Hi-Fi Media Stand
Designing furniture to enhance the aesthetic of a music listening space, following the recent uprise in popularity to collect and play vinyl records.
Project
Personal
Industry
Hi-Fi Furniture
Duration
2 months
Design Style
The Hi-Fi furniture market is full of wooden mid-century aesthetic pieces and this is something that I want to move away from and create something new and refreshing. I am going to use a brutalist style for this project as it is something different to what I see currently when viewing Hi-Fi furniture trends and is a style that I haven’t previously used before despite it being one of my favourites for architecture and interior design.
Material + Finishes
For the most part record players and speakers have a wooden finish paired with a satin black plastic which is something that I am going to have to consider in the design of my collection. When researching materials that would complement a wood finish I landed on concrete, this fits in with my desire for a brutalist aesthetic design.
Location + Features
The store and access of records is very important among collectors. It is crucial that the furniture will be used as a place to keep records as well as play them, creating a central hub for my music. This collection will be in my bedroom which is also my living and personal workplace, this influences the dimensions of the individual pieces.
Speaker Stands
I came up with a few different concepts when designing the stands that the speakers will sit on. Starting with an interesting shape of a slanted middle section that supports the speaker on top, this adds more dimension to the collection as a whole.
Then moving back to something more standard which uses a wide top and base supported by a middle beam, this design is similar in concept to regular speaker stands. This also reduces the visual weight of the stand compared to the others.
The final design which I settled on using for the collection is inspired by the shape of a cinder block often used in construction, this complements the shape of the record player stand and contributes to creating a brutalist style aesthetic in the collection.
Shelf Feature
Having an additional shallow shelf on the side of the record table allows the user to add personal items as well as the vinyl cover for the record that is being played. Visually the shelf reduces symmetry in the design making it more dynamic and captivating to the eye.
Manfacturing.
Wooden Frame
The first stage I took to bringing my concept to a reality was to create a strong foundation frame. As all the thicknesses of the lines are the same I cut up lengths of timber with he profile of 38mm x 63mm using 38mm as the front thickness which after the next few stages of development will end up with a thickness of 60mm once finished.
It was integral to the build to make sure all the surfaces were flat and angles at 90° because everything else was going to be attached to the frame, building the stand from inside out.
Seeing the start of the project really come to a start has been exciting and putting into perspective the amount of revised calculations and techniques used to ensure that everything is dimensionally and structurally sound for the next progressing stages.
Adding Plasterboard
Inside today due to the English weather but still progress to be made. For the structural surfaces of the stand I used plasterboard, this gave a more substantial surface at a lighter weight than having thick sheets of wood, it also gave the concrete a better bonding surface making the final stand structurally solid,
I had never worked with plasterboard before and it was definitely more dusty than I expected, the technique of cutting the board was an interesting learning curve but it was fairly simple to get a hang of. To score and snap a large sheet of anything was slightly daunting but strangely accurate leaving a straight and mess-free edge each time.
Some corners don’t slightly line up however this will be resolved in the next stage of development, bringing the stand closer to completion.
Seeing the near-finished size and shape of the table and speaker stands has allowed me to get a proper scope for the first time of how it’s going to look finished, this has put me in the highest mood of motivation since the start of the project to get the collection done.
Steel Edge Angle Bead
The penultimate stage, adding more strength and rigidity to the stands and protection to all the edges and corners using the Steel Angle bead.
Use tin snips to cut the metal trim to length and cut a 45* or more angle on the ends so they can come to a point on the corners from all 3 axis’. To attach them I used 20mm length extra large head galvanised clout nails which pulled the metal edge flush with plasterboard, to be extra secure I also used some ‘Gun A Nail’ adhesive glue.
This was a process which took longer than I expected requiring lots of concentration and accuracy to cut the metal trim and then also ensure it was tight on the edge and the ends came to a point at the corners. Once all the edging was on I used some rough sandpaper to remove any sharp edges that could be hazardous.
Final Product In Composition
The final reveal. I’m so happy with the final outcome of this project and how it works in my living space. The concrete has set to reveal the perfect tone of grey that I desired and it goes really well with the walnut wood featured in my speakers and record player. Setting this combination on top of a blue monotone Persian style rug really complements the whole composition with accent lamps and plants.
Throughout the pictures you can see that the concrete has a natural patina aesthetic with glimpses of the metal edge which was used to help with durability. This which adds to the character of the piece giving viewers the idea that this isn’t just a concrete box.
