The purchase of my Crosley record player during the summer of ’19 was a life changing one. And although I’ve now moved on from the classic Crosley to Audio Technica, it still continues to be the most religious experience I encounter all week. I’ve listened to the classics from the likes of Elton John, Etta James, and Billy Joel (to name a few) endlessly on my MacBook, but there’s a magical feeling about spinning a vinyl on a record player that a laptop just can’t match.
For the past year, I’ve spent my summers scouring my local record shops + antique stores in search of each and every one of my vinyl. This favorite past time of mine has resulted in a small collection that I adore. Naturally, I’ve felt it’s time to style up the space in which I keep them! And with the holiday’s vastly approaching, I thought it was only appropriate to give my record station a seasonal look and feel that evokes cozy vibes. I imagine this will become a tradition that I will continue for years, and maybe (hopefully), enjoy doing with my future children one day! If you’re interested in seeing how I style my record station for the holidays, then keep on scrolling!
How I Style my Record Station for the Holidays
My decorating goals for this space were to curate a corner of our apartment that could feel like a comforting retreat from the outside world. With everything going on outside my apartment door these days, it is becoming increasingly important to me to create a soothing barrier from it all within these walls. And Matt and I would like our friends and family who come to visit, to feel that same way too!
Let’s first chat about the staples at my record station that will be there year round…
The current table I am using for my record station is actually a turntable record player that I found at an antique store for just $10! But sadly, I have been unable to repair it. Regardless, I love the style of it and feel that it works seamlessly with the 70’s aesthetic I have come to love.
Atop my turntable, is a small light blue vintage suitcase scored at a local antique store that I find handy for storing vinyls. I buy 90% of my vinyls used at antique stores, flea markets and record stores and so far they have yet to fail me! My lovely record player is by Audio Technica and the LP60X fully automatic model. Through the brief research I did before replacing my suitcase Crosley record player, I read that the price point of $150-$200 will get you a high quality, entry level turntable. The turntable I have will set you back $150, and is worth every penny.
Moving onto the holiday decor
I decorated the turntable with the following…
~ Candlesticks + a tin candle from Target (link here)
Playing off of my goal to keep the corner warm, I of course added a small array of candles varying in height. I love incorporating candlesticks into winter decor in particular, as I believe it provides a more seasonal look and feel. I also love when the wax drips down the candlesticks giving a lived in appearance to the space. The tin candle was a strategic pick not only for its overwhelmingly pleasant aroma, but for up cycling purposes as well. I knew a tin like that would prove to be useful once the candle is fully burned down to utilize as a vase or in many other decorating avenues.
~ Bottle Brush Trees + Vintage Homes
My secret to creating a nostalgic Christmas aesthetic is to of course, incorporate vintages pieces! I like to center my holiday decorating around the vintage pieces I have collected over the years. It all began with the purchase of three little vintage Christmas homes. One is a white church, and the other two are colorful barns. And it was these little homes that inspired my bottle brush tree collection to grow! With a surplus of bottle brush trees, I decided to create a mini forest of them on my turntable, surrounding two of my vintage homes. It delivers a great deal of color to the corner which is why I love the direction I went with it so much!
~ Branch Ornament Display + Disco Ball
I won’t get into too much detail on the branch display, as I wrote a complete post about it that you can read here. But it’s probably one of the easiest holiday diys I’ve ever done and it yields amazing results. I tried to find ornaments that I felt meshed with that nostalgic Christmas look and feel, then really drove that home with a sprinkling of gold tinsel. And to top it all off, is any holiday really complete without a disco ball? I found mine on Amazon for no more than $20.
Well, there you have it! That is how I navigated styling my record station for the holidays. I’m looking forward to endless winter mornings filled with the classics of 70’s rock past, and the glistening of the ornaments, tinsel and disco ball on that corner wall. What a magical holiday + winter it will be!
