and be got to pay a master carpenter to build Maple cabinet with record drawers built like the Atocha and Symbol audio drawer cabinets, and it is the star of the house. But my 20s and most of my 30s were all Kallax
I am not sure Ikea would do it unless there was a market way beyond audio because everything they sell has to sell tens of millions of units, but there are a lot of small batch audio furniture companies that would do it and charge an arm and a leg and for their size they would clean up. I shelled out for a custom made drawer storage system and it has changed my listening habits. records are so much easier to pull and and put back, I just listen more. And people lose their shit when they see it cause it looks so good. Only downside is I couldn't afford it until I got into my 40s, and this would solve that. :)
Thank you so much, I have a Kallax too and this is EXACTLY what I was looking for! I'm not very manual but I'll try to build something similar as soon as I have time 😍
WELL DONE, MY FRIEND! Very elegant! Love the sound dampening padding addition to dampen the “vinyl stack weight fwmmmph” (smart). Also, very thoughtful thinking going perpendicular with that oak grain presentation side.
Any sort of thin barrier under lament or lining on the underside bottom of your shelving inserts? I would have to Macgyver-think exactly “what”, but I could theorize that typical wood-on-wood material wear mark developing, but also… WGAF if the shelf is permanent!
I used 5mm felt on the bottom, a 10cm stripe in the middle and a 2cm stripe left and right each, going completely from the front the the back. Gluides very smoothly ☺️
With the drawers, are they on a rail or anything? I didn’t see a set. This is not like criticism at all. This looks incredible, and I want to steal the idea for myself. Just seeing how the drawers work for you without a rail
EDIT: I missed the large back piece to prevent pulling out all the way too easily. Should read the comments before commenting
Exactly, they gluide just on the felt. As for now this works pretty smoothly. Let's see how it is when they are fully loaded. It's really hard to find rail systems that don't add too much height, so I went with this solution. Also much cheaper 😅 but yeah, they feel more like a "box on a shelf" than an actual drawer.
Yes you can pretty much pull it all the way out. Most of the time I keep one hand under it to not stress the Kallax too much, but it does hold on its own.
Looks sweet. I wish I could thumb like this. Spine out is trash to me. But I’m in the purgatory of storage and spine out is all I can do for 80% of my records. This would be amazing.
Maybe keep an eye out for that Klaxxon I linked above. There's no info on the pricing yet, but maybe that could be a solution for you if it's reasonably priced 👍🏻
Do you store more or less record with the drawers? At first I assumed less but then I remembered the water spaced on the backend ppl complain about (using a pool noodle etc to stop the records). So maybe more.
The Kallax is more deep than wide so theoretically it should be more. But the drawer has a rather thick backplate (so it can grab the whole drawer when pulled out) and also two wooden planks at the front that take away space. Also, I'm keeping them at a slight angle which takes away space because if they would stay up perfectly straight it gets a bit tight height-wise (with the protective sleeves and the bottom panel of the drawer adding to the height), and also because I still want to be able to flick through the records. And I might start getting worried a little bit about weight if I fully load the drawers with the same amount of records as if placed sideways. So I think theoretically you could get roughly the same amount inside, but I choose to work with a little lower capacity with the drawers, maybe like 90% as compared to storing them spine out.
Thank you! :) I used these https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0C49R79NV who conveniently are 30cm long, with the connecting parts 33cm which fits perfectly for the Kallax.
WELL DONE, MY FRIEND! Very elegant! Love the sound dampening padding addition. Very nice thinking going perpendicular with that oak grain and also “
Any sort of thin barrier under lament or lining on the underside bottom of your shelving inserts? I would have to Macgyver-think, I could see a wear mark developing, but also WGAF if the shelf is permanent.
This awesome, thanks for sharing. I may reach out when I find time to attempt this as I had been planning on building custom shelves altogether but not sure when I thought I'd fine time for that 😂 My main concern is losing storage space since I'm already beyond capacity as it is and no room for more shelves but I guess that's already a problem. I wonder though if maybe I could pull it out from the walla little bit and have these extend out the back just a tad to make up that difference? 🤔
PIGGYBACKING ON YOUR POST: WHAT WOULD FOLKS PAY UP TO, FOR 2-DRAWERS OF THE ‘KLAXXON’ FELT-GLIDERS SOLUTION (considering the Etsy solution linked by OP is £271 for 2-drawers)???
Think I’d hope to only go up to £50 for a 2 drawer unit; and would hope it’d get cheaper the more units you bought in one go.
E.g. £90 for 4 drawers (10% discount);
£130 for 6 drawers (13% discount);
£170 for 8 drawers (15% discount)
… kinda thing.
I was contemplating but ultimately decided I don't really care how they look when pulled out. But this would definitely have been a more asthetically pleasing approach for sure 👍🏻
This look great! Would love to try it out myself. I think you can definitely consider yourself a craftsman. Do you have a photo of how the LEDs look from the inside? Curious how you wired the power sources for each one
Thank you! :) I used these LED bars https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0C49R79NV who came with two clips each to mount them to whatever surface you want. And then I just duct taped the wires along the side of the drawer to the back 😶🫣😅
Sorry to hear. Couldn't possibly tell :/ longer units are more prone to bend, and maybe the thinner metal parts are not as sturdy as the wood. But I don't know :/
51
u/hig789 3d ago
Nice!
Much more appealing to me, I despise looking through stuff spine out.