For many families, the entertainment media unit forms the focal point of living room. However, this isn’t the only space that can benefit from a specifically designed unit – the theatre room is another ideal location or even the master bedroom! If you want to enjoy the benefits of media cabinetry across your whole home, then we suggest reading through our handy guide; we have provided a guide for choosing the perfect type, style and placement for your unit.
Types of Entertainment Unit
There are actually a number of different pieces to choose from; we have outlined the main ones below. If you have a flat screen television that you would like to mount, this can be achieved either inside the unit or on a purpose-built feature back panel or mounted on the wall behind it if it is suitable.
- Entertainment Centres – Also known as wall units, entertainment centres are large pieces of furniture that often contain drawers, cabinets and shelving to store and display a wide array of items, and sometimes even workstations.
- Media Units – Also known as TV consoles or stands, these are quite long depending on your wall length (with the television placed on top) and cables running through a benchtop cable outlet, and generally feature additional storage in the form of drawers, shelving and cabinets, these can be built in, floating look, or freestanding with legs or kicker.
- Media Chests/Armoires – This slender furniture takes up less floor space and, instead, use vertical space. Armoires feature doors to hide the television equipment away and sometimes the TV as well, whilst chests resemble tall dressers, the TV can pop up with an ergomotion lift out of this piece of furniture and it is often placed at the end of a bed.
Entertainment Media Unit Styles
There are also a number of different styles of unit to choose from; it is important that you choose one that matches your existing décor. Begin by identifying the room’s style and start the selection process from there. Popular styles include:
- Contemporary pieces are often manufactured using two pack poly matt or satin paint finishes in your color choice. They feature clean and crisp lines with very little ornamentation, but often include lighting for ambient or dramatic effect.
- Modern pieces also feature clean and crisp lines, but you will find that this style of furniture is often manufactured from timber veneer or timber grain laminates, and with stone or concrete look accents.
- Traditional pieces generally feature capping at the top, with Victorian profile doors and panels and sometimes timber benchtops to add warmth or tie in with floorboards for that classic look to align with the period of your home.
- Country or Hampton Style media units are usually made of a lighter coloured timber veneer or feature a distressed painted or whitewashed finish for that rustic look, and often have a simpler profile door such as a shaker style, or tongue ‘n’ groove paneling, sometimes with black feature handles.
Placement of Media Units
Where you ultimately place the unit will depend upon your lounge room’s layout, the location of power and cable outlets, and plenty of other factors. There are, however, some general rules of thumb that you should follow:
- In front of a window is not the ideal location for a centre, as the backlighting will make it difficult to see the screen and you’re blocking natural light from entering the room. If your power or cable outlets happen to be below a window, run some extra cable to a different wall.
- For the ideal viewing location, try to centre the middle of your media unit with the middle of the largest seat in the room. This is generally the couch; if you have an L-shaped one, line the television up with the longest seating side of the couch.
We hope that the information provided in the above article enables you to choose the perfect entertainment media unit for your home. Before you go shopping, it is important that you have measured up the room where the unit will be placed and your television and any other media equipment you wish to house,to ensure that everything is going to fit. This is especially important if you are having a custom piece of furniture built, as the designer will need to know all of the specifications.
