Vinyl record shelfing

Cool as that looks, it might hold half of your collection--there is a lot of wasted space. In some cases, the LP on the bottom of each stack is holding up 5-10 others by its top corners. That looks like it would dog-ear their jackets fairly quickly.

I think half the world uses Ikea's Kallax

I like i-cube storage. Reasonable price, loads of finishes, strong, and reasonable price if use the multi buy 4 for price of 3 offer. Also very flexible and I think can be mixed with cd storage as well.

Indeed, in preparation of our move away from Reading we have bought the biggest (183x183?) kallax going. Kallax was only introduced a couple of years ago, so longevity shouldn't pose a problem too.

Frank.

I like the practical nature of the Kallax and similar type storage approaches. The OP's picture shows an interesting storage solution, but I'd be concerned with potential for vinyl warping where the LPS are stored at less than vertical. When storing large numbers of LPs in a practical manner you're not going to see much cover art. If displaying cover art is important maybe buy some duplicate LPs and frame them for the listening room walls. For that matter you could also buy generic jackets for your existing favorite LPS and display their original covers in some creative, pleasing manner.

Thanks for your thoughts and recommendations, especially to not choose a solution that could harm the records.

So I understand that Kallax can hold so many records? The internet has lots of shelf fail pictures that also contain Ikea shelfs, which is not really assuring...

Really? I remember there was a worry on t'net when they thinned out the walls of the previous Expidit to become Kallax but IKEA said they had same load capacity, perhaps check it out with them first before buying?

Edit: Just looked it up on their site, max load per shelf is 13kg - About 90 -100 LP's fill each block, so drop 90 albums on some scales and see.

There was a similar thread last year with a picture of a collapsed Kallax or it's predecessor. The collapse was caused by incorrect orientation. IE. The top and bottom where at the sides.

The internal segregation consists of a number of shelves running the length of the unit, with a number of short shelves between the long shelves. The long shelves must be positioned horizontally and the short shelves vertical.

If you push the records back into the shelf (depth of shelving is about 2 inch longer than a record), you can display cover artwork by placing a single record in each cubicle. I recently sorted my records based on genre, displaying a single record in each cubicle helps me remember where each genre is located.

For many years I used IKEA Billy (40cm width)) without mishap - i dont know how similar Kalax is, but with wardrobes I found that an extra shelf purchased a year or two ago for one of their wardrobes is inferior to the originals that are about 8 years older, poorer quality surface and, more significantly, deforms far more under load, indicating a less stable core: the advice would seem to be check out in store first, looking for any bend when appling pressre similar the the weight a shelf of LPs would be. (l did that originally with Billy and was impressed!)

And yes, LPs should always be stored vertical, never leaning supported at just the top as that is a recipe for warping, especially if the room gets hot. I was horrified at OP's picture, but assumed the idea was the shelves filled, not like shown. I always used something for a 'bookend' on shelves not full.

fatcat posted:

There was a similar thread last year with a picture of a collapsed Kallax or it's predecessor. The collapse was caused by incorrect orientation. IE. The top and bottom where at the sides.

The internal segregation consists of a number of shelves running the length of the unit, with a number of short shelves between the long shelves. The long shelves must be positioned horizontally and the short shelves vertical.

If you push the records back into the shelf (depth of shelving is about 2 inch longer than a record), you can display cover artwork by placing a single record in each cubicle. I recently sorted my records based on genre, displaying a single record in each cubicle helps me remember where each genre is located.

 

Good to know that incorrect orientation is the cause for these fail pictures.

Very nice idea to display a single record in the front of each cubicle

Do you have a picture to share, just out of curiosity? 

Innocent Bystander posted:

For many years I used IKEA Billy (40cm width)) without mishap - i dont know how similar Kalax is, but with wardrobes I found that an extra shelf purchased a year or two ago for one of their wardrobes is inferior to the originals that are about 8 years older, poorer quality surface and, more significantly, deforms far more under load, indicating a less stable core: the advice would seem to be check out in store first, looking for any bend when appling pressre similar the the weight a shelf of LPs would be. (l did that originally with Billy and was impressed!)

And yes, LPs should always be stored vertical, never leaning supported at just the top as that is a recipe for warping, especially if the room gets hot. I was horrified at OP's picture, but assumed the idea was the shelves filled, not like shown. I always used something for a 'bookend' on shelves not full.

I already see myself with a record bag visiting Ikea

As you assumed, the picture shows rather a type of shelf than a way to store the records.

What I like about the shelf in the picture is that it is open on the left and right side, so that the covers are visible.

One way of diplaying art work :

Take digital photo's of your albums and put them in a montage ,say with" Powerpoint".

Have the result printed on canvas. that's what I did.

Others may have better experience but what put me off Kallax was the maximum loading of 13kg per shelf would mean records could not be guaranteed to be perfectly vertical as filling a cube I would have thought would weigh approaching 20kg. This was why I went for more specialist storage with the I-cubes - they are more expensive but I thought better for my vinyl.

American-made steel racks from Boltz are excellent. They're also attractive, if you like the industrial look. I do. 

I found some crates on Etsy and formed a relationship with the guy that makes them, and he sends them directly to me.  They are strong and pretty good, hold 150 records each, and I stain them to my liking.  Also they stack well on their sides.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Mile...f=l2-shopheader-name

This looks nice, thanks for the hint!

Hm, I've just purchased  4*1 and a 4*2 Kallax units and am in the middle of putting them together.  Seem pretty reasonable and solid for a relatively low cost. Albums fit perfectly as do lamps and ornaments giving it pretty good wife approval ratings 

Hi P,

I use Montana cubes from Denmark for Vinyl, books and other things. Extremely flexible and very well made. You can choose between a huge number of sizes and colours. Some of my units are approxmately 10 years old and as stable as they were back then. The ones bought later have the exact same colour. They even make runs of old (not currently available) colours twice a year.

These?

http://www.analogueseduction.net/category-738.html

They seem to have two different makes on site, another called Zomo. As well as the crates

Both look similar but back to being more pricey than Ikea if you need lots of them!

Thanks for all your suggestions, really nice solutions out there!

Not sure if still relevant but I've come across THIS

Thanks, yes, still relevant, this is a really cool collection of vinyl shelfs.

On top of all these suggestions I currently have a closer look at the modular system Flötotto 355 -  355 mm is the inner size of a cube, just perfect for vinyl. Similar form factor like Ikea Kallax but nicer finish and more flexibility.

No experience of them ... But have you seen http://snvinyl.co.uk/epages/es...943300/Products/GLO6