With a hammer and my dad's help, soon I had a music mosaic on my wall.Įighteen years later, the albums still hang on the wall. My criteria? Honestly, at that age, I didn't know many of the artists, except the most famous ones, so I went purely on instinct: Which ones looked the coolest? I narrowed it down to 50, and then to the final 25, creating a collage on the floor until their placement felt balanced and perfect. So, I brought all 500 albums downstairs and laid them out one by one. The albums had been sitting in dusty milk crates, and now they would be displayed like the art that they were. I wasn't sure if my dad would agree with hanging them-after all, it could damage the condition-but he was excited. I'd pored over these album covers before, feeling like they were too cool to be holed up in our attic. From a stroke of 10-year-old inspiration, I decided to fill one of the walls with record covers. I chose two colors-bright orange and a highlighter pink-and loved it, but felt the room needed even more. When I was 10, in 2004, I switched bedrooms with my brother, and was told I could paint the room whatever color I wanted. We'd go on iTunes together, and I'd watch as he downloaded digital versions of his favorite albums. Growing up, he got me my first Walkman and CDs, and I remember our excitement when he ordered one of the first iPods. A lifelong music fan, his record collection spans 500+ albums, many of which were collected during his years as a radio DJ in the late 1970s and early '80s. My father (Andy Merz) introduced me to the power of a great album.

Music album wall art