Transforming your living space with a sleek, wall-mounted television brings a modern aesthetic and frees up valuable floor space. However, this contemporary upgrade often introduces a new challenge: where to store and elegantly conceal the essential media components, cables, and wires that typically accompany a home entertainment system? Gone are the days of bulky TV stands acting as command centers for all your devices. Modern interior design favors a minimalist, clutter-free look, which means finding intelligent and stylish solutions for your media setup is paramount. This comprehensive guide will explore the best furniture choices and innovative techniques to create a functional and visually appealing area beneath your wall-mounted TV, ensuring both accessibility and a polished appearance.
Wall-mounted TVs have become a staple in homes of all sizes, from compact apartments to expansive living rooms, evolving into sophisticated focal points. While they elevate the visual appeal of a room by eliminating the large footprint of traditional TV consoles, they simultaneously create a void where media devices and their tangled cords once resided. The goal is to achieve a seamless integration, making your technology work for your home’s design, not against it. This article delves into how you can elegantly manage this space, ensuring your entertainment area is both practical and a true reflection of your personal style, without sacrificing functionality.
After much experimentation with various media consoles and gaming unit setups under my own wall-mounted TV, I quickly realized that many traditional options simply didn’t align with my desired interior design aesthetic. These pieces often felt too overtly modern or utilitarian, clashing with the more nuanced and comfortable style I aimed to cultivate in my living room. This journey led me to explore alternative furniture solutions that offered both the necessary storage and a more harmonious visual presence.
Selecting the Perfect Furniture Piece for Your Wall-Mounted TV
Selecting the Perfect Furniture Piece for Your Wall-Mounted TVWhen it comes to furnishing the space beneath a wall-mounted television, the conventional media console isn’t your only, or even necessarily your best, option. Many homeowners seek a more integrated, less obtrusive look for their home entertainment area. Instead of trying to create an elaborate gallery wall or frame the TV with bulky bookcases, a minimalist approach often yields the most elegant results. The key is to find furniture that complements your existing decor while effectively housing your media essentials.
Discovering the Ideal Furniture: Beyond the Standard Media Console
Through extensive research and online browsing, I discovered a furniture piece that perfectly blended with my room’s overall design scheme and offered practical utility. This was a versatile 4-door, 2-drawer buffet from Hygge Home. The combination of doors and drawers was particularly appealing, providing diverse storage options. I immediately recognized its potential to be easily transformed into a discreet yet highly functional storage unit for TV components and their associated wiring with just a few simple modifications.
Choosing a buffet or sideboard, as opposed to a dedicated media console, offers numerous advantages. These pieces often boast a more refined aesthetic, coming in a wider array of styles, materials, and finishes that can seamlessly integrate into various decor themes – from modern farmhouse to transitional or even traditional. Their primary function as dining room or living room storage translates beautifully into media management, providing ample space behind closed doors to keep clutter out of sight.
A well-chosen sideboard with doors serves as an excellent cable management solution. It not only conceals media equipment but also maintains easy accessibility for use and maintenance. The solid construction of many sideboards ensures durability, while their often more substantial size can anchor your wall-mounted TV visually, creating a balanced focal point in the room. This type of furniture offers a sophisticated alternative to typical TV units, allowing for a cleaner, more integrated look.
Beyond its functional benefits, a sideboard provides a generous surface for decorating. There’s ample room to arrange a few short, carefully selected decorative items that enhance the room’s aesthetic without obstructing the TV screen or creating visual clutter. When selecting furniture to place beneath a large wall-mounted television, always prioritize pieces that offer substantial storage capacity. This foresight ensures all your current and future media components, along with their accessories, can be neatly tucked away.
The interior of a buffet or sideboard can be further optimized for organization. I found that a collection of thrift store baskets served as perfect inserts, allowing me to stylishly compartmentalize and organize the contents of the two drawers. This simple addition helps keep smaller items like remotes, game controllers, and charging cables neatly stowed, making the cabinet’s interior as organized as its exterior is appealing.
