Make a Record Wall

Make a Record Wall

I had some visitors coming and since we are moving in a couple of months after only a year renting, I hadn’t done anything with our spare bedroom. Between the blindingly white walls and the echo you get from an empty-ish room I knew I needed something simple and cheap to put on the wall.

Most thrift stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army sell records for a Dollar each, however sometimes if you go off the beaten path a bit and either go to a smaller thrift store or even browse Craigslist, I have found records for as little as 10 cents apiece. The trick is figuring how many you want/need. Having bought a few record collections off of craigslist and the desire to have a record wall much larger than this for some time now, I have many more than I actually need. In this tutorial I only used 12, so at $1 each I would have only spent a right around $13 with tax if I had gone out and bought records specifically for this project.

Supplies:

-          Records (DUH)

-          Yardstick

-          Level

-          Hammer and Nails

-          3m strips (optional)

Step One:

Ok so this one is super easy. Figure out where you want to hang your ‘art’. I measured straight up from a wall outlet that was in the center of my wall so I didn’t have to get out a measuring tape. I made a mark right in the center of where I wanted the top row of records to go.

Step Two:

Each of the records have a 6 in radius so your nails are going to be 12” apart plus whatever spacing you want in between. I ended up at around 12 ¼ “. If you measure 6 and 1/8” (be sure to use the level and get it straight) from your center mark on each side then you will have your first two spots marked for your nails. Then just go the full 12 ¼ “  out from the two marks you made and your top row is done! Then just use your yardstick and level to fill in the rest of the marks.

I was super lazy at this point and only measured the top row and the left row, then I just places the records and measured the spacing  by eye and used the holes to find the nail spots.

Step Three:

Hang the Records! If you're OCD (or the preferred CDO) you can use 3m strips to prevent your records from turning and the keep the labels aligned, but I decided I didn’t mind that they weren’t all facing the same way.

Now you have a super fancy and cheap record wall, hmmm now what to do with those record covers....