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Adding floating shelves around your TV is a great way to balance the role your TV plays in your overall décor. Floating shelves help draw your TV into the overall design of your room – thereby eliminating the “black box effect” flat screen TVs can create. Another big plus floating shelves have going for them is that they are a perfect maximum impact/minimum risk design option. Once you’ve decided how you want your shelves arranged, you have the freedom to add, remove and rearrange your shelf décor to your heart’s content.  As shown in the photos below, there are so many ways to arrange shelves around your TV, and there’s only one hard-and-fast rule to follow: you’ll want your shelves to run at least slightly longer than the horizontal length of your TV screen. Having a few extra inches of shelf on each side of your TV makes the design feel more anchored and purposeful, and less, well, like your TV is wearing a hat.

To Buy or DIY?

Floating shelves come in a variety of dimensions, so you shouldn’t run into any issues finding shelves that fit your space. Stores like IKEA, West Elm and even Target, stock a large variety of options – many at very reasonable price points, and if you are looking for a reason to break out your tools, this is also great DIY project. This step-by-step guide from America’s original DIY-er Bob Villa covers what you’ll need to know in order to build and install your own shelves.

Deciding Where to Place Your Shelves

As mentioned, the only permanent aspect of this project is deciding where you want to place your shelves, and really, it’s only semi-permanent. If you don’t like how your shelves are arranged, you can always move them, but you can avoid that hassle by using painter’s tape to map out where they’ll look best. That way you’ll know exactly where you want your shelves before installing them. To find your ideal shelf arrangement, it helps to ask yourself a few questions: Is your style more traditional or more eclectic? Traditional designs tend to focus on uniformity and balance. Arranging shelves symmetrically as shown in the image below will keep your shelves consistent with your overall traditional style.

If you favor a more eclectic style, the staggered look of the shelves will complement your more avant garde approach to decor. 

Another question to ask yourself is – are you a maximalist or a minimalist? If you have quite a few items you want to showcase and would find it tremendously difficult to eliminate even a few, you are a true maximalist. This means you’ll need enough shelf space to accommodate the accessories you’ll be curating. Placing two shelves above your TV and one below, is a convenient way to strike a balance between the shelves and your TV.

And if you’re on the other end of the spectrum preferring just a touch of accessories, a single shelf below your TV is the perfect way to add a subtle pop of visual interest.

Accessorizing Your Floating Shelves

Now let’s get to the fun part: decorating. If you’re anything like me, you have a collection of knick-knacks scattered around the house - souvenirs from sun-soaked vacations, treasured photos, family heirlooms and those pieces that just make you happy when you look at them. Maybe the best part about floating shelves is that they provide the opportunity to curate your knick-knacks into a cohesive collection. Instead of being randomly placed around the home, you bring them together to create a design that complements your style and tells a story. Go ahead and grab some of those favorite things: framed photos, small art prints, vases or ceramics, plants, candles, candlesticks, any and all objets de curiosité are welcome. Just be sure you have items of varying heights, materials and sizes. Now that you have your accessories, you’ll want to stack and layer to create visual interest. In order to create varying levels of height, you can simply stack items on top of each other. Books are great for lending additional height, and create a nice “finished” look when topped off with a small accent item like a miniature succulent or sparkly agate or geode.

To create depth, stagger pieces setting some slightly in front of others. Medium-sized pieces of art come in handy here (think 8x10 or 11x14). You can prop them up against the wall and then place a vase or bowl slightly in front – and voila – you have depth.

Continue to play rearranging, adding and removing items until you’re happy with you what you have. Tip: Have your phone handy so you can take photos as you go. This way you can compare the arrangement you had five minutes ago with what you have going now - with no need recreate previous work.

Tips for Installing Your Shelves

You’ll want to be sure your shelves are securely anchored to the wall. You can do this by installing your hardware directly into the wall studs, or if you need more placement flexibility, using wall anchors.  If you'll be installing your shelves into studs, go ahead and use a stud finder to locate your wall studs and mark the location of your studs with a pencil. Generally, studs are located either 16 or 24 inches apart.  Next, using your handy painter’s tape and a pencil, mark out where you want to place your shelves. Use a level to ensure your line is straight. If you're using wall anchors, use an electric drill to drill your pilot holes and insert your anchors. Next, proceed to attaching the internal shelf support bracket to the wall by using a screw driver to insert your screws into the wall anchors. This piece will ultimately be hidden once the floating shelf exterior slides over it. If you are attaching your shelf directly to the studs, you'll skip the wall anchor step and attach your internal shelf bracket directly to your wall studs using an electric drill and screws. Once you’ve attached your bracket to the wall, slide the shelf exterior over the inner support bracket, and stand back to take a moment to admire your handiwork.

