LP jacket art is a huge part of the vinyl experience, and I wanted a dedicated place to display the cover while a record is spinning. This started as a cookbook holder and ended up as a custom stand built with help from my Uncle Pete — painted black with a plexiglass face and plastic moulding for a clean, finished look.
The idea#
Album art deserves more than getting tucked behind the turntable. I wanted a stand that would prominently display the LP jacket while I’m listening — something that feels intentional, not just a leaning-against-the-wall afterthought.
What I did#
There are plenty of record stands out there, but why not make one? I started with a simple cookbook holder as the base. I recruited my Uncle Pete — an expert woodworker — and we modified the stand together. We adjusted the angle so it would sit more upright and cut away the unnecessary parts of the frame to better match the size of an album jacket. After that, I painted the whole thing black, added a sheet of plexiglass across the front for a nice shine, and finished it off with plastic moulding around the border to give it a more polished, factory look.
What surprised me#
When I brought the cookbook holder up to my uncle’s shop, I assumed it would be a quick cut-once-and-done job. Instead, I got a masterclass in “measure twice, cut once.” Watching him slow down, consider multiple approaches for each cut, and think through the angles before touching the saw was genuinely educational. The result? We got it right the first time.
Result#
The stand looks great and is quite functional — it almost always has a record or two sitting on it.
Takeaways#
- A cookbook holder makes a surprisingly good starting point for an LP display stand
- Slowing down and considering multiple approaches before cutting pays off — Uncle Pete’s patience was a good reminder
- In hindsight, I should have miter cut the plastic moulding — miter shears exist for exactly this kind of work
What’s next#
Eventually I want to add RGB LEDs to the back of the stand that match the dominant colors of the album art on display. With digital sources this is straightforward, but detecting what LP is actually spinning on the turntable is a more complex problem. That’s a future hardware/software project I’m looking forward to tackling.
