Are you Elegant, Stylish and Obsessive?


Here's a problem that is driving me insane:

I have a very modest collection of software compared to many of you, but even with only 300 ish CDs and 100 or so DVDs, I am already going out of my mind with jewel boxes, DVD cases etc.

Many of my friends simply buy the big, unnaturally fibered zippered storage books and discard their jewel boxes, but I find these cases quickly become very heavy, they are aesthetically unpleasant to look at and to hold, and the pages themselves become heavy when filled with discs. A very mass produced, low rent solution, in my opinion.

I thought I had an idea buying a 300 disc changer, thinking I would alphabetically file the CDs and/or movies in the changer and then paste only the paper notes (without discs) in gorgeous, hand made in Florence, leather bound books/photo albums which could then be flipped through quite pleasantly while sitting in front of the fire, remote in hand.

This however seems harder than I imagined. Would I keep just the liner notes or the notes from the back of the CD case as well? How would I fasten them into the pages of the leather albums to save them and review them easily?

It seems that the sizes of the leather albums are always a bit off, they are very $$$ expensive, and then the process of retrieving a disc from my cheesy every day changer to then transfer into my SCD-1 or 9000 ES DVD player for more critical listening also seems to be impractical and a big pain.

Can anyone think of a way to perfect this system or suggest something else that will keep things organized, allow quick and easy access to all music and movies, and allow review of liner notes in a cool, sophisticated, aesthetically pleasing kind of a way without cluttering my bachelor pad or bookcases with jewel boxes or resorting to cheesey plasticky paged Case Logic etc albums?

Obviously, I could just keep them in a cabinet, organized alphabetically with dividers and perhaps with a halogen light etc, but that would be too easy.

I would also tear through different directors, musicians etc in a frenzy deconstructing the whole system in one weekend, and I am equally picky about furniture.

Has anyone else agonized over this? Let's hear your clever ideas and solutions!
cwlondon
No I do not sell furniture at all. I had a couple ideas for storage, but didn't know if they would meet you expectations.
P_mnk

Thank you -- I was only joking.

I have an eclectic mix of things -- a very modern glass and aluminum desk from the Conran shop, a satin black baby grand, a lot of traditional English Regency/Victorian mahogony, some chinese antiques, turkish carpets and all my components stacked unabashedly naked in the middle of the room.

So any style could work, but although I appreciate the many suggestions above, I am trying to avoid the look of any purpose built or mass produced media storage cabinets, equipment racks, CD shelves etc. which although practical -- "obsessive"? remind me of the listening rooms in hi fi shops and are therefore neither elegant nor stylish.
Ahh jokes... is that allowed at Audiogon? Anyway check out these two links. They are media cabinets designed for CD's, and do not look like ANYTHING in an audio store. The first is from a funiture store called Room & Board. They're based in the midwest and have taken a lot of design styles from the architect Frank Lloyd Wright (at least that's what the girl at the store tells me :)) The second is from Restoration Hardware. I've been thinking about these because I hate the look of visible CD cases.

http://www.roomandboard.com/rnbproduct/product.asp?dept%5Fid=1756&pf%5Fid=723005&index=5

http://www.restorationhardware.com/page.jhtml?id=257&type=product

Another thought I had was to get wicker boxes designed for CD & DVD's and put them in bookshelves. I saw some at Hold Everything they hold up to 80 Cd's (I think) for around $60.00

Anyway these are my suggestions.