Media minds

Televisions have come a long way from the clunky bulky machines that dominated our living rooms many years ago.

Now you can get a sleek, elegant and reasonably priced model that adds a touch of style to your media room or lounge rather than dominating the space.

The other aspect to consider when designing your media or lounge room is the effect you wish to create. So, you’ve chosen a slimline style driven television with a frame and a stand that makes it more a featured work of art than a room dominating screen. What better way to illuminate the elegance of the television than to opt for a rich wall colour painted in Resene Welcome, like we have used in this room. This bold colour choice paves the way for an array of vibrant furniture and accessories. This room is grounded with flooring in the dark tones of Resene Colorwood Shade. Layering the dark flooring with a bright floral floor rug creates an atmosphere that exudes colourful charm. Using bold furniture and accessories makes this television part of the artful space, rather than being a standout object on its own.

While colour and pattern govern this room’s design, your choice of style for the room your television is situated in, may tend toward the sleek and minimalist. To create a cool space where your screen will recede into the background until switched on, choose a deep green based charcoal like Resene Midnight Moss for your walls and ceiling and stain the flooring with Resene Colorwood Pitch Black. This will give the room a very cosy cave-like feeling, the low reflective dark colours making the screen’s detail the focus when switched on. When the room is quiet, the dark colours offer a sanctuary of peace and calm. If a full cave-like room too much for you, paint the ceiling in a light neutral like Resene Half Sea Fog, this will open up the ceiling space while still keeping the cosy feel of a den.

Dark media rooms are not for everyone though and if your minimalist style prefers a lighter touch, look to Resene Half Tasman for soft sea tones to coat your walls. Paint side tables and accessories with a complementary colour like Resene Quarter Foundry. This will make your walls feel soft and welcoming and your accessories stand out within the room.

When choosing furniture for your media or lounge room, select pieces that work with your choice of television and colours to help them enhance the space. If you’ve opted for a dark room, warm the space up with rich velvet couches, colourful cushions and soft floor rugs for cosy feet. With a minimalist light neutral room, select deeper furniture colours to ground and balance the space, bringing some plants or flowers into the room will also add natural tones and softness to the space.

Finding a way to work with your technology rather than have it dominate your room is a simple task when you design with elegance in mind. Start with a sleek chic television set like the Samsung Frame TV that will create a welcome feature in your space, rather than overshadow it. Doubling as an art frame you can opt to have your favourite artworks shown within the frame, making the room an art display room as well as a designer media space.

Using these simple design notions when creating your media or lounge room will take the hard work out of fashioning a room where you can’t wait to hunker down and watch your favourite shows and movies in sophisticated style.

Colours and products mentioned in this article

Styling by Megan Harrison-Turner. Photography by Bryce Carleton. 2022