We have really been churning out the new TV lift cabinets over the last few weeks! Here are two more new additions: Huntington and Loft. Both cabinets are expertly crafted from solid maple wood and have a built-in electric fireplace with adjustable temperature and flame. Amish made here in the USA, the cabinets have plenty of storage between shelves on either side of the fireplace and a cubby on top for your electronics. Huntington is more traditional with a warm brown finish and ornate hardware:

Loft has a modern feel thanks to its rich espresso finish, glass paneled doors and sleek brushed nickel hardware.

Check out both cabinets today by clicking on the cabinet name above!

Continuing the new TV lift cabinet introductions from last week, here are Suite and Estancia! Both cabinets are Amish-made right here in the USA.

Modeled after our extremely popular Carousel TV lift cabinet, Suite is designed to run the entire width of a king sized bed making it more of a TV lift footboard than a TV lift cabinet. Suite has a cubby for your electronics and built in storage at each end of the unit. Currently available in a rich Coffee finish, Suite will soon come in 3 more finishes just like Carousel – Espresso, White and Black. Click here for all the details!

With intricate door moldings and ornate hardware, Estancia makes a beautiful addition to traditional décor. Finished in warm Rich Tobacco, Estancia can hold up to most 60” TVs. Think Estancia would look great in your living room? Click here!

We here at TVLiftCabinet.com are always trying to introduce fresh, new designs. With TV size and technology constantly evolving, we saw the need for cabinets that house larger TVs and ones that can accommodate the ever-popular sound bar speaker. As a result, we have unveiled a number of new cabinets on the site – have you noticed? Over the next few weeks, I’m going to present each cabinet on the blog to give you a quick rundown of the new additions. If you like what you see, click the link in the blog article for more information, images and the ‘Add to Cart’ button. Below are the first two cabinets, allow me to introduce: Ocean Avenue and Nantucket – Happy shopping!

If I had to describe Ocean Avenue in two words, they would be ‘modern’ and ‘chic’. The rich espresso finish really accentuates the zebra pattern in the wood. Your components are stored behind the smoked glass doors. Modern design aside, the cabinet can hold a large TV – up to 65”. Click here for the exact maximum dimensions and to get the full list of features of images.

On a more traditional note, meet Nantucket. Made in the USA by Amish craftsmen, this cabinet is one of my personal favorites. I love how it looks like there are a bunch of small drawers, when actually there is TONS of storage behind 2 doors and 3 center drawers. Not to mention there is space for a sound bar in the cubby. The distressed finish really tops it off. Click here for all the details!

Lately, I have been hearing a ton about Pinterest. What is Pinterest, you ask? I was asking the same question until recently. Pinterest is a self-described virtual pinboard. Users ‘pin’ pictures of things they love and share these pictures with other users. See a picture of cupcakes that look delicious? Click the picture and you’ll be taken to the recipe. Intrigued by the picture of a TV lift cabinet? Simply click the picture and you can find more information and even purchase it! You can find pretty much anything on Pinterest, not just recipes and furniture. It’s great for finding inspiration when decorating, ideas for fall fashion and hilarious internet memes. Are you a fan of DIY projects? Pinterest is FULL of DIY ideas. From home décor to party favors, you’re sure to find something you love. If you’re reading our blog, then you have to check out our Pinterest page. There you’ll find pictures of all our cabinets, including some fun projects that are currently in the works!

Since I moved into my home earlier this year, I have constantly been searching for inspiration when it comes to decorating. Each room is a blank canvas and the possibilities really are endless. It’s amazing how with a simple coat of paint on the walls, you can completely transform a room. Sometimes making your space an accurate depiction of who you are can be much harder than it seems. Case in point, in 6 months I have already painted then repainted my living room and dining room. Once all the painting was done, I moved on to furnishing. I thought my best strategy would be to tackle one room at a time. That strategy quickly went down the drain and it now has turned into a little bit in this room, a little bit in that. But finally, all is coming together. I’ve come up with a few pointers along the way for us newbies who are decorating for the first time or even for those of us who are just looking to revive our current décor.

1. Never buy out of necessity. What I mean by this is don’t just buy the first sofa you see because you need one and you need one now. Furniture usually a) is pricey and b) is the first impression you will give someone when they come into your home. Put thought and care into each piece you buy.

2. Pick one centerpiece and build the room around it. I wanted a rustic style living room so I bought a table to set the tone and purchased pieces to match. You can start with anything, it doesn’t have to be a table. Try a sofa, a TV lift cabinet or even window treatments.

3. I have always been told to decorate the room first and then paint. I did it backwards and was very happy with the results. I feel that painting is the quickest and easiest way to personalize a space. Especially if you can’t afford to furnish it all at once. A splash of color is a great starting point.

