Televisions have transformed into gliding glossy thin screens with outstanding visual quality, it's no wonder so many opt to stay home and watch movies on Friday night. I say if you're going to spend that much time in front of the tube and pay that much for your flat screen TV you might as well make it sexy all the way around, it's really the only way to do it.
Remember this look?
Yes, it was okay to do back in college, not okay when you're out of college.... and definitely not okay if you're a bachelor out of college, and if you're a woman "shame on you!"
Understandably a media storage solution can be quite expensive but like everything else there are cheaper ones too (ahem, Ikea). One thing to understand if you can't seem to understand why a nice looking media center is important, the largest room in your home inevitably will be the living-room, in that living-room the largest portion of it will inevitably be taken up by your TV. You can either have your college-like (as pictured up above) wreck of a media center displayed for all eyes to see, visitors included, or you can have a nice one that will surely make the whole home transform into something uncluttered, clean with a wow-factor. Your choice. Here are some suggestions should you make that choice.
Since it's become so easy to hang TVs, flat-screened and all, this is what I prefer mostly because it looks cleaner and more symmetrical. But here's one important tip, don't hang it too high.
Many have the urge to hang their TV right above the fireplace mantle, which is completely fine... unless it's too high which will leave the final look being disproportional and your neck sore at the end of your "House" marathon. Naturally if you have a smaller, low fireplace it'll work perfectly fine. Trying to keep the TV as close to eye-level as possible when your sitting and standing is key to finding the right height at which to hang that beautiful flat-screen.
That being said let's move on to the fun stuff!
My personal preference is to hang the flat-screen with a simple media table console underneath to store players, controls and such. This may also be the cheaper way to go as almost any kind of nice drawered table could do.
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| West Elm Hudson Media Console $399 |
Then there are to consider among your picks media center solutions with two towers, these can be quite beautiful as well, but remember on the placement of your television not to go beyond the top edge of the uppermost tower, instead align it so that it is straight with the upper-most edge if in fact you want to go that high on your placement. I find however that with this kind of media center (with two towers) it looks cleaner and more symmetrical when there is equal spacing around the TV (minus the top, of course).
And my favorites, not only because the price is... AWESOME, but also because visually, these two media consoles has the highest wow factor.
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| Ikea Besta with sliding doors $920 |
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| Ikea Besta with sliding doors $520 |