What is a media wall? A plain-English answer
A media wall is a built-in wall around your TV and electric fire, with lit shelving and hidden cables. What is in one, what it costs and who it suits.
A media wall is a built-in wall around your television. In its normal form it holds the TV, an electric fire below it, lit display shelving either side, and every cable that used to hang down the plaster. It is the thing people used to ask a joiner for and call an entertainment unit, rebuilt as part of the room rather than furniture standing against it.
That is the short answer. The rest of this explains what is actually in one, and where the word gets used loosely.
What a media wall is made of
Structurally, a media wall is a frame fixed to your existing wall, faced with a sheet material, with openings cut for the television, the fire and the shelving. Built on site it is usually timber studs, plasterboard or MDF, filled and painted.
Ours are made differently: modules built in our Glasgow factory from decorative wall panels bonded to a rigid aluminium frame. The panel is the finish, so there is nothing to fill, prime or paint, and the frame carries the television, the fire and the lit shelves without flexing.
The practical consequence is time. An on-site build is most of a week with drying time between coats. A factory-built wall arrives finished and is installed in two to four hours.
What is usually in one
A recess or bracket position for the television, positioned to suit the seating rather than the middle of the wall. A linear electric fire below it, set flush into the module. Lit niches or shelves either side for books, ornaments and plants. Cable routes inside the modules for mains, HDMI, speaker cable and aerial.
What is not usually included is the television, the fire, the soundbar and the electrical first fix. Anyone quoting you a media wall should say which of those their number contains, because that is where two quotations stop being comparable.
Media wall, feature wall, smart wall
These three get used interchangeably online and they are not the same thing.
A feature wall is a surface. One, two or three decorative panels behind the television, cut for your bracket and trimmed. No depth, no shelving, no fire. It is supply-only and it is the cheapest way to change how a wall looks.
A media wall is a structure, as described above. It has depth, it holds things, and it hides cabling.
A smart wall is a media wall with technology in it: app and voice control of the lighting and scenes, speakers, climate, sometimes cameras. It looks identical from the sofa. Most people who arrive asking for a smart wall want a media wall, and we say so.
Does a media wall need a fire?
No. It is the usual layout, because an electric fire needs no flue, no chimney and no gas, so it can go on any wall in the room. But a media wall without a fire simply takes a large lit shelf where the fire would have been, and that is the right answer where the room already has a stove.
What does one cost?
Ours run from £1,375 plus VAT for the compact module, which suits a wall between 0.9 and 2 metres, to £3,430 plus VAT for two centre modules with 600mm side modules and shelves top and bottom. The fire, the television and installation are separate lines.
Every finish costs the same, which is not true of an on-site build, where marble or micro-cement is a specialist trade on top of the carpentry.
Who a media wall is not for
If the seating in your room faces a window rather than the television, you will look at the wall less than you think. If the room is tight, 150 to 250mm of depth across a whole wall is floor area you will feel. And if you move house often, a built-in wall is a fitting — though a modular one can be unbolted and taken with you, which an on-site build cannot.
Common questions
- What is a media wall?
- A media wall is a built-in wall panel system around your television and, usually, an electric fire, with lit display shelving and every cable hidden inside it. Ours are made from wall panels bonded to an aluminium frame, built in a factory and installed in hours.
- What is the difference between a media wall and a feature wall?
- A feature wall is a surface: one to three decorative panels behind the television, supply only. A media wall is a structure: modules with depth that hold the television, an electric fire, shelving and the cabling.
- Is a media wall worth it?
- It is if the wall is the focus of the room. It hides the cabling, gives the television and the fire a proper home, and adds lit storage. It is not worth it if the seating faces a window or the room is already short of floor space.
- Do media walls add value to a house?
- We make no claim about resale value, and nor should anyone else without evidence. What it reliably does is finish a room, and a factory-built wall can be unbolted and taken with you if you move.
Written for customers in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Scotland and across the UK.