digitalfreaknyc

Hey all,

I'm looking to get some better shelves for my ever-growing collection and was wondering what you guys use. I have two shelves at the moment and they hold about 150 each. I've gone through one of them in about 6 months...possibly less. I have tall ceilings so it'd be great if I found something a little taller than what I have.

Any suggestions? Where to get them? How much?

Thanks.

nekobus

I used to use shelves, but as my collection grew, I switched most of it to spinner racks. You get your walls back and can tuck them away in corners.

http://thejungles.com/solwoodmul.html

digitalfreaknyc

Anything a little cheaper?

To be honest, I have a smallish apartment and although the spinner is a great idea, I don't know where I would put it.

nekobus

I used to buy bookshelves on sale at places like Office Depot, Office Max, Ikea or K-mart for $20-30 and add extra shelves to them for dvds.

I don't know how much taller you're going to get, as 72" or so seems to be the upper limit for most ready made stuff.

namlook

Go for the gold with this 94" monster!

900 DVD shelf

drmoze

Check these shelves, also at thejungles:

http://thejungles.com/wallcdstorage.html

The 320 or 640 are good deals, solid shelves and very low profile. (Go bigger--collections grow!!!)

Tsar Chasm

I picked up 84" shelves as I have 9 foot ceilings. They cost $69 at a local danish furniture store.



My collection is hovering around 700.

Gambit

I recently ordered this:

http://www.storeyourmedia.com/detail.aspx?ID=7039

and should be getting it this week some time. I did a lot of searching and bookshelves would have been cheaper. However, the thing that I didn't like about bookshelves is that they are deeper than the width of the DVD.

After I get the shelf and set it up, I'll post on my impressions.

hoyalawya

Boltz's multimedia racks are absolutely beautiful. Moreover, the rack grows as your collection grows. Meaning that you just need to buy attachment units later to expand the rack. Check them out at

http://www.boltz.com/showitems.asp?deptcode1=501

drmoze

Bpltz is a matter of taste. Personally, I'd never have them in my house.

Aesthetics aside, if you read the OP's first reply, you'll note that price is a factor. And Boltz shelves are expensive. (Overpriced IMO.)

TheMadMonk

Yeah, I don't care for the look of Boltz stuff, either. But then again, I'm thinking about getting a couple Can-Am storage units, which some people find ugly, so it just goes to show how taste is subjective.

digitalfreaknyc

Yes, thank you for noticing. I've been doing a lot of research lately and I don't have a ton of wall space. i live in a medium sized 1br apt in NYC so space is definitely a factor. Currently, I have some black towers that hold about 150 each, I'd say. I think i'm going to go for the larger ones that hold more. I'd love a larger wall unit but I don't think my space can take it.

drmoze

The rotating towers are pretty efficient spacewise, if you can fit one in.

digitalfreaknyc

I spoke with my mom about the rotating ones but I really don't have the "corner space" for a rotating tower. That's why I was specifically looking for "flat" wall towers.

Thanks for all your help, guys!

BloodyMurray

Yo Gambit did you get it yet? Let's get some impressions!

Gambit

Yeah, I got it, but unfortunately, one of the pieces was damaged during shipping. I'm waiting for the replacement piece to arrive before assembling. I'll post some impressions and pics after I get it all together.

goatweed

a question for you guys or anyone else that might've ordered shelves like gambit did - are they being used on floors with a rug, or just plain old wood floors? And if there's a rug, is it plush and does it stand straight?

I've been seriously considering getting one of these (in the same size as gambit also) for my living room, but we have a plush carpet in there and sometimes furniture stands straight, other times it leans because of the plush - so I'm hesitant to get something so big that might "lean". I have a HUGE empty wall, tho and would love to have one of these bad boys fill that space.

