Buying a TV stand to match your television is often overlooked in terms of importance. Not only does your TV stand have to look good, it has to be suited to the size and style of your new TV, be it 32”, 50” or even bigger, as well as the weight, is it a brand new state of the art, light weight, thin LCD TV, a slightly older, slightly heavier LCD TV or a good old CRT television.

Design and Material

Design is normally number one on a buyers list when they shop for a new TV stand. How it looks and what material its made of are of great importance to how the stand is going to suit the room its going to be occupying for the foreseeable future. The last thing we want is for the stand to be totally out of place, a modern black glass TV stand in an old country cottage, or the opposite, a traditional oak TV stand in a ultra modern apartment. Clearly this is what we're trying to avoid. As unlikely as it seems, the materials and the construction even have an effect on picture quality. There are many of different details which we will be having a closer look at later.

Dimensions

While considering the design of your new TV stand you have to take into account the space that the stand is going to be occupying. If your 1 bedroom apartment isn't particularly big do you really want a 60” TV with a matching stand taking up all of the space in your living room? Of course the dimensions of the stand have to match that of the TV. A stand too narrow for your TV and you risk having your lovely TV end up on the floor when the stand buckles under the weight. Choose a stand that's too big and you lose out on all important living space. Although having a stand too big for your TV will make it the focal point of your room, should you wish it.

You have to take depth into account here as well, not so much with new LCD TVs, but with older CRT televisions you don't want the deep TV hanging off the front or back of the stand and risk it falling off, its fairly unsightly too.

Features

Most if not all LCD TVs come with the ability to be mounted on a wall, this is a potential feature of many designs. To have the effect of being wall mount but without drilling holes in your wall and having wires running all over the place is ideal. It also leaves you plenty of space on the TV stand for your DVD/Bluray player, games console Etc. Some stands come with multiple adjustable shelves which may be a bonus for you, maybe the amplifier you have for your surround sound system is taller than the average DVD player or maybe its the centre speaker of the surround sound system itself that's tall, will they fit on your stand? If the shelves can be moved it certainly will!

Another potential useful feature could be casters or wheels on the bottom of the stand. Perhaps you're having friends over for a party and the TV needs to be out of the way, either moved across the room or moved out the room entirely. Casters as going to save you a lot of trouble, moving the TV and everything that goes along with it in one move!

For the serious Audio/Visual guru having a TV stuck in the corner of a room isn't ideal. This is normally reserved for your childrens bedroom and their TV DVD combo In the corner of the room all the sound is trapped and isn't able to breathe to its full potential. It also limits how you sit down to enjoy your television. You either sit you sofa in the middle of the room directly in front of the TV and at a funny angle to the rest of your living room furniture. Or you have your sofa flat against the wall leaving you and your family with sore necks at having to sit at an unusual angle to get a good view of your favourite program.

This paints the poor corner TV stand in a bad light, its not all doom and gloom. If you are limited to where you can have your television then there might be no option to have it situated in the corner of your room. Maybe you have a fireplace taking up that prime TV location, or it could be one of a dozen other reasons. Whatever the case having your TV in corner is a great way to keep things tidy. Maybe you aren't all that bothered about what I mentioned above and just want your TV out of the way and safely perched.

Just like any other TV stand, the corner stand comes in all types of finishes. Like glass, to go with that modern look that we see so often these days. Or you can opt for some more traditional, a wooden frame. Maybe some to match those mahogany sideboards that have been in your home for many years! No matter what you need you can be sure you will find the perfect match for your home.

Keep in mind though, when you're going to have your TV in the corner of the room you may well be limited to the dimensions of your television set. You don't want to have a huge TV sticking way out into the middle of your room and taking up much more space than it really should. Be realistic, if you don't have a big room for the TV and it needs to be in the corner refrain from going all out and buying that 60” mammoth that's caught your eye at the local electrical shop, it might just look ridiculous and end up being more of an annoyance than a pleasure to watch.