Floating Shelves with a "Floating TV"

Not all living rooms were designed with the TV in mind, which is a challenge, because more often than not, the living room is a space that includes a TV. Large and small living rooms alike have obstacles when it comes to TV placement, and then there are the elements within rooms, like a fireplace or wall of windows, that require an additional layer of consideration. Finding a functional place for your television without having to compromise on your furniture arrangement or style can be challenging – but it is possible! Read on to see our top living room TV placement solutions. 

  Correct TV Height for Comfortable Viewing: 

We would be remiss if we didn’t start off with TV height because it is so critical in getting a functional TV setup. Afterall, watching TV should be a relaxing experience – not one that causes neck strain. To get the most comfortable experience when watching TV, you’ll want your TV to match your eye level when seated. On average, that’s around 42 inches from the center of the TV to the floor.

Not every room layout allows you to place your TV at the ideal viewing height. If you need to place your TV somewhere that is higher than eye level, like above a fireplace or over a taller piece of furniture, there are TV mounts that can improve your viewing angle by tilting the TV downward to meet the eye. More on that later in the post.

  Challenge 1. Where to Put a TV in an Open Concept Floor Plan:

If you have an open concept floor plan, you know that an expansive space, like a great room, can leave you feeling a little overwhelmed when it comes to TV placement. You may have a lot of options, but how do you know which location is best for a TV? A good place to start is to consider the sightlines within your great room and adjacent rooms and how you use your space - or how you would like to use your space. Because there are fewer walls dividing the overall space into individual rooms, the TV in your great room can be viewed in other rooms like the kitchen, dining room and maybe even outdoors on a porch or deck.

If the thought of catching up on your favorite show while you prep dinner, or keeping an eye on the game while you enjoy a beautiful summer evening on the patio is appealing to you, you should consider mounting your TV using a full-motion mount. A full-motion mount allows you to easily move your TV left and right, and tilt your TV downward. Point your TV towards the room you are using, and when you’re done, easily move it back to flush. One more thing to consider in an open concept floor plan is traffic patterns as they differ from the more “structured” room-to-room movements of a traditional floor plan. You’ll want to be sure the sightline between your TV and sofa isn’t in a high traffic area. Having family members traipsing in front of the television during your favorite show is best avoided if possible.

  Challenge 2. Where to Put a TV in a Traditional or Small Living Room: 

If you have a traditional living room, your space is a more defined area - separate from your dining area or kitchen. Chances are you won’t be viewing your TV from multiple areas within your room – but rather, from your main seating area. If you have ample wall space directly across from your sofa, then TV placement shouldn’t be much of an issue. As long as you aren’t dealing with glare from indoor or outdoor light sources, you can place your television on media furniture or use a fixed-position mount. 

If you have an older home, the features that add charm to your space, like built-in wooden buffets and bookcases, can cut into available wall space for a television. It’s a crazy thing to think about in our technology-driven world, but if your home was built before the 1950s, TV placement wasn’t even a consideration when your home was constructed. If you're dealing with "cut up" walls or generally limited wall space, a solution that works particularly well is mounting your TV in the corner.

When you corner mount a TV, you use a TV mount that is moveable – we call this full-motion. A full-motion mount allows you to extend your TV and angle it towards you when in use and then return it to it’s flush position when you’re done.

  Challenge 3. Where to Put a TV in a Living Room with a Fireplace:

Now we know this is a topic where people have strong opinions. There are two schools of thought: the pro-TV-over-fireplace camp and the anywhere-but-over-the-fireplace camp. Whatever side you are on, you may have more options than you think when it comes to placing a TV in a room with a fireplace. Above the fireplace: If you're a fan of the TV above the fireplace look, there are a few things to think about before mounting your TV – namely mantle height. 

With most mantles, the TV will be placed above eye level, but with the right mount, you can tilt your TV down to eye level to get a comfortable view of your TV.  If you have an especially high mantle, you may want to explore other options that may be able to provide a more optimal viewing experience. Next to the fireplace: If you aren’t wanting to mount your TV over your fireplace, mounting your TV next to your fireplace is a great solution. This way you aren’t creating competing focal points with your fireplace in one area and your TV in another.

In the corner: Don’t rule out the corner. If mounted on a wall that is parallel to your fireplace a corner mounted TV can be an ideal solution. Extend the TV when in use, and when your done push it back into place.

Challenge 4. Where to Put Your TV if You Have Lots of Windows:

A living room with lots of natural light is a beautiful thing, but a room with an abundance of windows can make TV placement difficult. Either you’re trying to find sufficient wall space to accomodate a TV, or you’re dealing with glare on your TV – or both.

If you need to place your TV on a narrow strip of wall between windows, you’re probably hard pressed to find a piece of media furniture that feels to scale with the size of your TV screen as well as the rest of the furniture in your living room. This is a scenario where mounting your TV is win-win. It eliminates the need to find that very specific piece of furniture and it helps address the glare that is inevitable when a TV is surrounded by windows.

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