Media Console Styling

The living room is one of our favorite parts of our house. We gather there as a family to spend time together, whether it’s playing games or having a movie night. But recently our beloved IKEA media console has given out in it’s 6th year of use. At the time it was within our budget and served as a great piece for us but now we’re ready to move on.

I’ve chosen this Mid-Century Console from West Elm to serve as our new tv stand and have been brainstorming ideas for how to style it. We don’t functionally need extra storage around it so I get to have a little fun with the area. I’ve always been a huge fan of gallery walls, like in the photo above, but have always been too timid to arrange one. I’d love to fill it with photos from our travels.

I’ve never been known to do a ton of planning when it comes to decorating our home, so I’ve tried lately to make a more calculated approach. I like to think about the function and feel of a space before I tackle updating it. With Søren’s room, I tried to think about what he needs most out of the space, and the storage needs.

For our living room, we use the space to gather as a family, and to sometimes have movie nights and parties. It doesn’t require a lot of storage space aside from hiding our media equipment. The TV is usually my pain-point when it comes to decorating this room. We don’t spend a lot of time watching it during the week so I hate to make it the focal point of the room.

I’ve been thinking about media console styling and have included a few of my ideas below.

Option 1.
I love this idea because of the extra storage above, and the clean look. I don’t love the vertical grain of the wall units with the horizontal grain of the console.

Option 2.
I absolutely love the gallery wall around this and possibly integrating the TV as a part of the wall art arrangement.

Option 3.
The gallery ledge in this look adds a more clean feel to the media console area but I’m still not sold on it.

Option 4.
A clean and uncluttered look might still win me over.

Which is your favorite? How do you include your TV in the living room?