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My First Big Girl Purchase: Home Entertainment Furniture

If you live in a really old house, like I do, it’s really difficult to hang anything on the walls without fear of the plaster crumbling.  So, when I bought my first “big girl” TV four years ago (from Gramophone, of course), a 46” flat-panel Samsung with gorgeous red-tinted glass bezel, I was fearful that if I hung it on the wall either the wall would fall down or the TV would crash to the floor.  This fear resulted in my first “big girl” piece of furniture: a BDI Avion 8927.  This piece of furniture is the definition of the term fabulous.  (You know how interior designers are known to overuse the word fabulous? Now I know why.)  From the solid wood, which happens to be the deep, rich espresso color to the built-in DVD (or Blu-ray) slots in the drawer.  A center channel speaker fits perfectly in the slot below the TV, and BDI — smart people that they are — knew to send a mesh insert to replace the glass so as to allow the sound to stream through.

Instead of using the table stand for the TV, I decided that I’d use the universal TV mount that came with the cabinet, so I get the full top of the cabinet for all my coffee table books, and pictures — just like if the TV were mounted on the wall.  The TV mount comes with wire management, so there are no messy wires and cables peaking out from behind the TV, and when I decided to add external speakers to the TV (find out about that purchase in my next post), the speaker wire hid nicely right alongside the TV cables.

Unlike the furniture from my college days, the shelves in the unit have not bowed under the pressure of the TiVo or Blu-ray player; the doors sit straight — as I did not have to build the unit myself with just an allen key and elbow grease; and since the wood isn’t actually particleboard made to look like real wood, the veneer isn’t peeling away.

Note: My puppy’s favorite part is the glass inserts for the doors, where she can bark at her reflection.  My favorite part is the hidden wheels that pop into use when it’s time to clean under the cabinet and then settle back into their grooves when I’m finished with the swiffer.

-Kate