Zinggia! DIY Decoupage Record Stand for vinyl records

Decoupage Record Stand

Alison & Jason 04/01/2016 21766 art

We’re going backwards in time.

OK, so this blog post will date both of us. Jason and I both grew up listening to vinyl records. My parents had a big vinyl collection and lots of cassette tapes. But oddly enough, my parents never had 8 track tapes. They just skipped from vinyl to cassettes. They had a few different record players. Both players had large cabinets for vinyl storage that doubled as end tables (i.e. piling junk on top). We listened to a lot of records even after tapes came along. I have fond childhood memories of listening to Disco Duck and Smurf records before moving on to Iron Butterfly and Creedence. We have diverse musical tastes even to this day.

My dad recently gave me an old record stand that’s been in the basement with their records for years. It had wear, tear, and cobwebs, but I knew I could dress it up with some decoupage. The sides of the stand extend up and lock into place as shelves. This decoupage record stand project was quick and easy compared to the decoupage bookshelf we worked on previously.

I bought old sheet music from Acorn Bookshop in Grandview, Ohio. This shop is a bibliophile’s dream come true. It’s a classic old bookshop with books stacked to the ceiling. Books are crammed and hidden in corners. Humorous newspaper clippings are taped on shelves. It feels like you can be a victim of an avalanche at any given moment. So yeah, it’s pretty awesome, especially if you dig the smell of old paper.

Decoupage Record Stand

The standard decoupage mixture is 50% water and 50% white glue. Usually I dip the paper into a bowl and squeegee out excess glue. But since the vintage paper was brittle, I used a brush to apply the glue instead. Once the paper was coated front and back, I adhered it to the stand. Once it fully dried, I sealed it with glue again.

I decided to only apply decoupage to the top and bottom. The legs are a rough metal, so it’s a nice contrast to the sheet music.

We bought a small portable record player to play the vinyl collection we’ve amassed. I inherited my grandma’s collection, although I’m not sure how much of it I really want to listen to. It’s a mix of polka, waltzes, and older country. I can handle polka, but probably not waltzes. We have more records than the stand will hold, so we plan to swap them out as we listen to them.

Grandma was a fan of Liberace, Slim Whitman, and some dudes called the Harmonicats. About half of her records are unopened, still in the original shrink wrap, and stuffed in vintage NRM or JC Penny paper bags. So while I’m eager to listen to some of her records, I may see if any are worth a few bucks before tearing them open.

The Harmonicats are three guys who play the harmonica, of course. One plays a bass harmonica which I didn’t even know was a thing. Another sports a creepy, skinny mustache. All wear bow ties. I love the classic 50’s album cover. I did not love their music. It was maddening. I’m glad I checked them out on iTunes before ripping open this mint, sealed album. I might be able to score 5 bucks on ebay, woot!

The back of the Harmonicats record boasts that their “aggregate sales are somewhere above the seven million mark.” We had a good chuckle at the use of the word “aggregate.”

My sister bought a house years ago that came with a music collection. The previous owner left a bunch of stuff in the house that he didn’t want to deal with. So I got his music collection. YIPPIE! It’s more tolerable than my grandma’s collection. Sorta. If you like German thrash metal. There are many scary looking sleeves for a band called Kreator. We gave them a brief shot, very brief. There’s a Krokus record that’s more like standard 80’s hair metal, so it’s fairly fun actually. I think we have every AC/DC record ever. And then for some reason in this mix of heavy metal and hair metal was Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight. Side A has the long version of the song (15 minutes), so it’s 5 minutes longer than the short version. hehe.

Her music haul also included a mega-crap-ton of cassette tapes in old tape suitcases. There were a bunch of tapes from a band called Helloween. We laughed…a lot. Until we listened to them. Then we said, “Wow, these guys are actually good.” So don’t judge a cassette tape by its cover. What looks like background music for a crummy haunted house can actually be a wonderful gem :)

The créme de la créme vinyl collection came from my parents. Classic rock, blues, Motown, big band. My sister and I listened to their records often as kids until we broke their player. I don’t remember breaking it. But mom does because she brings it up every time someone mentions a record player. Hey mom, kids break things. Get over it, K? I think I can safely blame my sister for breaking the record player because I KNOW I didn’t break it :D

My dad enjoyed Disco Duck as much as he liked Easy Bake Oven cakes and Hungry Hungry Hippo. So not much. But I liked it. We once went to a yard sale where a couple was unloading their entire record collection for 25¢ a pop. I felt like we hit the jackpot. So many of the records on our nifty little stand came from that sale.

I’m not sure how much my dad liked Ted Nugent. I’m not sure how much I like Ted Nugent. I know Cat Scratch Fever and that’s about it. Whenever I would pull his record off the shelf, I had the feeling I shouldn’t be looking at it. As a kid, I thought the cover seemed “adult” and that I wasn’t old enough to listen to it.

A Few Record Reviews

Creedence Clearwater Revival Live in Europe. BEST ALBUM EVER?? The recording actually wasn’t great, but I usually dig live albums. Keep on Chooglin could be a few minutes longer, hehe.

Foreigner. Wait, maybe this is the BEST ALBUM EVER. I think I could listen to this every day. Woman Oh Woman is one of my favorite songs on the album.

Doobie Brothers The Captain and Me. Ok, this is definitely the BEST ALBUM EVER. I think Jason might be tired of it though. Too bad I’m the BOSS here. And I can say I’m the boss because I know Jason doesn’t read our blog. This comment will be like the “Cupcake Clause” in a well-crafted employee handbook. Only 1 person will notice it. Anyway, it’s hard to beat Long Train Running.

Krokus Change of Address. Krokus worked for Gizmonics Institute Compound apparently. And for that, I will give this album a few stars. Burning up the Night is super fun time.

Blood Sweat & Tears Child is Father to the Man. Good Lord is this a creepy album cover. It’s nightmarish, right? It looks similar but worse than The Aphex Twins Come to Daddy video. Oh, and the music is not so good either. We have a few BST albums, and they just aren’t for us. But I do find it impressive that this cover was created pre-Photoshop.

Kreator. This German trash metal band is really out of place in our music collection. We tried listening to Terrible Uncertainty, but only because that title sounded awesome. Since the cover art is super nightmare time, Tuna Fish Joe volunteered to be in the photoshoot just to make it a bit cuter. Thanks Tuna. You can collect your biscuits at your earliest convenience.

Tagged: decoupage, Decoupage Record Stand