11 clever home technology storage ideas from the pages of House & Garden
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Technology is sprouting all over our houses like a particularly prolific weed. Screens big and small, along with their cooccurring crew of wires, plugs, speakers and monitors, have a tendency to spread their way across the house, somehow simultaneously going missing and always proving an eye-sore. If you have children and teenagers the sprawl can feel even more unavoidable. But some of our favourite homes are punctuated with the inevitable supply of tech, without ruining a beautiful scheme or room design.
Designer Gavin Houghton says that “If you like watching the box have it exactly where you watch it with pride. Too boring hiding them but I’d avoid the garage door size ones.” But still, you'll need a way to situate it (with pride), our preferred options being a smart, low-slung sideboard, or a well-designed bookshelf. Other designers like Beata Heuman like to avoid the eye-sore by building aesthetic sliding storage doors across the television. One solution is to use a free-standing antique piece of furniture as a TV stand, which can be easily wired up to hold all your black boxes and wires. Whilst Pernille Lind says “Don't put a TV in the bedroom. This is the space intended for calm and rest. Allow your mind to switch off by minimising distractions," others like to create cosy viewing stations in the bedrooms, so ottomans which hold TVs within could be a good option for this camp.
From TVs hidden behind curtains, to mid-century side-boards and upholstered ottomans, we've trawled the archives to find the niftiest examples of technology storage that are both organisationally helpful and aesthetically pleasing.
Tom Griffiths1/10Got an awkward corner in an unusually shaped room? A corner cupboard could be your answer. In Victoria Barker's chocolate-box cottage in the Cotswolds, she uses a corner cabinet found for £26 on eBay to house the TV. She re-painted it in ‘Setting Plaster’ & added the curtains in a Christopher Farr Cloth pattern called ‘Pollen’.
Tim Williams2/10By having a sideboard which stretches across an entire room you not only create plenty of storage, you also avoid creating a ‘floating island’ feel around your television, which often makes it feel like the central feature of a room. In the cosy snug of this 1950s ranch house, the long, low sideboard (with a perfectly excessive number of drawers) fits into the vernacular of the house in a wood which matches the panelling. The flatscreen TV sits neatly on top, with storage underneath.
Paul Massey3/10In this Arts & Crafts house by Brandon Schubert, the television is stored within a built-in bookshelf, painted in a striking cornflower blue. The television sits nicely within a vista of books, without apologising for its own existence.
Sarah Hogan4/10In her own Chelsea flat, designer Jane Taylor has mounted the television on an electronic lift bought an electronic lift bought from Future Automation (prices start at £1400). When not in use, the TV slides into the cabinet below, revealing an open shelving unit between the sitting room and dining room, and leaving the view between the rooms clear.
Kristin Perers5/10This Dulwich flat by designer Catherine Olley has a number of nifty tricks for designing a small space, the best of which is the TV box custom-made by Catherine herself using Ikea frames filled with Andrew Martin's Penny Post wallpaper in red.
Christopher Horwood6/10Though not technically ‘storage’, this large suzani, found on Vinterior, conceals a TV screen. Designed by Studio Squire for an elegant cottage in the South Downs, this is a clever way to ‘store away’ your technology, whilst also creating a moment of visual interest in a room.
Rachel Whiting7/10The artist owners of this London house called on interior designer Beata Heuman to create a family home full of fun, distinctive design and punchy colours. Here, Beata has cleverly concealed the television in a red-lacquer cabinet with glazed doors framing maps. The ottoman opposite the TV also has storage inside which can be used to put away consoles, remotes and other technological eye-sores, without feeling like an inconvenience to unpack.
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8/10This colourful Notting Hill house is not just style over substance. The designer Sarah Vanrenen ingeniously decided to hide the television behind rows of fake books to the righthand side of the fireplace. The green bookshelves, and theatrical pink, velvet club fender around the fireplace mean a row of fake books can slip into the background unnoticed.
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Alexander James9/10Baskets are an aesthetically pleasing way of hiding a myriad of sins, from remotes to bulkier consoles. They're spacious and handy to pull out, whilst also keeping everything neatly hidden away. In the sitting room of this Studio Peake project, storage baskets have been stacked on the shelves, providing visual relief from the busier, book-filled elements of the wall.
Owen Gale10/10There's nothing stopping you from making your 'technology hub' a visual resting point for the eye. Rather than apologising for your tech, you could take inspiration from Tobias Vernon's chic guesthouse in Bath and lean into it. Here, the bright blue modular sideboard by USM Haller is timeless and bold: the perfect storage place for his tech. The Noguchi lamp perched atop the stereo is a particularly cool touch.
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