Entertainment center furniture ideas

Entertainment centers these days are a dime a dozen in every sense except the price. Starting at $100 they can be found "wherever TVs are sold", not to mention regular furniture stores. But what if you need something unique, stylish or fitting your theme-based home theater? There are entertainment centers available online that can capture your imagination. I tried to provide large images (accessible with a click, check them out, they are stunning), but don't forget to come back to this page to see more.

Grand Europian Style (at the top of the article) with concealed media storage (behind the fluted columns!).




This is a tropical style entertainment center - complete with woven rattan door and drawer inserts.



This period-looking entertainment armoire will work best in a room that is only occasionally used to watch videos. You will not have to constantly stare and a huge black screen in the middle of your home library or study.



This Italian Riviera entertainment center has a beautiful layered look that points to excellent craftsmanship.



This entertainment center brings Italian Renaissance style to your media room. Some of the features include a laminated serving shelf for wine opening and drink mixing.

This 4-piece entertainment center from Parker House is made in rural European style and has such unlikely features as hanging wine glass racks and reversible shelves with wine storage.



This impressive wall system deserves to have some of its features listed here, because they are not entirely obvious from the picture.

• Multiple wiring ports including large cable access
• Removable back panels for easy access to components
• Surge protected power strips in each pier cabinet
• Shelving engineered for easy transit of cables between components
• Case levelers accessible from inside the bottom door compartments
• Hand grips engineered in all pieces to make moving furniture easy and safe
• Expandable bridge and shelf accommodates most rear-projection televisions
• Rheostat controlled lighting operates pier cabinet and light bridge fixtures
• Speaker cloth inserts for left and right channel or sub-woofer speakers in each pier unit
• All-media storage pullout libraries provide access to CDs, DVDs, and video cassettes
• Ventilated audio compartments for heat dissipation prolongs furniture and component life

This sleek-looking entertainment center features a lot of storage for your media, without creating any clutter.

Made out of metal, this white entertainment center has a stunning modern look.




This antique-looking entertainment center is actually hand-painted. It is made with solid wood and brass finished hardware.

Media room furniture: comfort and beyond in the home theater room

When one mentions media room furniture the fist thing that comes to mind is chairs. Big cushy, comfortable chairs that any reasonable human being would love to spend a couple of hours in (as the Berkline Reno seating pictured above). A definite staple in the world of home theater seating. And certainly, everyone seems to be an expert on what is comfortable: it just feels right! I will leave it to the masses to decide what particular chairs, sofas, recliners etc. are comfortable. There are, however, additional things to consider when purchasing furniture for the media room or TV room.

1. It is essential that no piece of furniture in the media room creates unwanted glare that will interfere with the viewing experience. Just because something looks good and feels comfortable it does not mean that it's the right thing for a home theater room! Leather chairs, for instance, should be banned from such environments (unless you only have one row of seats). Microfiber will look just as good, but the light will not be bouncing all over the room, causing fatigue and disturbing the sense of vision in a manner not intended by film directors. This principle goes across the board. If you are buying tables, trays, media storage units avoid polished surfaces or cover them whenever possible.
2. Avoid furniture that causes noise pollution. You may not notice this in a crowded show room of a furniture store, but many recliners can really disturb home theater audiences. Consider ottomans or over-sized chairs that provide plenty of space for someone to stretch out comfortably. Naturally, you should avoid swiveling and rocking chairs.
3. Even the heaviest of home theater furniture pieces can slide across the room over time, changing the configuration of the seating area that you have originally created. Unless you have plans to use your media room for purposes other than watching movies, consider properly installing the chairs. This may limit you to only certain choices of models and types of furniture, but if you are going for a recognizable "theater" look, it is essential.

See also:

• Home theater furniture pictures
• Media rooms pictures
• Media room lighting
• Media rooms - how to justify having one in your house
• Home theater - choosing the best room for your system

House Library Design

Mini fridge for the home theater

>Here are a few factors to consider when you are choosing an important home theater accessory - a fridge.

