How to make a diy record feature wall in your home
Hi friends!
Between our vinyl record wall and our propagation wall, we have some pretty big conversation starters in our house! After having just really large/tall blank walls all over our house for like the first two years of living here, I decided it was time to get creative and wanted to come up with some options that wasn’t necessarily large pieces of art. You can read all about the propagation wall feature that we did here! But we also came up with our vinyl record wall and it is one of my favorite places in the house to hang out! We love having our records displayed and honestly it was a cool way to add color and something different to our walls! I also feel like records aren’t just for listening, they’re also pieces of art so it makes sense to display them this way. The best part of the whole things was that it was very budget-friendly, especially when trying to fill the space we were and wasn’t hard to install either! I share all about it down below!
Happy decorating!
Materials You’ll Need for Your Vinyl Record Wall
Vinyl records or album covers, we have purchased many new but we also love getting them from thrift stores or estate sales when we go! We also always try to get a new record when we go on a trip together!
Shelves, there are so many options on Amazon, we went with clear shelves but they also have like wood options or metal, I will link a few options besides the ones we went with.
We used screws to put up our shelves but for a renter friendly option you could use command strips, or mounting tape!
Measuring tape and level to make sure things are straight
Pencil & ruler for spacing. Our level has a laser that made a straight line so we didn’t use this but if you don’t have that a ruler and pencil works just as well!
Plan Your Record Wall Design
Before you start mounting, visualize your layout to match the space you are working with.
Choose a location: This wall would look awesome in a living room, a music nook, an office, or even a bedroom accent wall.
Pick a layout style:
Grid Layout - this is what we did and I think it looks very sleek and organized!
Staggered Rows - this is a more casual vibe but could look really cool!
Spiral or Circular - if you have the patience to do this, it would look really bold and be a serious focal point in your space.
Freestyle Collage - in another area of our house we have a few of these shelves in a collage, I will share a picture of that below but it is more of an artistic and playful look!
Step-by-Step: How to Make a DIY Record Feature Wall
Prep the Wall - For prep we made sure that we knew the measurements we wanted to do going in and then we cleaned the wall really well.
Paint if Doing This - We painted a large strip in our formal living room to break up the giant white wall and make it more of a focal point for the records.
Test Your Layout - Then we arranged the records on the floor to visualize and make sure this was the design we wanted to go with.
Mark Placement - This is where we used our laser level but if you don’t have one, you can use a pencil and ruler for light guide marks on where to put the shelves.
Mount the Records - Now you will attach the shelves with either screws or for a renter friendly option you can use the command hooks or mounting tape.
Check Alignment - Use a level to make sure you have nice straight lines!
Add Details - Once all of your shelves are up this is when you can add in your records! I’ve also seen people do backlight on albums which is cool or display other things on these shelves, but make it yours!
Tips for Success
If you have records that are extra special to you, make sure you protect them with a sleeve. For us, some of the records are very high up and not easily dustable so make sure you protect your favorite records!
Not completely necessary but if you can I would try to avoid making this wall in a place where it gets direct sunlight or damp areas just to make sure you are preventing possible damage.
At least for us we by no means had all of the records to fill the wall when we first put this together, so just a reminder to add to your collection at a reasonable pace, it doesn’t need to be filled right away!
Again, if you need a renter friendly option make sure you use removable or wall-safe adhesives when putting up the shelves just to avoid permanent damage to the wall.
Creative Record Wall Ideas
I mentioned and shared a photo that in a different part of our house we have a couple of the shelves and vinyls mixed into a collage wall of sorts and we love it so much! I wanted to share a few more ways you can get creative with displaying your records in your own space!
You can do it like ours and do exclusively album covers!
You could do a theme of color that matches your aesthetic!
You could do a mixed media wall and have a mix of records, posters and like framed photos!
Like I have mentioned, we knew we wanted to do something with the giant empty wall that wasn’t art and we had slowly been collecting records so it felt like the perfect solution! The DIY record feature wall feels like a really fun way to show our favorite music and it has really been an instant conversation starter when people are over! It was also so easy to put together! I tried to answer any questions that you guys might have had in the blog post but if there are any questions that you have please leave a comment below and I will answer those for you there! You can also email me at hello@emmatarynjones.com and I will respond to you there if you would like!