TV Stands and Media Consoles for the Wall the Sofa Faces

The television is a big dark rectangle in most living rooms, and the furniture under it decides whether the wall looks planned or merely occupied. A good stand gives the screen some company, whether that is wood grain, a woven door, a row of books, or a fire.

That is the case for choosing a media console the way you would choose a sideboard. Closed cupboards swallow the boxes and cables that come with a television. Open shelves suit people with a turntable or a stack of art books they want seen. An electric fireplace gives the eye somewhere to rest when the screen is off, and a wall-mounted cabinet keeps the floor clear in a tight room.

Shape follows the spot. Some of these push into a corner, some run the length of a long wall, and one hangs beneath a wall-mounted screen.

Tribesigns Media Console With Sliding Tambour Door

Tambour, the ribbed wooden shutter that slides around a curve, was a favorite trick of mid-century cabinetmakers, and it is the reason to look at this console. The slatted door travels along the front, so you decide which part of the shelving is on show and which is closed off, and you can change your mind whenever the game console comes out.

The rounded ends and warm walnut tone carry the same period feeling, and slim black legs lift the cabinet clear of the floor so it never looks heavy for its length.

HOMCOM Boho TV Stand With Rattan Doors

Rattan is the reason to choose the HOMCOM. Its two cupboard doors are hand-woven cane in pale wood frames, with striped pine handles, and they give a wall of black screen and cables something soft and handmade to sit beside. A streaming box or a heap of game controllers goes behind them. The two open shelves in the middle take whatever you want within reach.

Low and the color of pale straw, the stand suits a bright room where a dark cabinet under the television would look like a second black rectangle.

Homrest Fireplace TV Stand With Glass Door Cabinets

A very large television needs something substantial under it, or it looks as though it is about to tip the furniture over. Homrest’s answer is a long black console with an electric fireplace set into the middle, so the lower half of the wall has a glow of its own and the screen stops being the only thing to look at.

The flames run with the heater on or off, which means the fire is there in July as well as January. Glass-fronted cupboards at either end turn a row of records or a set of good glasses into part of the display, and the pale wood top keeps so much black from feeling heavy.

Tribesigns Floating TV Stand With Fluted Drawers

Hang the media cabinet on the wall and the floor runs uninterrupted beneath it, which is a kindness to a narrow living room and to whoever does the vacuuming. The Tribesigns is a slim, oak-toned box with softly rounded corners and two drawers fronted in fine vertical fluting, a detail that catches the light along its whole length.

Mount it at whatever height suits your sofa and your screen. With the television fixed to the wall above and the remotes and cables shut in the drawers, the whole arrangement looks like one composed strip.

HOMCOM Industrial TV Cabinet With Mesh Doors

Black steel mesh over the two cupboards gives the cabinet its workshop character, and it has a practical side. You can make out what is behind the doors without everything being on display, so the board games and spare controllers are half hidden and still easy to find.

The wood grain is a weathered grey-brown, rough enough to look salvaged. Set a record player on top and stack the sleeves on the middle shelves, and the industrial look starts to make sense as more than a finish.

Tribesigns Corner TV Stand With 2-Tier Shelves

Corners are where televisions often end up, and most cabinets are the wrong shape for them. The back of the Tribesigns is cut at an angle on both sides, so it pushes right into the corner and the screen faces out across the room on the diagonal.

It has plenty of presence for a corner unit. A black frame surrounds an interior lined in rustic wood grain, so the two open shelves look like a wood-lined alcove, a good place for a soundbar or a few favorite books standing upright.

Homrest Rustic Fireplace TV Stand With Sliding Barn Doors

The two barn doors on this stand run along a black steel rail, and sliding them is half the pleasure of owning it. Push them aside and the cupboard shelves are open. Pull them back and the front closes up around the fire.

The fire is electric, set in the middle where a hearth would be, and it gives the weathered grey-brown cabinet a reason to be the center of the room on a winter evening. With a darker top and plank-style doors, it belongs to the farmhouse family without the distressing laid on thick.

HOMCOM Modern TV Stand With Glass Doors

Paned glass doors give the HOMCOM the look of a small kitchen dresser, and they bring a little of that homeliness to the television wall. What goes behind them stays visible, so choose it as you would for a bookshelf, with a row of novels, a few board game boxes, and a basket for the remotes. The open shelves between the cupboards are the place for anything that needs a clear line to a remote control. In a warm brown wood grain on short tapered legs, it is an easygoing piece for a family room.

Tribesigns TV Stand With 2-Tier Open Storage

Shaped like a long pill, with half-round ends wrapped in vertical slats, this stand is the one to look at if you like furniture without corners. The two shelves run straight through from end to end, completely open, so the piece is as presentable from the side as from the front. That matters when the television sits where people walk past it, in an open-plan room or beside a doorway. Keep the lower shelf loose, with a few large books and one basket, and the curved ends remain visible.

HOMCOM Electric Fireplace TV Stand

Half mantelpiece and half media unit, the HOMCOM is built around its fire. The electric insert sits in the center where a hearth would be, with open cubbies stacked on either side, and the top is treated as a mantel for a television or a row of framed photographs. The flames work with the heat off, so the glow is available on evenings that are not cold.

In deep espresso, almost black, it gives a bedroom or a small sitting room the hearth that a room without a chimney lacks.

Tribesigns LED TV Stand With 3 Tiers

Everything about this stand is scaled up, from the thick slab of a top to the chunky sides and the long open shelves in a pale, knotty oak tone. It has the look of something built from reclaimed beams, which gives a big screen a base with comparable visual weight.

The light strip under the shelves changes color and dims from a remote or a phone. Set to a low warm white it gives the wall a soft glow during a film, and the party colors are there for anyone who wants them.

HOMCOM Corner TV Stand With Drawers

Small televisions in bedrooms and dens need furniture too, and the low HOMCOM corner stand is made for them. Two drawers with cut-out black pulls keep chargers and remotes shut away, and the open compartments above hold a set-top box. Black steel legs lift the rustic brown body off the floor, so it looks closer to a piece of loft furniture than to the usual corner unit. Angle it across the corner of a bedroom and the screen faces the bed.

Before You Buy a TV Stand

Many televisions stand on a pair of feet set near the outer edges of the screen, so compare the spacing of the feet with the width of the top before trusting a size label. An electric fireplace insert needs a wall outlet within reach of its cord. A wall-mounted cabinet has to be fixed into studs or solid masonry.