‘Media wall’ to accommodate a LOT of books and large-ish telly

[YippieKayakOtherBuckets]

We’ve finally saved enough to get a carpenter to design and build a wall of storage in our living room. We have a lot of books to accommodate along with a fairly large TV (55”), plus the usual games and toys of a family home, so I am envisaging a mix of open shelving and closed cabinets with a low panel for the TV. I am keen to paint it dark (navy, charcoal, dark green, even black) to absorb the impact of TV a bit when it is switched off. I’d also like to explore soft lighting for the shelves.

If anyone has done anything similar that you are happy with I would love to see pics. If you’d rather not post your actual house I’d equally love to see any inspiration images and any tips or tricks would be very welcome. Many of the examples I’ve seen have cube-type shelves for artful curation of objets rather than practical storage of a lot of books!

Following with interest - probably not affordable for us for a few years as other jobs around the house are more pressing but I am always open to inspiration!

We have white built in cabinets in the alcoves, so not what you're after.

But we have our TV on a retractable arm thing, so it's only pulled out and angled towards our sofas when we're actually watching. Means we don't have to have it either in the middle or at a permanent angle in the corner, which works well for us.

Probably not a good idea with young kids though, if you have them. More because of arguments re who the TV is pointing at most, than H&S, although I know small kids like to hang off stuff.

Have a look on the Neville Johnson website for ideas. My friend had a brochure from them and they had some great ideas. She ended up employing a carpenter to create something bespoke, but used some of their ideas.

One of the things I thought looked really good was having sliding panels in the middle that hid the TV when not in use, something like this https://www.nevillejohnson.co.uk/contemporary-lounge/