If you think mounting a television is the same as merely hanging it on the wall, think again. In the living room, it's often the furniture beneath it — or the piece that is sitting on — which does most of the visual heavy lifting. Proportionally cute from whatever angle, modern TV units make it so a screen doesn't bear the awkward air of levitating up against an empty wall.
Getting the Size Right
Proportion, is really the first thing to go before you do anything at all. A unit smaller than the television it supports is unbalanced, a little like the screen is spilling over the top of its own furniture.
As a basic rule, the unit below a screen should be at least the width of the TV and ideally a little wider on either side. That little margin allows for a soundbar, or perhaps a small plant or just space to breathe that keeps the overall picture from feeling cramped.
While the width is an important aspect of TV viewing it would seem that height ranks just as high in terms of significance, especially for those unfortunate souls who have a low sofa. Typically, if centring the middle of the screen at or about eye level when sitting — the unit itself should be somewhere in 20 to 30 inches tall.
Storage and Cable Management
No matter how clean your setup looks, there's always a bit of planning behind cables and devices everywhere. Streaming boxes, gaming consoles and routers need a place to call home, and an open shelf that looks neat in a product shot can quickly become cluttered without the right plan.
Closed cabinets keep bulky gear and loose cables out of sight while open shelving is great for items you need to access frequently, or that run hot. Most households find this a combination of the two works best, with display and shelf space used in equal parts.
Bolts cables in place with cut-out at the back or a dedicated channel to stop wires dangling in plain sight. It's a tiny detail, but hugely important to how complete the whole space appears when everything is plugged in.
Style and Material Choices
More than any other factor, artistic and furnishings state of mind feel the entire tone room. It reads as sleek and modern with a low, matte-black or oak unit versus a lighter wood tone balances out a big, dark panel.
The use of metal and glass gives the design a sharper, more modern feel — though they often require slightly more maintenance to keep them fingerprint-spotless and dust-free. If you want middle ground, engineered wood or MDF is an affordable option to make at least some compromise with style.
Wall-mounted units with trim legs or without any visible legs at all establish a feeling of lightness under a large screen for the more adventurous among us. This approach is especially effective in small rooms where visual heft on the ground physically keeps the dimension from feeling as cramped.
Styling modern TV units doesn't have to end with the unit itself. A lamp, some books, or a few small decor items on either side of the screen transforms an invisible setup into something that looks structurally designed intuitively instead of installed.
Placement and Room Flow
Just as size affects the flow where the unit sits in a room also comes into play. You want to leave the front and sides open, so it doesn't feel boxed in; it's particularly important for smaller living rooms where every piece of furniture is battling for that same floor space.
This means you can check how many sockets you have and where they are, saving yourself the embarrassment of buying a unit only to find that it won't reach the neighbouring socket. Much of this placement surprises are solved by taking a quick walk—tape measure in hand—before the delivery day approaches.
It also helps when considering what the unit will look like turned off, since a television serves as plenty of hours just being an empty black rectangle. A warm wood tones, or a textured surface will keep the wall interesting even when nothing is playing rather than leaving a cold empty focus point in the room.
Conclusion
When it comes to matching proportion, storage and material to wherever the unit is going to live day-in-day-out, picking out the perfect television furniture should ultimately be a simple exercise. Done right, with the careful sizing and some cable management attentiveness, an appropriate unit can be making a screen and empty wall a truly comfortable space to pass an evening in.
