Last November, my husband received an original vinyl Jesus Christ Superstar record for his birthday from his sister. He is a huge Jesus Christ Superstar fan so was very excited about it but he had no way to listen to it or really anywhere to put it so it sat on his desk for a few days. We had recently moved into a new house and were still in the process of finding a place for everything. We had just purchased a ping pong table and a pool table to transform the large open room at the top of the stairs into a rec room. And every rec room needs music so we went stereo shopping. My husband insisted on getting a stereo that had a turntable so he could play his new record so we came home with a new vintage looking CD/MP3/FM Stereo/Record player. Life was good.

One day we were talking about how to decorate the rec room and the idea of putting records on the wall came up. We both thought it would be a neat idea; however we only had a couple albums to put up. That is the moment when I sometimes wish I could go back in time and come up with a different idea.

I thought we would just buy a few neat-looking albums to give the walls some color and creativity; however my husband decided he wanted to buy records that reminded him of his childhood and records of his favorite songs so he could listen to them while playing pool. He seemed excited so I let him run with it. There were four large walls in the rec room so I assumed it would take us years to collect enough albums to cover them. I know my husband well enough that I should’ve seen this coming but for some reason it blindsided me! He spent every day searching high and low for his favorites, such as Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Keith Green.

For a while it seemed like our whole life revolved around finding albums. Every weekend we were either at flea markets, thrift stores or yard sales searching for more. He even found people willing to sell their personal collections and had spent hours in their homes or garages going through each record. My grandmother also gave us her personal collection which was neat to have.

Within a month we had accumulated enough to cover all four walls and I was excited to be done record searching for a while. The walls looked great with the records hanging next to their covers. Even though the walls were full, I quickly realized that my husband was not giving up his new hobby anytime soon! I watched as multiple piles showed up week after week. I became worried that records may take over our entire house! I have been unable to get my husband to part with any of them, except the ones that are sealed because he can’t display them on the wall the same way as the opened ones. So now I am selling some of the factory sealed records in our online Ruby Lane store, Sienna’s Sandbox. And my husband has cut back on his vinyl treasure hunting since filling the rec room walls with records. But he may have singlehandedly given “rec room” a whole new meaning!

Nichole Brown of Sienna's Sandbox on Ruby Lane