Record Player Stand and Vinyl Storage – Final Report Part 1

2 months ago

Post 11 - 2025 : Final Report Part 1

For my final project, I designed a piece of furniture that was meant to be a stand for a record player that also provided a cool way to display and store vinyl records. My final aesthetic was a blend between farmhouse, mid century modern, and punk.

Inspiration

During the first half of the semester, I did a lot of exploration into the punk aesthetic. My upcycle project was created within this space. The main visuals associated with the punk scene include spiky/crazy hair styles/colors, deliberately offensive t-shirts, spiked or studded jewelry, and leather jackets among other things. Basically, if something intentionally seeks out to portray anything that society deems inappropriate or non-conventionally beautiful could be considered to fall under the punk aesthetic.

Early on, I knew that I did not want my final project to embody what is typical of a cookie cutter punk style, as I have not visually expressed myself or my tastes in that way for a long time now. Because of this, I had the desire to seriously consider other aesthetics. During the upcycle presentations, Scott Ehrlich’s project introduced me to the mid century modern aesthetic.

I loved the look that the lines and shapes created when interlocking with each other and thought something within this space would fit very well with the rest of the furniture in my apartment.

My earlier dive into the punk aesthetic led me to have thoughts of flashy displays of music, which directly evolved into my decision to create a piece of furniture that displayed vinyl records in a unique way and also acted as a stand for a record player. This merged with my newfound inspiration to incorporate mid century modern into my final project giving me direction for my design.

My initial inspiration only included the two aesthetics, but towards the end of my fabrication process, I could not shake the thought that my design had elements outside of punk and mid century modern. To scratch the itch, I did some quick research and came across farmhouse style furniture. The images I looked at had features that I knew I loved, but I didn’t realize there was a name for the style.

I realized I subconsciously designed with my love of farmhouse furniture in mind, which brought me to my final aesthetic: a blend between farmhouse, mid century modern, and punk.

Vision

My artistic goal was to produce a record player stand/vinyl storage system that was completely unique to anything I have seen before, yet still matched the rest of the furniture in my apartment. Most products I have come across in the past tend to store records without being able to prominently display at least one album. My vision was to hold each record in its own wooden frame and interlock them in such a way that the lines of the frame created a pattern that resembled a mid century modern aesthetic. I also wanted one of the records clearly displayed for all to see with the colors from one or two other records peeking behind it.

In terms of material, I aimed to make the piece of furniture mostly out of wood in order to fit within mid century modern, and I planned to paint/stain the wood black so that it matched the rest of my apartment.

Initial Sketches and Final Design Plans

The initial sketch I ended up basing my design on was the sketch I made when exploring the mid century modern aesthetic. It featured a wooden frame support structure and an interlocking pattern of vinyl records. The sketch did not take into account how some of its features would be achieved, but was the precursor that I based my CAD model on.

I am not the most comfortable when it comes to sketching, so I went right to making a CAD model after my initial sketch. I already decided on keeping the wood frame look, so the majority of my brainstorming was figuring out how I wanted to incorporate a moving part into the design. I figured that the records had to slide in and out like a drawer for access since I was going to have a record player above them, but I wanted something that would accentuate how the records interlocked with each other. Eventually, my inner punk showed itself, and I designed a flashy and completely unnecessary way to slide the records to a position where they could be accessed. The CAD model is shown below.

The model did not take into account any considerations for how it would be made in the real world, but it was still able to give me insight on the size and amount of wood I’d need to buy, as well as helped me think through the best way to accomplish the moving component of the design.

My final fabrication plan was to assemble the support frame using cam lock nuts and screws for holding together the support frame and undermount rails for sliding. For the frames that will hold the records, I planned to use my personal router and routing table to cut out the path that would hold the record in a single strip of wood. Then, I would cut the wood at 45 degree angles and use wood glue to put everything together. Finally, I planned to apply black wood stain.

I initially planned to redesign the model to incorporate my fabrication plan, but instead, I decided to order materials and figure out the specifics as I worked on the artifact, as I am typically more of a hands-on learner.

Aesthetic Embodiment

Because I wanted it to fit in with my apartment furniture, I shied away from punk’s tendency to embody the opposite of whatever society deems conventionally beautiful; my current taste does not typically fit in with what punk is. However, I still was able to embody the aesthetic by prominently featuring something having to do with music. I can also deliberately choose colorful and crazy looking albums to introduce visual elements of the punk scene. The heart of the movement is also present in the function of my artifact. The method of accessing the records is something that a conventional designer/engineer would rarely consider due to its unnecessary complexity; it was designed solely to stand out and go against how something like this would normally be designed.

In terms of mid century modern, the pattern of interlocking records mimics the design of many other products within the aesthetic; it creates a visually interesting geometric pattern solely from lines. Also, choosing wood as the main material is a staple in this space.

In short, the final artifact was designed to be my own personal take on how a mid century modern and punk aesthetic could be combined to create something unique.

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