Case Study: Birch DJ & Vinyl Console for Jonas in Berlin
A made-to-order console that holds the gear, the records and the room – without turning a living room into a studio.
Client: Jonas, Berlin (Germany)
Product: Made-to-order DJ & vinyl console (based on our vinyl storage sideboards)
Finish: Natural birch plywood
Function: Vinyl listening & DJ / mixing station
Delivery: Flat-packed, shipped to Berlin
The Challenge
Jonas has a working DJ setup – a turntable and a controller, a laptop running the set, studio monitors either side, and a wall of records deep enough to dig through for hours. He needed a single piece to anchor it in a living space, not a stack of flat-pack cubes or a metal rack. It had to:
- Carry a turntable, controller and laptop across the top at a comfortable working height
- Give the amplifier a shelf of its own
- Store a large, growing record collection upright and within reach
- Read as furniture in the room – not a flight case or a studio rack
The Solution
We built a made-to-order vinyl console in birch plywood: a broad, low cabinet on the signature openwork frame, with deep open bays below for records stored upright, an amplifier shelf, and a clear top wide enough for the deck, the controller and the laptop side by side. The collection lines the bays like spines on a shelf – storage that doubles as the decoration. Because it's made to order, the width and the bays were built around the gear and the collection rather than the other way round.
For Jonas, the result did exactly what he'd hoped:
“I wanted everything in one place without making my living room feel like a studio. Now I can pull out a record, put it straight on and start playing. It fits my setup perfectly – and honestly looks better than I imagined.”
— Jonas, Berlin
Jonas's console in Berlin – deck, Traktor controller and laptop up top, the collection upright in the bays below.
Why Birch Plywood
A turntable is unforgiving of a surface that moves. Birch plywood is rigid and stable – the cross-laminated layers resist the flex that lets footsteps and bass reach the stylus – and it carries the real, concentrated weight of hundreds of records without sagging, where thin board would bow. The exposed layered edge is an honest detail rather than a foil that chips, it's hand-finished in a non-toxic matte hard-wax oil, and because it flat-packs, it moves house with the collection. It reads as furniture, which is the whole point.
The deck, the controller and the collection, all on one piece – storage that doubles as the decoration.
Logistics
- Flat-packed and shipped to Berlin, tracked door to door
- Assembly: built around the gear and the collection, ready to load records straight in
A Station That Looks Like It Belongs
Everything in one place, at the right height, on a surface that stays still under the needle – and a wall of records on show as the centrepiece of the room. A working station that looks like it was always meant to be there.
Building your own listening or DJ setup?
See our guide to mid-century vinyl storage, read how to set up a vinyl listening corner, or message Kasia to design a console around your own collection and gear.
Photo by Jonas, Berlin (Germany), shared with permission.
