I am looking for a furniture quality LP rack

Hello everyone. I am redoing my basement (dedicated music and video room) and I am looking to purchase a nice furniture grade LP rack (this is a concession I had to make with my wife, she refuses to let me use my cheap pine storage cubes). Does anybody here know of a dealer that specializes in quality furniture for this purpose. I'm looking for something to hold around 900 LPs. Thanks to everyone in advance for their suggestions.

 

Check out IKEA's Bonde shelving units. You can customize to whatever configuration you need. They are 15" deep. More than deep enough for albums and you can get them with nice looking glass doors.

 

There is always the Boltz option.

A bit on the more expensive side, but they are probably THE best looking and THE best-performing storage option on the planet:

http://www.boltz.com/showitems.asp?deptcode1=502

 

If you go with something oak, I'd advise you to go with with multiple narrower units rather a big, wide unit. I've had oak shelf failures twice. On an oak unit only 32" wide, I had a shelf snap under the weight of LP's. Another oak unit, 36" wide, spilled all it's LD's when the pinholes that the shelf-holding pins insert into, well, the wood around them broke out. ...all fall down...

If your style advisor pushes for pine or oak, tell her they'll very possibly fail and break. If I ever buy more 12" round thang storage, it will proably be metal along the lines of what Boltz and Billy Bags make.

 

Do you have "unfinished furniture" stores in Massachusetts? The places by me sell unstained furniture, I guess usually pine. The two places that I've been to both sell one to six compartment shelves that have an approximate 13 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 13 1/4 interior -- definitely big enough for records. Hope that helps.

 

What kind of oak shelves were these? Solid oak, plywood, or veneered particle board? How thick were the shelves? As a woodworker, I'm curious.

 

Yeah, they're all over the place here even on Cape Cod. "Mills Stores".

No offense, but I fail to see where the pine cubes aren't chic. All you have to do is stain them and you're good to go. They look wonderful, strong, inexpensive and plentiful. Geoman has a nice "furniture" rack for his more expensive LPs too, but I really like the idea of open-end grab and pick rather than yet another glass door to flip open and shut.

 

Solid oak, the 32" one was from the chain Oak Wharehouse. The shelves all seem to be 3/4". The shelves may be plywood with venneer? I don't have the broken one anymore. The one that the pin holes broke out of was also solid oak but from a local manufacturer. It failed after just a few months. In my experience, oak shelves, have sagged for me with LP's and most especially Laserdiscs. Ideally, IMO, shelves should be MDF or some similar process.

Does Wood Technology stille make those stackable cubes? I have some of those and they're oak and they don't sag. They're narrower though and only hold about 75 LP's each. I think cubes of some sort are best if one goes with wood....

 

Agree. The nice thing about the cubes is how they're made. They can never sag.

 

I like the Boltz too, cuze I'm an Industrial Designer I make my own stuff, every time that I can. Now I'm thinking on re-design some using the Boltz shapes.

Regards!

 

there was some site that sounded like boxes.com with an LP rack for about $100

 

Hey don't get me wrong, I agree with your way of thinking. The pine cubes are fine with me. In my negotiations with my wife, she agreed that I could purchase and set up any video and sound (7.1 surround) system within our price range as long as she could have final approval over the room furnishings. Therefor the pine cubes have to go, but I feel I got the better end of the deal.

 

I gotcha. Nothing wrong with keeping up the integrity of the beauty. A woman's eye is much better for that.

Another trick I learn from local forum member Geoman was to get the tool racks at Home Depot for around $50 and get boxes from U-haul for a couple of bucks for neat "basement" storage of Lps. Just stack the boxes on the rack open-ended. Very efficient, cheap but NOT chic.

Used to have a girlfriend who put "phake" vines (plastic) around my LP furnishings to make them look girlie? Made my record racks look like gravestones!

 

Right now, I am rocking the Bonde unit sans doors and has 8 perfectly square cubes for vinyl. Nice unit if you get it with the birch veneer and skip the shelf paper models. Looks like real furniture. It's available in 4, 8 and 12 cubes. Just be careful with the backing board. It's made of particle board and if you move it a few times or slam the records against the back of it, it may jar it a bit loose. I would recommend not nailing the back all the way in just in case you have to move it some day and need to take it apart.

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=12&productId=11294&langId=-1&parentCats=10104*10173*10407

 

I have the Bonde stand with Birch veneer, very nice and sturdy!

 

It's the same with the Wood Tech cubes. I discarded the little nails they provided for the backs and replaced them with little screws that can easily be removed.

 

I'm in the same boat...

Heavy WAF needed. I took her to IKEA to look and the Bonde line, she took one look, giggled and said "Yeah, right". Needles to say, the Boltz systems are out also. I have yet to find anything of furniture quality, and have concluded that I will have something built to spec.

 

Here's a picture of the one "fancy" piece of furniture that I use for records. I'll have to ask my wife what brand it is, but it looks really nice. You can always take a ride down to Sagamore Beach to check it out. Sckott and I will probably be getting together soon, so come on down!

 

I have a great LP storage unit from Davidson Whitehall (they use the Storadisc tradename). Their stuff actually does look like furniture. The shelves of the LP units are tilted and have rubberized backs, so the LPs will stand up even if there are no other LPs supporting them. Extremely rigid materials. All units are made to order. See www.storadisc.com.

The bad news is that it is expensive.

 

I say get it built and let the wife pick out the materials....

 

Did you see the birch finish or the whitewash? I didn't like the whitewash finish but the birch is quite nice.
Expect to pay big bucks to have a custom made unit. Maybe you could pick up an armoir and put shelves inside it. I think that would pass the WAF.

 

I am in admiration of the spouse management skills of some of the Forum members.

In my household, IKEA is entirely inconsistent with WAF and more likely to lead to a spousal response of NFW. For me, it was go with the wood at Storadisc or go custom.

 

I've looked at the Storadisc racks and IMO they look very lackluster compared to the IKEA Bonde birch bookcase. They also cost 4 times more.
Could you talk the wife into taking the money you could save on the IKEA bookcase and put it into the kids college fund or other furniture options you may need?
For that matter you could buy more LP's, CD's or even DVD's? I guess I just don't get the fact that the WAF is so dominent.

 

I was just kidding around. I actually have some say about what goes in the home theater. (BTW, my daughters' college, graduate school and law school tuitions are paid, but thank you anyway for your concern.)

IMO,the IKEA finish is quite spouse and designer friendly, but the Stora-LP construction is MUCH heavier (I can't lift my LP unit when empty and there is no flex whatsoever in the shelves when full) and more stable. The Stora-LP finishes are high quality, but may or may not fit in with the other finishes in the room (I use a black textured finish because there was no good match for the grey wood already in the room.) The Stora-LP unit is quite functional in approach and appearance, and will probably not be as satisfactory as a unit with doors in a living room or den. In a dedicated music room or home theater, I think the Stora-LP is a superior unit.

 

Let's put the myth to bed that the IKEA bookcase is not sturdy. I had to have my neighbour help me move mine and it is the smallest one they make. It is also a very rigid design. The shelves are separated in 13" intervals so there is no bowing or flexing at all. My small IKEA case holds over 700 LP's for a mere $150.
Finally, I have had no problems with the thin rear backing on mine.