Are media walls going out of fashion? An honest answer
Are media walls going out of fashion, or just the cheap ones? What makes one date, what lasts, and whether a media wall helps or hurts when you sell.
Somewhere between the planner and the deposit, most people pause on the same question: will this look dated in five years? It is a fair worry. A media wall is not a cushion. It is a structure across the main wall of the main room, and nobody wants to have paid for something that a buyer, or they themselves, will want to rip out.
Our answer, as people who build them, is that one kind of media wall has gone out of fashion, and another has not. The difference is worth understanding before you choose.
What has dated
The first wave of media walls had a recognisable look: a grey or white gloss painted face, a small fire in a box, a television cut tightly into a recess, colour-changing LED round the edges and lots of small niches, each holding an ornament. Many were built in a weekend from plasterboard, and by now many have cracked joints.
That is the look people mean when they call media walls tacky, and they are right to. It was built to look good in a photograph, under one light, on the day it was finished.
What lasts
The walls that still look right are calmer. They run full height or are clearly proportioned to the wall, rather than stopping at an arbitrary line. They use one finish, two at most, and the finish looks like a real material: marble, stone, micro-cement or wood. The light is warm and dimmable, the fire is wide and set low, and there are fewer niches, each one lit properly.
Those choices are not trends. Stone and marble have been on living room walls for as long as there have been living rooms. Warm light at night is how people have always wanted a room to feel. A media wall built on those principles is a piece of interior architecture, not a fashion item.
The technology dates faster than the wall
What really ages a media wall is the equipment in it. Televisions are replaced every few years, sound changes, and smart home controls move on. So the wall has to be designed to let them change: the TV on the flat face rather than boxed in, conduit for every cable, the drivers and devices reachable, and controls that update themselves rather than a row of switches nobody can label.
A smart panel set flush into the finish is a good example. It looks the same on the day it goes in and five years later, but the software behind it, the scenes it runs and the devices it talks to keep improving.
Will it help or hurt when you sell?
Honestly, nobody can put a reliable figure on what a media wall adds to a house price, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What we can say is how buyers react. A well-finished wall makes the living room look complete in the listing photos and on the viewing, which is the room most buyers judge a house by. A badly built one, with cracked joints and dated lighting, reads as a job they will have to pay to undo.
Three things help. A neutral finish that suits most furniture. The paperwork: the electrical certificate, the fire's manual and the wall's warranty, ours being 24 months. And a TV position that works for any screen, so the buyer's television fits as well as yours.
If you might move soon
If you are likely to sell within a couple of years, a feature wall gives most of the effect for a fraction of the cost: a panel surface behind the TV in a finish that suits the room, from £480 ex VAT. Save the full media wall for the house you plan to stay in.
If you do fit a media wall and then move, it is not lost. A factory-built wall is assembled from modules fixed to the wall, so it comes down without demolition rather than being broken up like a stud wall.
How to make one that will not date
Choose a finish that looks like a real material, and use one. Keep the lighting warm and on a dimmer. Set the fire low and wide, and the TV at eye level on a flat face. Fewer, larger niches beat many small ones. Run conduit for every cable and make every component reachable.
Do that and the wall will outlast several televisions. Our media walls start at £1,375 ex VAT, and every finish is the same price, so choosing the one that will age well costs nothing extra.
Common questions
- Are media walls going out of fashion?
- The early style is: grey gloss, blue LED and a small fire in a boxy plasterboard frame. A media wall with a calm natural-looking finish, warm dimmable light and good proportions is still what people are asking for.
- Do media walls add value to a house?
- There is no reliable figure for what one adds. A well-finished wall helps a room photograph and view as finished; a badly built one reads as a job for the buyer to rip out. Keep the paperwork: the electrical certificate, the fire manual and the warranty.
- Are media walls tacky?
- They can be, when the finish is a printed wrap, the light is colour-changing and every niche is full. Restraint is what separates a media wall that looks designed from one that looks like a showroom stand.
- What colour media wall will not date?
- Finishes that look like real materials: pale or warm marble, stone, micro-cement and wood. They have been used in interiors for decades and will be for decades more. High gloss and bright colours date fastest.
- Can a media wall be removed?
- Yes. A site-built wall is demolished like any stud wall. A factory-built wall is assembled from modules, so it can be taken down without demolition, leaving the fixing holes to fill.
See our media walls: five fixed-price packages, installed in hours
Written for customers in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Scotland and across the UK.