Currently, I have one of those spinning wooden towers but with all my dvd's, cd's and a handful of videotapes, I'm totally out of room and my collection keeps getting larger. I also have a child on the way, so I was looking for something with doors, but I haven't seen anything that stores a large capacity AND is enclose-able - so I figured I'd get one of these and train the kid to not touch that stuff - heh (or at least fill up the top shelves first).

Gambit

In my case, the shelf is going into a room with wood floors. Most bookcases/shelves come with a small strap to attach the top of the shelf to the wall behind it. This is for earthquakes and such to keep the entire shelf from toppling forward.

You could probably get something sturdier like metal L brackets and bolt the shelf to a stud in the wall. This will take care of any leaning and keep it firmly in place.

Gambit

OK, finally got the replacement piece and assembled the shelf. It's your standard pressed wood material and went together fairly easily. I posted some pics in a yahoo photo album here:

photos

All in all, I am pleased with it. It's the size I want (I estimate it could probably hold 800 dvd's, as advertised). It looks pretty nice and the depth is pretty much that of a dvd case.

What I don't like as much about this shelf is the backing pieces. They are just cardboard pieces that were folded lengthwise for transit. I can see why they decided to use those, I just would have preferred a solid piece of more durable material. But then again, once you have your dvd's on the shelf, you don't really see the backing anyway.

The shelf also doesn't have cut out edges on the bottom backside of the frame. The cutout edges are there to accommodate baseboard moulding and provide clearance to let the shelf sit flush against the wall. Without this, since the shelf unit is so wide, the left and right sides are a little wobbly when putting/removing dvd's. This can probably be resolved by using brackets to firmly mount the sides to the wall or putting some kind of spacer back there. But this is something I'll need to do myself.

goatweed

I was planning on bracing it to the wall, esp. since I'd be worried of it toppling over onto anyone, esp. the newborn on its way. I was thinking I'd brace it to the wall through the back, into the wall studs but now hearing that they have that thing cardboard-like backing, I'm not so sure that would be enough, even with side-mounts.

Thanks for the feedback!

Gambit

Yeah, you definitely wouldn't want to try to attach to the wall thru the cardboard backing.

The shelf comes with two plastic pieces and a zip tie to attach the center panel of the shelf to a stud. This is probably good enough to prevent the shelf from falling over due to light shaking, but that's about it.

What I'm going to do is add a couple of angle brackets to attach each side of the shelf to the wall. I think that should be good enough to keep it firmly in place.

corbin dallas

If you have an Ikea near you the Billy series shelves work perfectly for DVD storage.

shadowpuppet

Here's a somewhat OT question: at what point in one's collection (quantity-wise) does rack-shelving become inefficient (space taken, cost, etc)?

I personally moved away from any kind of rack-shelving at around the 300 mark.

Anyone else using alternate means of storage for larger collections?

psxfan2

well never quite finding shelves to fit my needs, i decided to make my own, they run along the top towards the ceiling which makes use of otherwise unused space and helps keep the room from looking cluttered with wall units.

using 1/2" metal conduit, wood pine planks, from which i drew a brackett, then cut, routed the ends, drilled out and stained (oak stains a lot better)and attached to the wall at each stud, 16" on center.

total cost was less than $10 per wall


here's how they looked empty, i just repainted all the walls, i do have notches cut out at the back of the brackets which had a string of green xmas lights that ran behind all the cases which looked kinda cool when turned on, the lights went out and i decided not to replace them.



here's a closeup of the units, the conduit runs through each brackett except for the ends and one screw holds each brackett to a stud.
between each brackett holds 27 dvds or 36 cds


this wall holds dvd's and a few vhs videos, this wall unit alone is capable of holding up to 216 dvd's


this wall holds music cds


this wall holds all my ps2, gamecube, dreamcast and psx games.


they were actually pretty simple to make and if i need more space i could remake the bracketts to hold two runs of conduit top and bottom.

Walter Neff

OK, but how do you reach them? (This question, by the way, comes from someone who is 5'4".)