Before | After: A Record Cabinet Gets Groovy
Over the past 5 years Nate and I inherited approximately 150 records from family members.
While we were excited for our new collection, at the time we didn’t have a record cabinet to hold/display our scores (hehe, pun intended ;) ). So the records got stashed in a random drawer for nearly 2 years while we searched for the right unit.
In the process, we decided that the best space in our home for a “record station” was in the living room, against a small wall that also bordered our front door entryway. While practical, the narrow wall space was challenging. We needed to find something that was less than 3' feet wide and no taller than 30 in. due to the white wood trim that wraps around the room.
We also wanted the record cabinet to be:
made out of solid wood (so that took out options from retailers like Ikea)
vintage or vintage-inspired
within our budget, which was less than $500
playfully textured. I know, what?!? But over the past couple years I developed a small obsession with furniture with grooved wood patterns like the ones below that emerged from stores such as Anthropologie & CB2.
I was determined to incorporate something similar in our home, but as usual, everything I found online was either the wrong size or completely out of our price range:
Links to the above cabinets/consoles/bars: CB2 | Anthropologie | West Elm | CB2
So when I stumbled upon the below danish, mid-century unit from Barefoot Dwelling in 2017, I texted Nate immediately: “I FOUND THE RECORD CABINET WE’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!” Even though the wood was more tired looking than I would have liked, it was the perfect size for our wall. The worn finish also presented the opportunity to rehab the the exterior of the cabinet, which I wanted to texturize and paint to create a spin off of the units above.
Barefoot Dwelling was also in the midst of relocating their store from Baltimore to Annapolis, MD at the time; so everything was at ‘moving sale’ prices!
I snagged this console for $250:
BEFORE
NOTE: I failed to take before photos :( . So the above image is actually a rendering I Frankenstein-ed together from multiple units online. Happy to say that it looks pretty spot-on to when we first purchased it though! Actually, the wood in the rendering is in better shape.
It came home with me that same day and immediately got activated as a record cabinet. Which admittedly made us prolong the process of updating it because it was so darn useful! All our records fit in it perfectly (with plenty of room to spare) and we loved the ability of spinning new tunes on the weekends.
That being said, after I finally finished reupholstering this barrel chair in our living room December 2018, I decided it was time to get to work. Not to mention, I had also signed myself up for a collaborative home shoot with my creative twins Kate Grewal & Christine Mitchell slated for December 28th. Time was ticking, and fast. However, as we all know, December is nuts! Between our respective jobs & holiday plans, things unfortunately got delayed until the week of. Therefore, we needed to come up with a quick, inexpensive solution we could turn around in a whopping 3 days.
After a run to Home Depot, we contemplated choosing either: half round pine moulding or a slimmer & finer-textured pine screen moulding to affix to the front of the unit in order to achieve the look I was going for:
We ended up going with the screen moulding.
I preferred the slimmer ridges in the design and Nate thought that the depth of the trim would be easier to cut and adhere to the unit. We scooped up a few more supplies like glue and paint to finish everything off.
TOTAL SUPPLIES & PRICING:
ALTHOUGH WE HAD DOUBTS, we ACTUALLY MADE IT BELOW OUR ORIGINAL $500 budget!
After sanding the unit, sawing the pine screen moulding to the correct specs, gluing the molding onto the console (NOTE: we needed to clamp down and/or lay heavy books & bricks down on top of the wet glued strips so that they adhered correctly), caulking any gaps, drilling the knob holes in the doors, cutting wood rods to create knobs, inserting & glueing the knobs into place and finally painting everything, we did it! It took about 10 hours of work, but our once “tired console” is now a “groovy record cabinet”! (haha - can’t you tell we love puns?!).
AFTER
Photography: Kate Grewal | Creative Direction: The Why Creative | Interior, Lifestyle & Prop Styling: Limonata Creative | Artwork: by Nate Bachmann
