Media wall mistakes: 10 regrets to avoid before you build
The media wall mistakes owners regret most: a TV too high, no ventilation, the wrong fire, sockets in the wrong place and joints that crack in a year.
Most media wall regrets are not about the finish or the colour. They are about decisions made in the first hour of planning, before anyone thought about where the router goes or what happens when the TV is replaced. By the time the boards are up, they are expensive to undo.
These are the ten we see most often, from walls we have been asked to replace and questions we are asked at the showroom. Every one of them is cheap to avoid at the drawing stage.
1. Hanging the TV too high
The fire goes low, the TV goes above it, and the screen ends up with its centre well above head height. You notice it within a week and your neck notices it within a month. Aim for the centre of the screen at seated eye level, around 100 to 110cm from the floor for most sofas.
If the fire forces the screen higher, a slimmer fire set lower, or a tilting bracket, saves the day. Our guide to TV mounting heights has the numbers for each screen size.
2. Building the wall round today's television
A recess cut to fit a 55-inch screen exactly looks superb until the 65-inch arrives. Televisions are replaced every few years and they only get bigger. Either mount the TV on the flat face of the wall, where any size will do, or size the recess for at least the next size up.
3. Forgetting that equipment gets hot
A console, a set-top box or an amplifier shut in a closed void will run hot, throttle, and fail early. If the kit lives in the wall, it needs a vented cupboard with air moving through it. If it does not need to be in the wall, keep it in a unit below where you can reach it.
The fire is the other heat source. A heater that blows warm air straight up will bake the television above it for years. Choose one that vents forward, respect the clearances in its instructions, or choose a decorative-only flame effect if you never intended to heat the room with it.
4. Choosing the fire last
The fire decides the opening, the depth of the wall, the electrical supply and the height of the TV. Pick it first. A fire that is too small for a wide wall looks like a letterbox; one that is too deep forces the whole wall forward into the room.
Listen to it before you buy, if you can: some heater fans hum loudly enough to notice during a quiet film. Our slimline LCD fire is £1,318.50 ex VAT and the premium heat output model £1,693.80 ex VAT, and both are sized for our walls.
5. Sockets in the wrong places
The plan has a socket behind the TV and nothing else. Then the soundbar needs one, the lamp on the shelf needs one, the phone needs charging and the Christmas lights need plugging in. Count every device that will ever sit on or near the wall and add two.
Put the TV socket in a recess behind the screen so the plugs do not push it off the wall, and run conduit for HDMI and data rather than bare cable. It is the cheapest insurance in the whole job.
6. A finish that cracks within a year
The most common complaint about a site-built media wall is cracking at the joints and along the corner beads, usually after the first winter. Timber frames and boards move as the heating comes on and off, and the fire adds its own cycle of warm and cool. Filler cannot move with them.
The LED strip you add to make the wall look expensive then rakes across every crack and seam. A factory-built frame faced with decorative panels has no filled joints to open up, which is a large part of why we build walls the way we do.
7. Too deep for the room
Every 10cm of depth across a four-metre wall is floor you will walk round for as long as you live there. In a small lounge, it is the difference between a sofa that fits and one that does not. Keep a media wall as shallow as the fire allows, and check the door swing and the radiator before you commit.
On narrow walls, a compact design does more with less: ours is made for walls between 0.9 and 2 metres wide, from £1,375 ex VAT.
8. Lighting that looks like a shop display
Cold white LED at full brightness turns a living room into a showroom, and a strip that faces outwards shows every dot. Use warm white, around 2700 to 3000K, put it on a dimmer, and hide the strip on the front edge of each niche, facing back.
Colour-changing light has its place in a games room. In a living room, it is the first thing that dates a wall.
9. Forgetting the sound and the controls
A soundbar recess cut before the soundbar was chosen is the classic version of this. Measure the actual model, leave room for its cables, and make sure the front of the recess is open so the sound is not muffled. If you want speakers in the wall, they have to be planned before it is built, not after.
The same goes for control. A smart panel set flush into the wall can run the lights, the fire, the curtains and the music from one place, but it needs a back box and a supply where you will actually reach for it, usually beside the sofa end of the wall.
10. No way back in
LED drivers fail, a cable gets damaged, a fire needs servicing. On a boarded and painted wall, getting to any of it means cutting the face open and redecorating. Before you sign off a design, ask where the drivers live and how you reach them.
Our walls are built so the relevant panels come off, and we show you which ones on installation day. Whoever builds yours, make that a question on the quote.
The short version
Choose the fire and the television size first, set the screen at eye level, count your sockets twice, keep the equipment ventilated, keep the wall shallow, and make sure you can get back inside it. Everything else is a matter of taste.
Common questions
- What is the most common media wall mistake?
- Mounting the television too high, usually above the fire. The centre of the screen should be close to your eye level when seated, around 100 to 110cm from the floor on a typical sofa.
- Why is my media wall cracking?
- Painted plasterboard and MDF media walls usually crack at the joints and corner beads, because timber and board move with the heating and the fire. A factory-built frame with a panel face has no filled joints to crack.
- Does a media wall need ventilation?
- Yes, wherever equipment sits inside it. A games console, a set-top box or an amplifier in a closed void will overheat. Give it a vented cupboard or keep it outside the wall, and follow the fire maker's clearances.
- Should the TV go in a recess on a media wall?
- Only if the recess is sized for the next television, not this one. A recess cut tight to today's screen means rebuilding the wall when you upgrade. A TV on the flat face of the wall avoids that.
- Will an electric fire damage a TV above it?
- A fire that blows warm air upwards can, over time. Choose a fire that vents forward, leave the gap the instructions ask for, or choose a decorative-only flame effect with no heater.
See our media walls: five fixed-price packages, installed in hours
Written for customers in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Scotland and across the UK.