When AIF (or Adventures in Furniture) got in touch and asked me to preview their Living room furniture, I decided to take a look at their TV units and I make no apology for the sameness of items I've chosen from their site. AIF are a company that "specialise in contemporary designs that are crafted using solid materials and traditional techniques" which means their furniture is built to last, and I think that shows.

On their site there's a selection of TV units which I think are right and up to the job. You see, I have issues with the TV property shows that have TVs on a wall above a fireplace, I think the TVs are just too high.

My rule of thumb is that the TV should be at eye-level , or lower when you're sitting on the sofa. Often (but not always) having it above a mantelpiece means it's too high and therefore uncomfortable to watch. I also think it gives greater prominence than is necessary for a piece of electrical equipment which all too often we can plan our lives around.

For me, TV units should be at least twice the width of the TV itself and low-level. That means they aren't in your eye line as you watch the goggle box and therefore don't interfere with your viewing. Ideally, I'd have some open and closed space, because let's face it we could all do with the extra storage, and not all of it needs to be pretty!

So these are my picks from the Living Room section of their site:

TEAK LODGE TV CUPBOARDS FROM £1099Photo credit: AIF — TEAK LODGE TV CUPBOARDS FROM £1099
Photo credit: AIF

LOFT LOW SIDEBOARD / TV UNIT £826Photo credit: AIF — LOFT LOW SIDEBOARD / TV UNIT £826
Photo credit: AIF

LIGNA OAK TV UNITS FROM £979Photo credit: AIF — LIGNA OAK TV UNITS FROM £979
Photo credit: AIF

So what do we have?

Well you'll not be surprised to learn we have a low-level unit, that's just about double the size of our television which is hung on the wall - at eye level from the sofa. I've had to compromise on the style of our TV unit. It's wood and is open shelved, which was the requirement for MOH's hifi - and as that's a big thing for him - and the only place it could go - there really was no choice. The bigger compromise for me is having his record player on top of the unit; I've countered that though with three terracotta plant pots with a pine cone in!

On the whole, it works for us - it's not exactly what I'd choose, but it's close enough and well, life's about compromise right?

This is a collaborative post but all opinions are my own.