Sound work

Streamline your living space with clever audio-visual storage from Richard Hill Interiors

The economic climate may be harsh, but sales of home audio-visual equipment consistently bucked the trend in 2011. With the 2012 January sales well underway, those of us who have held out on buying that flat-screen TV, slingbox, or even home cinema system, may find ourselves tempted to get with the trend and invest in something new and shiny. And what should you do with it all once you’ve bought it home and unpacked it? Richard Hill Interiors has some sleek AV storage solutions to help you manage all that new kit.

Product placement
20th Century home audio-visual equipment was big and boxy – TVs that needed depth as well as height to accommodate their dimensions, big VCRs, and multi-component stereo systems. Hiding it all away and making it look chic and sleek often wasn’t an option: most of us balanced the TV on a coffee table and stored piles of videos and CDs in
shelves and boxes.

But the equipment has changed: TVs are much bigger, and much flatter. Gone is the big old VCR – in its place comes a Sky+ box, a slingbox, a games console, an iPod dock – all connected to surround-sound speakers, and likely requiring the services of IT equipment and a discreetly positioned router. Even with wireless technology for some of your gadgets, the potential for confusion is considerable.

Storage solutions
Richard Hill believes that we need to start thinking about our living space in the same way we think about fitted kitchens or bedrooms; areas that, to function well in busy, multi-tasking homes, need carefully planned fitted storage.

Clever base units – for all those boxes and consoles – allow you to keep cables concealed and hide it all away when not in use. You can even have compartments for all those different remotes and controllers. iPod docking stations can also be cleverly built in and concealed.

Flat-screen TVs can be mounted on a wall panel (annoying cables can be concealed behind the panel) or, even better, fitted to a TV lift in a base storage unit – allowing you to have the TV out when you need it, but lower it away out of sight when you don’t. Adding the right fitted storage will streamline your living area – and give you the space to enjoy it.

For a free quote, contact Richard Hill Interiors, Unit D3,
Dolphin Enterprise Centre, Evershed Way, Dolphin Road, Brighton, BN43 6QB, 01273 463799, www.richardhillinteriorsltd.co.uk