DIY Cable Management: Drilling a Hole in Furniture for TV Cords
Once your wall-mounted TV is in place, the next crucial step is ensuring all cables and wires are completely out of sight. In our setup, we utilized a specialized TV cord hiding kit installed within the wall itself. This allows all cables to run behind the drywall, emerging discreetly at the bottom, directly behind the chosen furniture piece. This method eliminates any visible wires hanging down from the TV, creating a super clean, professional look. You can find detailed instructions on how we achieved this in our dedicated post:
- How to Hide the Cords on a Wall Mounted TV.
For the cables exiting the wall to connect to your media devices, you’ll need a way for them to enter your chosen furniture piece. This involves drilling a discreet hole in the back panel of the sideboard. While this might sound daunting, it’s a surprisingly straightforward DIY task. In fact, the process is quite similar to drilling into drywall, but with the added convenience that you won’t need the PVC pipe that’s often mandatory for in-wall installations. With the right tools and a little care, you can create a perfect access point for all your cables in mere minutes.
Supplies Needed for Drilling:
- Power Drill/Screwdriver
- Hole Saw Drill Bit Kit (various sizes recommended)
- 100-grit sandpaper
- Optional: Plastic Hole Grommet/Cover (to finish the edge)
Step-by-Step Drilling Process:
- Measure and Mark: Before drilling, carefully measure the height where the cords exit the wall behind your furniture piece. Also, consider the approximate length of your TV component cords to ensure the hole is positioned appropriately so all cables can comfortably reach their respective devices. Mark the chosen spot on the back of your furniture with a pencil.
- Attach Hole Saw: Securely attach the appropriate size hole saw drill bit (we recommend a 2-1/2″ diameter for most cable bundles) to your power drill.
- Drill the Hole: Align the pilot bit of the hole saw with your pencil mark and begin drilling. Apply steady, even pressure. Depending on the thickness and material of your furniture’s back panel, the hole can be created in just a few seconds. Once the hole is through, use 100-grit sandpaper to smooth any rough edges, preventing cable damage and ensuring a clean finish.
Hole saws are available in a variety of diameters. For most standard cable bundles, a 2-1/2 inch diameter saw provides sufficient space. If you wish to achieve an exceptionally neat and finished look on the back of your furniture, you can purchase a matching 2-1/2 inch plastic cover grommet. These grommets fit snugly into the drilled hole, offering a professional, tidy appearance. Always ensure the hole saw and the grommet are of the same size for a perfect fit.
In our case, since the back of the furniture would be flush against the wall and the hole would never be visible, we opted against using a plastic cover/grommet. Instead, we focused on installing internal cable organizers to keep all the wires neatly bundled and managed within the cabinet, ensuring a tidy and functional interior space.
Seamless Control: Hiding Media Devices and Using a Remote
The buffet, now repurposed as a sophisticated TV component cabinet, features ample shelving designed to accommodate a variety of media devices. This includes the DVR, DVD player, gaming consoles (such as a Wii), internet router, cable box, and any other essential electronics that connect to the TV. All these devices are discreetly housed behind closed doors, with their corresponding cords and wires neatly routed through the drilled hole in the back of the cabinet and then up through the wall directly to the TV. This creates an incredibly clean and streamlined look, keeping unsightly electronics and cables out of sight.
A common concern when hiding cable boxes and other devices behind closed doors is how to control them with a standard remote control, which relies on line-of-sight infrared (IR) signals. The ingenious solution is an inexpensive infrared receiver. If you look closely at the bottom center of the TV (visible in the upper left of the photo above), you’ll notice a small, inconspicuous round dot just below the brand name. This tiny device is a ~$16 infrared receiver. It acts as an extension for your remote’s signal, connecting directly to the cable box that’s hidden inside the buffet. It simply sticks to the front of the TV, and its thin cord runs discreetly behind the television and through the wall alongside all other TV wires, making it virtually invisible.
Installing the Infrared Receiver for Hidden Components
Installing an infrared (IR) receiver is remarkably simple, transforming your media management. The receiver typically comes with double-sided adhesive tape on its back. To install, you merely peel off the backing and firmly stick it to a discrete spot on the front frame of your TV. The other end of the receiver’s cord features a standard jack designed to plug directly into the “IR IN” port on your cable box or other compatible media device. For my setup, we routed this cord through the wall with the other TV cables, then through the newly drilled hole in the cabinet’s back panel, connecting it to the cable box inside.
