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Adding a Record Stop to Basic Expedit Ikea Shelves
I’m dedicating this post to all the folks out there who use Expedit (or the newer Kallax) Ikea shelves to store their record collection. For us, these bookshelves have been terrific for our records, they fit the height of a record nearly perfectly and are able to hold a lot of records. We’ve had our shelving system for 5 years, and there has been no warping or sagging – this seems impossible but I think the geniuses at Ikea probably did some sort of math and calculated the perfect amount of spacing needed between the vertical slats to hold heavy records. The shelves were well worth the small amount of money we spent on them. However, I’m so sick of having to constantly pull the records forward so that they look organized on the shelves. There is no back to the Expedit shelving system, and the records are constantly getting pushed back to the wall making it hard to find records and most importantly it looks bad (that is always most important). Between us hastily putting records away and the kids playing in the music room, our records are constantly looking like a hot, hot mess (see below).

Adding a Record Stop to Basic Expedit Ikea Shelves
Gross, right? I know it might make me seem really anal (which is actually a fact, I am), but I can’t stand this, it seriously drives me nuts. I spent last Saturday morning putting the records away and organizing the shelf trying to achieve some sort relative calm, when it dawned on me that there was a really simple and easy solution to this problem. It’s what I’m calling “Record Stops” (patent pending) .

Adding a Record Stop to Basic Expedit Ikea Shelves
I had some leftover 1″x2″ boards in the garage – you could easily use furring strips or 2″x2″s as well. I quickly chopped 15 pieces of wood down to 13 316“. All of the pieces were snug and fit the width of each cube nicely. I stained the wood with three coats of a dark gel stain. I used Minwax “Rosewood” stain, and it matched pretty well to the Brown/Black (such a stupid color-way name) Ikea shelves. Being that the shelves are made of fiberboard, I figured screwing or nailing the stops wasn’t really going to be that practical – instead I opted to use Liquid Nails to glue each of the stops into place. Placement of the stops was really easy, I used a record as a measurement for depth and moved the stop into position – it wasn’t rocket science and precise measurments were not necessary. A few hours later, the glue had dried and the records were ready to go back on the shelf. I’ll never have to worry about panicking over the chaos of our record collection again. I know it’s such a little thing, but really it makes a big difference.

Adding a Record Stop to Basic Expedit Ikea Shelves

Adding a Record Stop to Basic Expedit Ikea Shelves
Much better.

18 comments
in Around the House, DIY, How-To, music room

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  • Kim // Yellow Brick Home March 11, 2015

    Okay, we need to do this to our Vittsjo shelves, like, yesterday! We added little strips that would allow them to be flipped through, but when they wave in and out… oh, boy. I’m just as crazy as you, really.

    • Scoops March 12, 2015

      Cool! Are you strips alphabetical markers? I don’t know why I didn’t think of the “stops” early – really glad we did it, you should do it too! I think it would be easy for you to do with the wood shelves you inserted into your Vittsjo shelf.

  • Kate March 11, 2015

    Dillinger Four FTW! Do they still play every 4th of July? Someday I’ll make it to Minneapolis for that and finally see them live. Anyhoo, we totally have this issue w/ our Expedit shelves and records — your simple solution is awesome!

    • Scoops March 12, 2015

      Yeah D4, they still play every 4th. You should come see them. We saw them most recently in the spring of 2012 and it was the best. It was the 13 years, 10 month, 2 week, and 5 days anniversary of Midwestern Songs and they played it in it’s entirety! I loved it so much.

  • Felicia March 11, 2015

    You are brilliant! This is such a great idea. I definitely need to do this in the future for our record shelves. By the way I have been reading your blog for years and am constantly inspired by your creativity and aesthetics! :)

    • Scoops March 12, 2015

      Felicia! Thank you so much, that is seriously so nice of you to say! I hope you do try this on your record shelf – it makes such a difference!

  • Tina Batori March 11, 2015

    And yes, that is dynamite wallpaper, too. I’m sure you’ve featured it before, but I forgot, so seeing it this time
    was another bit of joy. I’m so glad some people are anal and I’m not!

    • Scoops March 12, 2015

      Hey Tina! Yeah, the wallpaper is from Ferm Living. We put it up 4 years ago, and I don’t think Ferm Living produces it anymore. For what it’s worth, it’s called “feather”.

  • Matt March 13, 2015

    scoops – this is totally brilliant and I’m going to implement this hack immediately. You are a genius millionaire and we miss you mucho!

    • Scoops March 13, 2015

      MISS YOU GUYS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Jen March 16, 2015

    It’s my first time here, I was tipped off by HouseTweaking. We are vinyl fans as well so I clicked this post. I think this is the first comment I have ever left on a blog, but damn, a DILLINGER FOUR album warrants one. And yes, that shit IS genius! You must be MPLS, or just super, super cool. Or, perhaps both.

    • Scoops March 18, 2015

      Yeah! Welcome Jen! Yeah, I’m totally in Minneapolis, and I’d like to think I’m cool, and I’m really glad you came out of the internet woodwork to comment because you saw a D4 record! Are you a TwinCitizen too?

  • Jipman July 13, 2017

    Great idea. I’ve used weather wrapped PVC pipes that I cut to fit the backs of the cubes but your method is more secure. Now I must mention my anal examination… you are placing the weight of your records on the wrong side of the cubes. Seriously. If these shelves ever fail it’s because people place the entire unit on its side rather than on its bottom. You’re guilty of this too. You want the weight of the records to rest on the solid board that travels all the way across the unit and not on the individual pieces of wood that are meant as dividers. Think on it.

  • Nick S August 16, 2019

    Scoops – this is a fantastic idea and I’m going to try it with my 1×5 record shelf.

  • Andrew Mark Strickland March 10, 2021

    I know this article is pretty old, but I just did this to my shelves and they look awesome (haha, I even have the same D4 record as you, cool!). Thanks!

  • Andrew March 10, 2021

    Also I’m really embarrassed that used autocomplete for my name above and it filled out my middle name. DERP.

  • Marianne Gizzi May 4, 2021

    Hello. I found you blog from http://www.offbeatbros.com. I also have quite a few LP’s. A couple thousand. I know I need to ‘thin the crowd’ :( After looking at your blog, which is amazing, I found some new ideas. I want to say thank you!
    Marianne Gizzi

  • Z December 9, 2022

    subtle self-congratulatory note on the placement of the D4 compilation record. dat doomtree in the foreground?

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