TV on the wall or nice TV stand? Tech and interiors question!

[RebeccaCloud9]

We've just moved house (yay!) and I'm trying to decide what to do with the TV as our old (and rubbish) TV table just doesn't work in our new living room.

What I think would be best is putting it on the wall above the mantelpiece but we use a digital recorder box - Is there a way around this? Can you get TVs with these built in these days? I've tried to google but I'm just getting more confused! We would need twin tuner and a recording device.

If this is not possible, do you have any recommendations for a nice, modern, minimalist TV stand, preferably with everything hidden away as much as possible? We have a big varnished oak mantelpiece at the moment so it would either need to go with that, but I am trying to persuade DP that it would look better if we replaced it with a white one, so it could go with that instead.

Any ideas?

Personally I dislike TVs on the wall, it elevates them to a work of art! But that's just me!
One way of dealing with all the bits is to repurpose a small cupboard, by sitting the TV on top and drilling through the back for the wires. I did this with an old wash stand, cutting the legs to the right height.

Yeah, it's not my favourite, but helps with the space and is safer (DD likes to climb!) and means I don't have to find something matching.

Good tip about a small cupboard, thanks.

I also dislike wall mounted TVs not least because they're always mounted too high to be comfortable to watch.

I also dislike most tv stands! A repurposed piece of furniture sounds like a great idea. I spent ages looking for a tv stand I didn't hate and found a Sony one in John Lewis that is actually some kind of surround sound thing too... I just liked how it looked! Solid, chunky, black, glass.

We have just (yesterday) put the TV on the wall having resisted for years. We've just had a big extension and it seemed the sensible place to put it, and actually it looks really nice (was quite surprised). And its high enough that its comfortable to watch but also high enough that I can see if if I am pottering in the kitchen in the other side of the open plan space.

Its a smart TV (not a particularly fancy one) and all the cables are built into the wall. It is hooked up to the internet so at the moment it has the normal freeview channels, then all the apps that came built into the TV (iplayer/youtube/netflix etc) but the electrician has also put in a cable that comes out of the wall just below the skirting board so that if we ever did want to hook it up to a digibox of some sort, the cables are there.

Whilst i don't like tvs on walls, ours is because I feel it safer with such small dcs than having it low down.

It also means when we are playing on the floor the TV isn't on our level so is often entirely ignored. I think if it was low down on a stand it would be very "present" when we are playing (if it's also on).

I've not long finished a refurb and extended the old chimney breast by about 40cms and put in shelving/door which now houses all the gubbins that go with TV (Sky, PS3 etc) and TV is on the wall...I love it! Not a single wire on show BIL installs sound/vision stuff for a living and he advises that tV when mounted should still be at roughly the same height as it would be if it was on a unit.

I reckon built in shelving with all boxes and wires hidden in a cupboard looks good. You kind of want your tv to be at eye level when you're sitting on the sofa. Wall mounted always seems to mean you'd be looking up at it which wouldn't be comfortable

modern flat TVs have very small footprints, so I think are at more risk of being pushed over. When putting them on a shelf or table, you can fasten them to a hook or eye screwed into the wall, a sensible precaution I think. Your TV instructions probably have advice on where to fix the safety leash. If you use a dog-lead clip or a chain connector you can undo it when you want to move it.

BTW the same is (supposed to be) done on cookers to prevent them tipping over if a little darling swings on the oven door.