• Avoid shiny surfaces. A wood finish is preferable to steel, chrome or anything that can reflect light.
• It must be very quiet. Better yet, make sure you can easily turn the unit off with an accessible switch. As long as all you keep in it is drinks, this should be no problem.
• Consider installing the fridge in a specifically designed enclosed space. This will resolve the problem of shiny surfaces. Also, you can use extra sound-proofing materials - they can even double as a way of insulating the unit.
• If you have a lot of seating in your home theater, consider installing a couple of mini-fridges. This will cut down on excessive walking, talking and passing of the drinks during the show. Smaller units will also be a lot easier to fit into whatever design you are planning. A big fridge really only belongs in the kitchen!
• Consider if a cooler would serve your needs just as well. You will cut down on electricity, the noise and possible interference with the audio signal.

See also:
5 Home Media Room Must Have's

Replica phonograph for your steampunk themed TV room.

I am not really all that keen on themed home theaters. It is highly unlikely that anyone ever intends to watch only movies that go with a certain media room decor. At the very best, you will eventually become blind to all the niceties you spend lots of money on, so only visitors can truly appreciate your efforts. But maybe that's worth it to you?

Anyway, I am rather partial to steampunk design principles. However, my interpretation of steampunk is a bit demanding. I want to see brand new objects, designed according to the aesthetics of the age of steam. They must be well-made and fully functional. If you share these lofty ideas, here is an item that would be a great addition to a suitable media room. This phonograph is a replica of and old Gramophone, but apart from a turntable it features a CD player and AM/FM radio. The replica is produced by Technosonic.

If you don't need modern audio capabilities, this replica RCA (sold on Amazon) is perhaps even more stylish. It comes complete with the famous "His Master's Voice" logo. The design is from the early 1900s (1902-1916, to be more precise). Of course, it would be silly to use this little gem on a regular basis to play 78 rpm records. But it suffices to know that it would work, should you ever have to use it!

Hip and chic TVs - home theater meets fashion

This may be one of the most overlooked aspects of media room design: the actual TVs! It is usually taken for granted that the TV you are picking for your home media room is the right size, preferably 1080p, has a nice viewable angle and so on. Modern TVs are simply indistinguishable from each other: big black rectangles. Very rarely a little bit of silver or white is introduced. This, however, is only the impression you will get when visit the show rooms. Some manufacturers have limited edition TVs that can easily become true centerpieces of your design.

A very simple route to achieve an ultra modern and almost futuristic view is to make a very thin TV, and many companies have just such sets. Such is the Hitachi's 1.5 series:

JVC has a similar series named Procision. Slim TVs are also available from Sharp, LG and Panasonic.

Samsung has a line called Touch of Color. Here is the description:
While the crystal-like bezel frame catches light beautifully, it actually reduces reflection of light off the bezel. And since the rich red color is injection molded for a blown glass effect, instead of spray painted, there is less environmental impact. It's easy on your eyes as well as on the environment.



Sharp Aquos SE94 is said to have a "cornerstone design." This involves " textured finish with eye-catching corner accents and detachable bottom speakers to match modern home décors."

Swappable bezels (similar to software skins and cell phone panels that were popular not too long ago) are also used in Sony's XBR series.

In most cases, these hip TV sets are just as attractive in terms of tech features as their black rectangle counterparts. If you want to make your TV stand out, check out what's available! You may be surprised by the ever expanding options.

Home theater - choosing the best room

Granted, not everybody has the option of choosing between several rooms in order to designate a potential home theater. But even if you have a choice of only two spaces, these tips may be helpful. Also, you may see a great deal of problems with the room you have already set your heart on before even installing all the equipment, saving yourself a monumental audio-visual failure.

1. Do not pick a room that is too big. Generally speaking, the larger a room the more difficult it is to properly fill it with sound. By selecting a large room for the home theater you increase the chances of having to invite a professional or spend a long time figuring out the best placement for the speakers and additional elements that can improve the sound. Also, the size of the room will determine the size of the screen. Not a big problem if you were going with a projection system, but if your plan was to use a plasma TV the price tag may turn out not too accommodating.

2. Avoid perfectly square rooms. They tend to produce some strange sounds. A rectangle would be ideal, especially if you are going to place the screen on the narrow side. The wall behind the screen should not have any windows or doors.

