Vinyl Station Launches Australian Made Sustainable Record Cabinets

The Vinyl Station story begins in 2020 when the Geelong, Victoria-based company went looking for a record cabinet made sustainably and designed so you could flip through a few records and play at waist height. The fruitless search left only one option ... build a solution themselves.

So, we played around with some of my own designs. And decided on two flipping buckets at the top was ideal, with a turntable bench, and two rows of storage space underneath to vertically stack vinyl. Another decision was to place two bookshelf speakers within the unit, to create a single storage, functional and visual solution. We worked on these sketches for a few weeks.

The early prototypes were produced from Builder's Board offcuts sourced from a local demolisher. The result, says the company, was that "vinyl was played much more often. The record sleeve artwork and information was being read and checked out more. The television was turned off, and Spotify was less often on (playing the same old playlists). Not only was vinyl played much more often, we were digging through the entire collection and playing albums that have rarely been played."

Fast forward to 2023, and Vinyl Station now produces the Jimi and Joni record cabinets only made from recycled materials or reclaimed timber. With recycled plastic (Jimi), they are particular about microplastics and plastic waste, they say. So they don't sand or polish their plastic cabinets. Instead, they gather, decontaminate and deliver plastic waste to a specialist recycler to be fed back into the circular economy.

The Jimi record cabinet, made from 100% recycled HDPE plastic, weighs 55 kilograms, which equates to around 1,000 two-litre empty milk bottles and lids - or 15 to 20 years of individual consumption. The recycled HDPE plastic material is created by melting the pellets, by blending colours to create a stunning finish. In their Geelong and Melbourne workshops, they then cut, shape and fit each board. Vinyl Station isn't a one size for all business either; they can create a custom record cabinet to suit your collection size, turntable, amplifier and speakers. Plus, you can even choose your own colour mix.

The Jimi measures 1220mm (W) x 400mm (D) x 960mm (H) and takes up only a small amount of floor space, considering the large storage capacity of up to 500 records. It features two 'flipping buckets' each presenting 70 albums. Conveniently presented at waist height, you can flip through 140 albums and easily remove the vinyl for playing, unlike hunting through 'Ikea' style cubes and trying to decipher the text on the cover spine.

The Vinyl Station Jimi will make scouring your vinyl collection much more accessible and convenient, and may even see you playing more vinyl. The only catch is the asking price, which in the case of Jimi, will set you back a cool $4,500 RRP.

For more information visit Vinyl Station