DESIGN OPTIONS FOR CORNERS

Many people spend their entire design energy and budget decorating their main room, usually the living room or the family room. But despite all the effort of homeowners and even professional decorators, often the corners of these rooms goes unnoticed.

PLANTS

There are a few point to consider before you decide on any particular design feature for your living room corner.   Does the corner get light? If it is in the path of adequate sunlight, you may be able to put a natural and living plant. Any plant you decide on will need to be able to sustain itself with the amount of sunlight available.

A large plant could sit directly on the floor but a smaller one could be placed on a small table. While circular tables are always an option, a corner table that fits in the corner itself is a more fitting option.

CORNER TV STANDS

If your family room centers on the activity that most Americans enjoy in the evening after work or school, then the placement of the television is the central design decision.  In that instance, natural lighting may not be advantageous.  When considering placing your television in the corner of the main family room, one needs to consider the size and width of your television and also of the area available in the corner of the room.

Corner TV stands and corner TV cabinets comes in all different sizes.  Many offer sleek lines and minimal flat surfaces, while others offer ample storage and can be a large distinctive furniture piece in its own right.

Obviously the decision needs to be made at the outset whether one wants the particular corner in question to be the main eye-drawing center of attention in the living room or family rom.

OTHER OPTIONS

If the room is not destined to hold the television cabinet in the corner, then there are many other options:

• Lighting fixtures
• pedestal tables
• sculptures
• framed art on the walls

All of these options can be used to spruce up a corner, whether or not you intend to have it as the main focal point.  The most important factor in considering what to use as decoration in the corner is how you will be spending time in the room itself.

Often times, the corner of most main rooms are the most cozy and romantic.  Many designers are using this area’s feature to design a very cozy reading area. A large cushioned chair and equally cushioned matching ottoman and a bronze lamp or an overhead light could transform an otherwise boring corner into the most sought after relaxing reading space in the house.

Whatever your design decision, keep in mind that placement of a television in a corner television stand can free up the remaining walls for art pieces or any other design features that suits your tastes.  Corner TV stands leave whole walls available for large furniture pieces as well. If a cozy study type atmosphere is your goal, then large bookshelves are always a good option, make sure the room gets adequate light though, especially if this is the main family room, as one does not want to feel like  the family has moved en masse into the local library.

It used to be that if you wanted a television large enough to sit all your friends around to watch the latest TV show of the century, your only choice was a bulky rear projection monstrosity that was about 60 inches.  That was in the days when you would have invited friends over to watch the finale of the original DALLAS TV show, or to find out Who Shot J.R. or maybe for Superbowl XXV.

TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES

Today TV’s have taken off like all other technologies out there and the choices can be mind numbing.  There are a few questions you can ask yourself to make the options easier.

• What is the lighting of the room?
• How much space do you have?
• Will it be viewed from all angles or mostly straight on?
• How much do you feel comfortable spending?

There are LCD TV’s, LCD with LED backlights,  and Plasma TV’s.  By now, all of them are flat screen and most of them are High Definition.  The newest kid on the block are here as well, the 3D TV’s but they are currently priced high enough to make them inaccessible to the average television owner unless one wants to start at the low end.

3D HDTV

The least expensive 3D HDTV will run you in the neighborhood of $700 and that is absolute base model. For that same amount of cash, you wold not have to go base model for LCD TV.

Why LCD instead of Plasma or vice versa? Really except for price most folks opt for the plasma if all else is equal, the notable exception being if you are planning on watching your television in a very bright room. In bright rooms, LCD TV’s are the better option.

Also LCD TV’s can be viewed from angles better than plasma TV’s can.  Plasma TV’s because of how they are lit tend to be better suited to straight on viewing.  LCD TV’s come in nearly every size, as small as 19 inches and all the way up to 60 or 65 inches.  These TV’s were originally priced in the multiple thousands of dollars when they first hit the general marketplace and they were considered the lower priced alternative to the plasma TV’s then. In fact, most pundits predicted the demise of LCD TV’s when plasma became even remotely affordable.

 COST CONSIDERATIONS

Obviously they were wrong, LCD TV’s still outsell plasma TV’s to this day.  LCD TV’s can be purchased for as little as $300 now for a 32 inch model. Strange how 32 inches doesn’t seem that big anymore, but television sizes have exponentially increased in the past several years.

CORNER TV CABINETS

One outgrowth business of the availability of televisions of any shape and size is the popularity of different TV cabinets and stands to hold them. A whole new industry standard had to develop to hold televisions of 60 and 65 inches and still close or still be an aesthetically pleasing furniture piece. Cabinets for TV can now even be designed to fit into the corners of the main room, so the large size will allow for other focuses.

From cabinets that hide TV’s inside and seem like an innocuous chest of drawers until a button is pushed on a remote and a TV pops up to elaborately reinforced entertainment centers that take up an entire wall, there is no end to the options to hold televisions of any shape and size.

Finally, if your room is dark and you don’t mind the extra energy consumption, plasma TV’s offer an amazing viewing experience especially as the screens get larger and larger.