Media rooms are becoming an ever more important facet of the American household. We’re passionate about our electronic entertainment, using it for everything from background music to the focus of a family movie night. The TV entertainment centers that hold this equipment should be an integral part of your interior scheme. Before you start feeling daunted, read on and you’ll see that it’s not that difficult.
Selecting Media Furniture to Suit Your Decor
Even if you don’t feel you can pick out a throw pillow without help, you’ll be able to at least narrow down the basic style of your entertainment furniture. It’s mostly common sense: for example, traditional hardwood looks perfect within a country decor, a large entertainment cabinet works well in a large room but will overpower a smaller room, etc.
With a contemporary style select something with a cutting-edge look to it. A glass stand will fit in perfectly, as will anything with chrome. Modern pieces are often spare in construction, allowing their streamlined design to blend in with your entertainment components in a way that melds them together as a unit. Imagine a shiny black-and-glass media stand with black or silver audio and video components on each shelf: it’s sleek and tres chic.
A console-type TV stand with shelves in addition to the ones for the video components or a cabinet style will also supply a surface for displaying decorative items such as framed photographs, vases of flowers, or small pieces of art. In this way you can supplement a room’s design impact while expressing your personal style.
How to Transition Your Ordinary Family Room into a Home Theater
Home theater is all the rage now, especially with fuel costs and inflation in general keeping people at home more. Although this sort of luxury had previously been popular among those with more disposable income, families of more modest means now find that with a few changes they can make an existing room into a home theater without shattering their budget.
A home theater, after all, is an area that is optimized for movie viewing, with comfortable seating and good-quality equipment arranged according to a simple formula that allows every viewer to see and hear the feature fully without strain. Ideally your home theater will include a wide-screen TV and surround sound, but if you don’t have those big-ticket items yet you can start with what you have and then upgrade as you’re ready to. If you feel your room is too small to accommodate a home theater set-up, you may be surprised. Consider the extra flexibility that a corner media unit will afford you as it helps to maximize the available space.
Situate the television against the wall where it works best according to this simple formula: your seating should begin at a distance that is twice the horizontal (not diagonal) width of the TV screen. The back row of seating should not be farther back than five times the screen’s horizontal width. Leather is the ultimate upholstery choice for home theater seating, but microfiber also works well and can handle the spills that are bound to happen sooner or later.
If square footage allows, you can also set aside a corner of your newly-transformed media room with a comfortable chair for listening to music. A pleasant but not too busy piece of art on the wall or a small sculpture on a table will contribute to the relaxing atmosphere, allowing for fuller enjoyment of the songs.
