Have you ever wondered if a TV stand should be wider than your TV? We’ll be answering this surprisingly unknown question and providing a detailed solution to ensure you’re choosing the right width.
Let’s face it, television has become a staple in households across the United States, with most Americans watching an average of four hours a day. Many homes, especially living spaces are designed with the TV as the focal piece and will purposely create a layout that suits optimal viewing pleasure. The sofas need to face something, and more often than not it’s aimed at the TV.
With improved technological advances coming out all of the time, as the screen begins to become larger and wider, you need to ensure that your setup is correct for the type of TV you own. Not only from a design and layout perspective but a safety perspective, as well. So let’s find out whether you pass our TV width test.
Size of Your Screen
Starting with the end in mind, we recommend that you first find out the size of your TV. You can do this two ways. The first is to check the dimensions on the packaging or instruction manual that comes included with your TV. You’re looking for the diagonal measurement as most TVs use this measurement.
The second option is to do it the old-fashioned way and get out the measuring tape, measuring diagonally across the screen, measured in inches. This is a great backup solution if you’ve binned the instruction of the box the TV came in.
Now that we have the size, the million-dollar question: how wide does the stand need to be?
A good rule of thumb is to use the 10% rule for the inches of your TV and to ensure the stand is as wide as the screen plus an extra 10% leeway.
For example, if you have a TV that is 30 inches measured diagonally across, you would want a TV stand that is no smaller than 33 inches in width, which would leave 1.5 inches on either side of the stand if the TV was centered in the middle. Because we take 10% of 30 inches, which is 3 inches, and then add that to our original measurement of 30 inches and get 33 inches.
Here’s another example. If you have a TV that is 65 inches measured across diagonally, using the same formula as above you want your TV stand to be at least 72 inches in width, because 10% of 65 inches is 6.5 inches. Add these two figures together, and rounding up we get 72 inches.
Why You Should Follow this Rule?
As you can see, the larger the TV, the wider the stand is going to be. But also you’ll see that as the size of the TV increases, as does the leeway between a larger TV and smaller TV. The reason we want to give extra support the larger the TV is for three reasons.
The first reason is that larger TVs are more expensive. By fitting a stand that is not wide enough to support the TV, you risk it falling off and shattering which will cost you money, especially if the TV is not insured or has passed its warranty. In terms of size, generally speaking, the larger TV the more it is going to cost, and thus extra forethought should be considered, and picking a stand that is wide enough to support the TV makes financial sense.
The second reason is that the larger the TV, the heavier it is. Stylising a living room is great but comes second to looking after people in your family and protecting against accidents from happening, and reducing risk should be one of your major concerns. The last thing we want for you is to have a flattened cat. And having peace of mind is something that you can’t put a price on.
The third reason we recommend a slightly wider TV stand to TV is that it just looks better from a design perspective. Having a TV overhang the sides of a TV stand frankly looks silly, and nothing creams out of place than this type of setup. By having a TV stand slightly wider than the TV width, it looks more visually balanced and eyes won’t be drawn to the TV for all the wrong reasons.
The Best Types of TV Stand to choose
Now that we’ve established the correct TV stand width for each TV, here are a few tips on picking the best TV stand.
If you own a large TV, let’s say over 60 inches diagonally, you might want to consider going beyond the 10% minimum size and pick something slightly wider.
The reason for this is that larger TVs generally take up more room, which means you’ll have less space for other things to fit in your living space. By choosing a TV stand that can double as a storage space, i.e. a larger set of drawers or cabinets, you won’t have an issue storing items.
You’ll also have more room for decor. Let’s say you pick a 60 inch wide TV stand for your 50 inch TV. Now you have up to 5 inches on either side of your TV to place items, ornaments, or figurines. Not everyone likes this style, and some may find items that are directly next to a TV distracting, so if you don’t require the extra width, drop as low as you can.
The other thing to consider is how much floor space you have to play with. Not everyone has the room to fit extra inches for their TV stand and may be forced to use the maximum width using the 10% rule as a guide.
How About TV Stand Depth?
One last thing to consider is not just the width of the TV, but also the depth. There’s no point in only concerning yourself with hitting the right width if your TV is going to fall backward or forwards.
Admittedly this is unlikely to happen if you have the width covered, but you do want to make sure that you are sure how much depth your TV stand has, in case it’s square-shaped rather than rectangular, or more circular than oval-shaped, as this will mean your unit sticks out a lot more, reducing total floor space.
