h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've had a brainwave for sorting out decorating my room and storing my vinyl... one of those hanging pvc display things that holds, say, 6x6 or 12x12 albums that you see in record shops. Thought it'd look quite cool and help with the storage space... and I don't listen to my records very often these days so I might as well get some use out of them.

I've been looking for one on the internet. Trouble is, I've got no idea what they're actually called. I've tried all sorts of searches, but the only thing I've found is this:
http://www.covers33.biz/uk2shop-4.htm

which is right at the bottom of said page, but it's only a strip 1 wide rather than a grid which is what I'm after.

I also just had a tremendous sense of deja vu as I typed this, which I take as a sign that I'm somewhere in life that I'm supposed to be...

The big problem with vinyl is you have to look after it. Records should be stacked vertically (the axis of the disc horizontal) and should ideally be pressed between a load of other records to keep them from warping. By all means put your covers on display, but the vinyl itself should be treated with respect.

That's how I keep them usually, on a shelf like books - reassuring to hear I've been doing it the right way

Would it be bad for them to be hung vertically on a wall?

I suppose I can always buy some replacement paper sleeves to keep the ones I'm displaying in. I've found no end of places selling those.

As long as the sun doesn't shine on them, your probably OK.

I can't be much help with the PVC things, I don't know if I've ever seen them, although I have seen individual 12" frames for LPs. If you hung several of the strips side by side would that create the grid effect you're going for?

And I've never really thought of deja vu like that... it's quite encouraging

Do you not know a nice friendly carpenter that could perhaps build a custom made one for your house?

Usually these kinda odd job people, advertise themselves in the local rag as odd job men or something like, and are not too expensive being as they are working for cih.

Failing that, you could always put a little ad in the local shop..

Have you tried asking in the record shop, what they are called and where you could get some? Like DJ'ing supplies or somet?

It'd certainly do at a pinch, but it's not quite what I'd visualised - and I wonder whether our walls are quite straight enough for it to look OK.

I got the idea from a window display at the French Connection shop in Islington, which had the whole thing suspended from wires strung from floor to ceiling, and something like a 12x12 grid in each window. They used fake record sleeves with various 'fcuk' puns on them, which was a little bit naff in my book, but the effect was rather fine.

The display had gone last time I went past the shop, but I suppose it might be worth popping in and asking where they got it from.

... or if they have it leftover and you could have it or buy it

For some reason Habitat is springing to mind, but don't take my word for it! Or maybe Lakeland or even those two catalogues which appear through the letterbox - kleeneze and betterware - they have stuff like this (but may not be record-sized).

Well, I tried

I see to recall dimly that *squints* ikea has like hanging bookshelves..perhaps they could be adapted..

I've just ordered one of those single hanging sets-of-six... depending how it works, maybe I can hang lots of them off a pole or something

I'll ask the owner at Cheapo - he might know what they're called, then you could search for them

Brilliant!

Email sent

By the way, a bloke I knew years ago had a bloody brilliant idea for displaying the cover of whatever LP he was playing at the time. He was a superb artist, and he drew a lifesize figure of Dennis the Menace on his wall (with Gnasher too I might add). Before he drew it, he stuck a clear LP cover on the wall, and then drew this picture of Dennis around it so that once you slipped an LP sleeve in there, it looked from a distance as if Dennis was holding the LP in one hand and pointing to it with the other, with a big grin on his boat race

I did this a couple of months ago, by the way. Our downstais back room now has 4 strips hung next to each other, featuring album sleeves by various artists from Dizzy Gillespie to the Wurzels taking in the Sex Pistols and New Order along the way