3. It should be relatively easy to keep the room dark. You may have to install curtains on the windows.

4. It is great if the walls are muted. Dark gray or black walls are best. Avoid shiny surfaces, they can create a lot of glare. Be prepared to install drapes throughout the room to absorb ambient light.

5. The ceiling should not be too high. Sound can become trapped in the upper part of the room, it can also resonate and echo. Sometimes hanging drapes or partitions can create a smaller space in a large room.

6. You want to have a good rug in the media room. Hardwood floors, so desirable in the kitchen, would be a glaring nightmare in a home theater. The sound would also bounce from a tile or wood floor.

Media room lighting

1. Avoid natural ambient light in your home theater room. Lighting is very important in any theater, and there is no reason why you should allow something unpredictable and unmanagable as outside light to ever enter the room where you watch movies and sports. The simplest way to address this issue is to have no windows at all. This is a big reason why basements are such a good choice for creating media room. If this option is unavailable, install heavy curtains or blackout shades (they will also cut off the outside noise). Motorized drapes may be useful, because they would make it easier to convert the media room to serve other purposes during the day.
2. If possible, integrate the lighting into the entire home theater system. This means that your media room will benefit from having a designer work on the lighting early on. Ideally, you want to have control over the sources of light in the media room from the same remote that you use to manipulate your electronic equipment.
   
3. It is a very good idea to have several lighting presents. This way the lighting in the room can be changed quickly to accommodate the needs of the moment. Otherwise you will be going from switch to switch, changing the levels. Yes, the levels, which brings us to the next point.
4. You should always have a few lights at low levels when you are watching a movie. Just enough to see your snacks and so on. Soft recessed lighting will suffice, and there is no need to worry about any interferance with the TV or projector, because the contrast between the screen and the rest of the room will remain just fine.
5. Consider using floor level track lights, like the ones you see in a movie theater.
   
6. Avoid using shiny fabrics and materials in your home theater furniture. A shiny leather chair will reflect the light and create unwanted glare. Microfiber furniture is probably the best solution.

See also:
Media rooms pictures
Media room furniture

Home theater decor - a simple and flexible solution

This may not be an idea that would work for everybody, but depending on the general design of your home theater the results may be stunning. Here is a story first.

A few years ago my co-worker stopped by a local video store on the day after Halloween. They were about the get rid of what was the main item in their decorative approach for the spooky season: life-size cutouts of characters from some classic horror movies. There was a Frankenstein, Nosferatu and the green monster holding tight a frightened, though ultimately curious, damsel. Ok, I am not sure if they were really life size :) My friend was able to get all of these cutouts at no charge and they were used to decorate our rather informal office for quite a while.

So, here is the deal. No matter how formal or conceptual your home theater room is you can always quickly add some interest to it by adding an occasional movie star's cutout. Yes, I know, many people like to use posters in some areas of their media rooms (where they are out of sight when you are actually watching a movie). This design move largely follows what you would normally see in a video store or at a movie theater. A life-size cutout, however, does not have a permanent status in any design. It is clearly an ad-hoc item, but the curious thing about cutouts is that, despite being 2d they provide some depth and reality to any space.

Another great thing is that you can have an enture collection of movie-star cutouts. They can be stored very easily and you can mix and match them for whatever party or function you are intending to host in you home theater room. Use them as conversation starters or excellent photo opportunities for your guests. And, of course, when you have parties during sports events, it is possible to get cutouts of popular players!

As an example check out this Elvis Presley Life Size Cutout

See also:


Home media rooom pictures
Media room furniture
Home theater accessories - a master list

Home media room idea for the future

Here is one very cool idea that, I believe, will eventually find its implementation on the home media room market.

It is no secret that most people who install media rooms in their homes have some disposable income. Usually this indicates that premium products may find a comfortable niche here, even though at first the idea seems cost-prohibitive. Here is what I am talking about.

If you have visited a regular movie theater in the past two years you have noticed that many feature films are now shown in digital format. What's more interesting, however, there is a technology in place that allows movie theaters to play films that are beamed down from the satellite. The only logical step would be to open up this service to home subscribers. This way any well-to-do home media room owner/movie lover can pay to view some new theatrical releases at the same time they are actually shown in regular theaters! Obviously, there would be a very high ticket price, but it is impossible to beat the convenience.

See also:
Media room furniture