Design and style question about shelves next to chimney stack in terraced house

[gobblygook]

Hello

We've got a living room area with two chimney stacks. In the 4 recesses we wanted to do shelves, a lowish cabinet for the TV etc etc

Question is - what's the done thing? for all the recesses to be treated the same and have the same sort of shelving? I was thinking of one floor to ceiling shelving for books and CDs, another no shelves at all etc - and I'm not sure whether these are meant to be symmetrical.

Any thoughts or links please!

In my last house (Edwardian mid-terrace) I had matching shelves built into the recesses. In this house (1930s semi) I plan on having them put into only the recess furthest from the bay window. The recess by the bay has the TV and one shelf in it.

At the moment, the far recess has a free standing bookshelf in it and it looks fine - I think the key is to leave the recess by the window empty and not the one furthest away.

I think you can do it either way. We have different shelves each side of our chimney. Traditional built in shelves on one side and a loe built in cupboard on the other, for the TV, with modern floating shelves in a staggered pattern above.