Once physically installed, the IR receiver is essentially plug-and-play. First, unplug the power from your cable box (or the device you want to control). Then, insert the IR receiver’s jack into the designated “IR IN” port on the device. Reconnect the power to your device. Now, when you point your remote control towards the TV where the small receiver is attached, the signal is picked up by the receiver, transmitted through its cord, and relayed to your hidden cable box or media player. This allows you to effortlessly change channels, adjust settings, and power your devices on and off, all while keeping them out of sight behind closed cabinet doors.
It’s important to note that various types of IR receivers are available on the market. Before purchasing, always read the product specifications to ensure compatibility with your specific TV and media devices. Choosing the correct model will guarantee optimal performance.
Here is a link to the specific IR receiver I utilized:
- Infrared Resources External Universal IR Receiver Extender
For more in-depth information about this affordable yet incredibly useful gadget and how it integrates with a swivel TV mount, you can refer to this detailed post. This simple device allows you to permanently hide your cable box and keep cabinet doors closed, even when actively watching TV and navigating channels, enhancing both aesthetics and convenience.
Elevating Aesthetics: Decorating Furniture Under a Wall-Mounted TV
Once the functional aspects of the media cabinet were perfected, the next step was to thoughtfully decorate the surface beneath the wall-mounted TV. This area presents a unique opportunity to enhance your room’s decor, but it also requires careful consideration to avoid visual clutter or obstructing the view. I spent several weeks searching for just the right decorative accessories. I knew immediately that traditional lamps wouldn’t work; they’re generally too tall and could create distracting glare on the screen, detracting from the viewing experience.
Many items I considered initially proved to be either too tall, too bulky, too small, or simply felt out of place. The breakthrough came when I brought home a beautifully carved wood tray. This piece provided a grounded, natural element. To complete the vignette, I added some moss balls that I already owned, which brought a touch of organic texture and a pop of color, harmonizing perfectly with the natural wood. The key is to select items that are proportionate to the furniture and the TV, creating balance without overwhelming the space.
A few carefully placed faux green plants or living houseplants in short, stylish planters are an excellent choice. They fill the space with life and color without getting in the way, especially important if you have a swivel flat-screen TV that moves between different viewing areas, such as a living room and an adjacent kitchen. If you prefer not to use plants, a curated collection of smaller easel-style photo frames displaying cherished memories or art prints can also create an appealing decorative arrangement.
To further enhance the aesthetic appeal of my living room, I frequently utilize Google Chromecast. This smart device acts as my personal version of a Samsung Smart TV’s “Art Mode,” allowing me to display beautiful artwork or captivating photographs on the screen when the TV is not actively being watched. This feature effectively transforms the large black rectangle on the wall into a dynamic piece of art, seamlessly integrating it into the room’s decor and making the entire entertainment area feel more inviting and less like a technology hub. This subtle detail significantly contributes to a sophisticated and intentional design.
Furniture Solutions for a TV Mounted Over a Fireplace
For those with a TV mounted above a fireplace, the challenge of concealing components and cables can be even more pronounced. However, the concept of using a sideboard, buffet, or even a dresser as a stylish and functional TV center remains highly effective. These pieces can be strategically placed to house all your media devices, acting as a discreet base for your fireplace-mounted TV setup. For creative ideas and practical solutions on how to effectively hide TV cords in such a scenario, refer to this insightful post:
- How to Hide TV Cords on a TV Mounted Above a Fireplace
By implementing these strategies, you can enjoy the sleek, modern aesthetic of a wall-mounted TV without the unsightly clutter of wires and devices. Choosing the right furniture, modifying it for cable management, and integrating smart accessories like IR receivers will create a functional, organized, and beautifully decorated entertainment space that truly complements your home’s design.
Further Reading: More Decorating and Organization Ideas You May Like:
- Comprehensive Guide: How to Hide Cords on a Wall-Mounted TV
- Styling Tips That Make a Difference When Decorating a Living Room With Recliners
- Creative Side Table Ideas for a Living Room Using a Wicker Basket