The focal point of most living rooms is the television. Choosing the right solution for your home can be difficult. How you display your TV largely depends on what type of entertainment center you use along with the TV. Today, thanks to flat-panel televisions, you have a wider array of home theater designs possible.
What type of entertainment center is best for your home? Ideally, you want a solution that will help you maximize the space and do more than just display the TV. You also have to take into account your surround sound theater system, Blu-ray player, video game systems, cable/satellite TV DVR, and streaming video devices.
Types of Entertainment Systems
You will find entertainment systems range from the very basic to complex and elegant designs. Let’s look at the differences between the various types to help you select the right entertainment center style for your home.
This style is your very basic entertainment center solution. It typically involves a single stand for the TV. It may include one or two shelves or small storage cabinets in its design. The primary drawback to basic TV stands is you have limited space.
Far too often, instead of looking neat and presentable, the TV stand becomes cluttered and overcrowded with too many devices and equipment. Not to mention, there are all of those unsightly wires that hang all over the place and which cannot easily be hidden.
There are also “add-on” stands you can use to accompany the basic stand. These can provide additional storage space. However, you end up with multiple pieces of furniture around the single stand. Plus, you will have to buy longer cords to be able to connect everything together.
These designs are perfect when you have a small amount of space and want added storage for clothing, books, games, and other such items. Armoires have closeable doors, so you can shut the doors when you want to hide the TV.
Chests are better suited for wall mounted TVs or when you want the TV elevated higher off the ground. There are normally a few open shelves for other equipment, along with drawers and cabinets for storing other items out of sight.
This style is essentially one big piece of furniture that takes up most of the space along one wall. It will become the main focal point in the room due to its size. Designs can include a variety of different features, such as:
Not only do wall units provide plenty of space for all of your home electronics but also have space for knick-knacks, books, pictures, and other such items you want to have displayed. Since wall units are so big and take up a lot of space, they may not be the best solution in smaller rooms.
Built-in entertainment centers include all the features of wall units, with the added bonus of being built into the wall. Additionally, they can be built to encompass the entire space from floor to ceiling so you can maximize every square inch of wall space.
This solution works well in cases where you have an irregular wall where part of it is recessed. The entertainment center can be built into the recessed area and made to look like a part of the wall for a seamless flow.
Built-in units also work well when you have an interior wall you can use to recess the unit partially into the wall. This built-in design is great for smaller rooms when you want a larger home theater entertainment center design. With this type of design, only part of the unit extends into the room so you can still maximize the entire living space.
Custom Designed Entertainment Center Solutions vs. “Store-Bought” Solutions
When you are shopping for entertainment center solutions for your home, the two basic options are either “store-bought” or custom designed entertainment centers.
“Store-Bought” Pros
“Store-Bought” Cons
Custom Designed Pros
Custom Designed Cons
Other Built-In Solutions for Your Home
There are other built-in solutions for other areas of your home. You can have multiple solutions done at the same time while your new entertainment center is being installed. Custom built-ins and storage solutions can help you:
You can have a built-in or storage solution created for:
Some people even incorporate an entertainment center into the design of another custom built-in or storage solution.
For example, you have a room you want to use as a home office and guest room. Built-in solutions can work great so you can easily use a single room for dual purposes. You might want to have a built-in wall bed installed to keep the bed out of the way when it is not needed. You can also use a built-in desk solution that can double as an entertainment center to maximize the usefulness of the room for work and guests.
As you can see, you have much more flexibility with custom designed entertainment centers and other built-in and storage solutions compared to “store-bought” options. If you are not sure what type of solution is best for your home, we encourage you to contact us for advice. We offer:
To arrange a free consultation with one of our expert designers to discuss home theater designs or other built-in or storage solutions, please feel free to contact Bay Home & Window at 888.766.5919 today!