Ikea Malm Chest of 3 drawers in the living room - utter madness?

[PssstOverHere]

We need some storage in the living room that we can also sit the TV on but we are struggling to get anything that can fit into the smallish alcove we have and that we can afford.

We are considering buying the Ikea Malm set of 3 drawers, here in black-brown. Its not really what we want but its only £56 and fits the space.

Is it going to look totally, totally weird having a chest of drawers in the living room. I wanted a small side board type of thing but other than a small AV unit in Habitat for £240 we haven't found anything.

Am I being totally crazy?

Go for it, it'll look perfect.

We had a chest of drawers in our living room for years; we had a house where the front door opened straight into the living room, and we used to keep hats/gloves/scarves in it. You have to be adaptable if space is tight.

BsshBossh - we use a magic eye so that we can keep our Sky box etc away from DS's sticky fingers. It just sits on top of the TV and we aim the remote at it, instead of the boxes (which are shut away),

Yes, we have something like the magic eye that browneyesblue has, no idea what ours is called though. It sort of attaches on the side of the TV, you wouldn't really notice it was there really, so being closed at the front not a problem.

We have our tv and stuff in our small alcove. It's all on a Billy Bookcase and looks fine.

You should do whatever suits your lifestyle. I think Ikea products are well styled and can look good in whatever room.

What about this or this?

You could fix the tv to the wall? Maybe more choice for storage that way?

have exactly that in the living room (3 drawer malm in dark brown), holds all sorts of crap in it's capacious drawers

looks great, it's one of those designs from Ikea that is so pared down that it doesn't look cheap.

go for it.

I think it'll look fine.

Browneyesblue, thank you so much for posting a link to the edland chest of drawers!! I have been searching for something to go in my hall for ages and that is just totally perfect!!

Our tv is on a pine chest of drawers in an alcove and it looks great. I keep all my craft stuff in it, apart from one drawer which stores all the millions of remote controls, console peripherals etc. I think it looks nicer than a tv bench, and because it's a solid piece of furniture you can't see cables etc. No need to drill holes, either.

I'm heartened that other people have Malm elsewhere in the house other than the bedroom.

Thanks for those suggestions RachelHRD, I'm not keen on the Minsk one because I've seen it in someone's house and I didn't like it. Not sure about the other one, a possible, will get DH to look at it and decide if that drawer would be enough storage.

Ooohh...I've got that , but it's the 6 drawer set, and it's got a TV on, but in the bedroom. Sorry, it does smack of bedroom, but there are loads of alternatives at Ikea.

Coproxamol Not that fit us I'm afraid!

No problem trixy. I loved the way it looked on the show, but sadly do not have the right size hall for it :(

I like chests of drawers in rooms other than bedrooms and, in theory, the Malm is great. But, we have one in our youngest child's room and it's a bit crap. Drawers come off runners and the wood bit between the drawers has just broken off. What about a 2nd hand wooden one off ebay and paint it?