Latest Interiors: A sight for sore eyes
Holly Cozens gets your room ready for your audio-visual awakening
Content by Conran Balance, Units from £179, Furniture Village, www.furniturevillage.co.uk
With the weather as unpredictable as it is, it is hard to know when to stay indoors and take advantage of your home entertainment. When it comes to brand spanking new state of the art TVs, home entertainment systems and blow-your-socks-off music units, the excitement can be shortlived when it’s suddenly realised there is nowhere to house 50 inches of screen magic or the set-up of your room is all wrong for an optimum surround sound experience. Solutions? Easy.
Keeping up appearances
Some people like to boast the arrival of a new technical addition to the family; magnificent TVs smack-bang in the middle of the living room, giant speakers to tell you that size does indeed matter. While some prefer focus to fall on other points and make their audio-visual assets a little more subtle. Either way, equip your space with the furniture ideal for your media centre. TV units are a smart way to both display and hide certain electrical attributes; from open shelves to draw eyes to new blu-ray players to strategically placed holes in the back to feed through and disguise unsightly leads and cables.
For the more classically minded, there are units that tuck away all signs of technology, leaving you with just a perfect piece of storage that complements the style of your entire room. With this year’s bold choice of colour and patterns however, don’t expect to make anything less than a statement even without the equipment on display.
Sight and sound
These days, we may have swapped the size of bulky CD units and cumbersome DVD players for some more streamline models but with the consistent updates of new gadgets and media enhancement systems, you need somewhere to put it all. Reduce the workload and hassle of adding extra shelving by going for one full unit, enough to provide space for current and growing collections.
Tidy does it, with excess room for any modern toys and a place to gloriously expose your carefully picked collection of music and film. Celebrate the cinematic with a system worthy enough to show off every detail, or enjoy a suspenseful soap with those two important senses heightened.
Whether you are hoping to re-arrange your currently owned TV, DVD player, CD player, 3D/MP3/HD snazzy bit of stuff, or are on the waiting list for the forthcoming system with the added bonus of bells and whistles, you can find the perfect piece of furniture to house your precious things. Remember, don’t let your extreme eagerness to watch the latest Game Of Thrones episode hinder your TV set-up. Allowing time for installation and fitting can be a worthwhile investment to get the most out of your equipment.
Shelving unit, £499, Marks & Spencer, www.marksandspencer.com
Corner unit, £479, Marks & Spencer, www.marksandspencer.com
Teak ‘Comet’ TV cabinet, £700, Debenhams, www.debenhams.com
Media Unit, £299, Marks & Spencer, www.marksandspencer.com