Steelbook Wall Display Project - No more seeing spines!

[JJ]

I used to be one of them. I used to scoff at steelbook collectors - post denigrating remarks on forums about "you people" and your quirky obsessions with glorified packaging, until about 3 years ago when BB had a Warner SB sale and I looked upon them with new eyes. At that point, whenever a cool steelbook was released in the US, I had to have it.

Now, dozens of months later, I realized when looking at my movie storage room (really, just a glorified 6'x4' storage closet that only stores movies, here's a quickie bad-phone-cam panorama view:

[Show spoiler]

- "Wow, Steelbooks are awesome! But I hate just looking at their spine! The whole point is to look at their awesome cases!" - like I'm sure many of you have, thus why you display them on little stands. By now, I had collected around 40 or so, and I took them out and realized I needed a better way to display them.



So I started scheming and browsing online, and I saw that folks had used shelves with the one-movie stands, some leaned them on the wall, some used magnet strips directly on the wall - but I wanted something both functional and aesthetically pleasing, since I actually watch the blurays inside these cases - and needed a way to easily remove them from the wall with my fingers.

After further scheming and browsing, I settled on using magnets like others had done. What with all the metal in these steelbooks, I couldn't imagine a better way to mount them. After a trip to home depot, I settled on using a product meant for a similar ease-of-use.

Magnetic tool bars! You use them in your tool shed or garage to temporarily hold your tools while you work.



I compared their readily available dimensions, anywhere from 12" to 24", and decided to buy a pair of 17"s (which fit 3 steelbooks) and five 24"s (which fit 4 steelbooks).

They arrived looking far more utilitarian than I desired, so I removed any paint and tape they had on them (1) down to their bare magnetic surfaces (2) and wrapped them in black velvet tape (3) - the black velvet tape being thick enough to also prevent any scratches or dings on the bars from placing the steelbooks on them:



After this, I tested it with how it held 4 steelbooks up - if it kept them even, didnt let them fall, if it was a secure bond, and it worked beautifully!



So I proceeded to install them to my wall. I removed my old Blockbuster Watchmen poster (you may also remember these from when they went out of business)



and gather up the few tools I'd need...things we should all have at home (stud finder, masking tape, level, screwdriver, tape measure) for the install.



As the magnetic tool bars are relatively heavy, you want to ensure that you anchor them properly. You can use drywall anchors, you can screw them directly to your wood or metal studs behind the drywall, etc, but ENSURE you use a support. Don't just screw into bare drywall or have them hang like a picture frame. You'll damage your STEHLBERKS

I used simple metal drywall anchors after I ensure there were no studs in my desired locations:



I hung a 17 and 24 first, nice and level, to see how it would look.







Golden! I mounted the rest evenly spaced apart so the movies would approximately line up to the rack alongside them:



Grabbed ~20 of my favorite steelbooks to mount, and done!



Now they're always available for easy display, and I can reach out and grab them whenever I want, like so (video):

https://twitter.com/Hozay__/status/6...944187393?s=09

I do recommend putting something on the magnetic bars, like I did with the velvet tape, since they are heavy duty magnets. Wont dent or scratch your steelies with something on em. They will without it.

Not very expensive, either - each 24" bar cost me ~$16 or so online, and the 17s are at your local Home Depot for about $15.

Now go forth and cover your wall in amazing steelbooks!

I'll put some DSLR pics up in my Home Theater gallery later, just crappy phone pics for now.