These are just three tips I came up with based on my own experience but like anything, they won’t apply to everyone. What are some other tips for decorating that I might have missed?

All I’ve been hearing about lately is how fall sports are really kicking into high gear over the next few weeks. College football is back tonight, NFL starts in a couple weeks, and NHL hockey will be close behind. Now that our main TV will be dominated by games every weekend until February, I’m starting to entertain the idea of a mancave (don’t tell my husband…). Mancaves seem to be everywhere these days. TV shows dedicated to them, men raving about them. My whole issue with a mancave was that it would look too out of place in my home. My entire decor has a certain flow and everything seems to fit. Well, where does a mancave fall into place? I don’t want a random room with sports memorabilia and movie posters hanging on the wall. People will think I have a reclusive teenage son that I never talk about. So I got to thinking, is there a way to make a mancave, dare I say, fashionable? All I want would be a few decorative elements that would appease me but would go unnoticed to the average man catching the game in the mancave. Maybe with a little decorative flair, one could overlook the NY Yankees banner that would be sure to adorn an entire wall.

Chic but manly enough for the mancave!

I figure if we were to go with this whole mancave idea, I could leave the ‘accessorizing’ up to my husband and I could pick out the big ticket items (see last week’s blog about my online shopping habit..). Maybe I’m biased but a TV lift cabinet is the perfect happy medium. TV lift cabinets have the wow factor and technology to be accepted into the mancave but also don’t look out of place in a finely decorated home. Plus when it’s not game time, you can lower your TV into the cabinet and not have it be the center of attention. Do you have a mancave in your home? What is the centerpiece of your mancave?

I’ve always been one who enjoys the convenience of online shopping over dragging myself to the mall and fighting off the crowds – especially when I am looking for something specific. Now that I have a home that is in desperate need of furniture and décor, my preference for online shopping concerned me a bit. With not being able to see the furniture before I buy or having the immediate assistance from a salesperson, I thought the time had finally come to put online shopping behind me. So, I put on my best furniture shopping shoes and hit the pavement.  I bought all new living room furniture and a new bedroom set.  Not to say that I do not love what I bought BUT shortly after my venture into the brick and mortar world of furniture shopping, I went back to my online shopping roots. I wanted to see what was out there.

Like all of us, I have my own personal taste and therefore I often have an image in my head of exactly what I am looking for. I started browsing and before long, I came across some pieces that were just ME.  I started ordering. And ordering. And ordering some more. Pretty soon, most of the furniture I had purchased for my home was ordered online. “Well, you never had the chance to see it first”, you might say. True, but I was willing to take the risk. In my experience, everything I bought looked exactly like it did online because I did my due diligence.

For the larger purchases like a TV lift cabinet, I carefully read reviews. Other buyers give the best insight into quality, function and how true to the online image the product actually is. Buyer reviews were usually the make it or break it final word for me. Some items I loved had reviews that the color was different in real life or the soft bedding that looked so comfy online was rough to the touch. Always read reviews and you can’t go wrong.

“But what about not having the assistance of a salesperson?” I actually preferred the online shopping environment when it came to getting assistance for my questions. Most online shopping sites now have some sort of live chat, which allows you to go to go the salesperson, not the other way around – no pressure furniture shopping, who knew? Whenever I needed to call in to speak with someone directly, I always spoke with a live person.

I found the best thing about online shopping to be that the options are almost endless. Whenever I went into a furniture store, I felt constrained to what they had available on the floor. Like I said, I love the furniture I bought from the brick and mortar stores, but the pieces were bought out of necessity and were the best of few options. It is great that when you are shopping for a TV lift cabinet or TV console for example, you can just look it up online and have tons of options available to you.

I am definitely a convert to shopping for furniture online. I wanted to share my experience to help people who might be hesitant to take the plunge. If you are a dedicated online shopper like me, I’d love to know what your pros and cons are of shopping on the web. Is there something you feel that online retailers could do to improve your experience? Let me know in the comments!

Our Banyan Creek TV lift cabinet is a classic beauty.  This tradition cabinet is finished in a warm, inviting African mahogany stain.  With round edged doors and decorative trim panels, the Banyan Creek is exquisite.

The Banyan Creek has a heavy duty rack and pinion lift mechanism built inside that silently lowers and raises the television.  There is plenty of storage behind the front three cabinet doors of the Banyan Creek.  The center cabinet door also comes with interchangeable wood, glass, and speaker cloth panels to make the cabinet custom to your needs.

Our Infrared Relay System is also preinstalled within cabinet to operate AV equipment behind closed doors.  No longer do you have to have direct line of sight to operate your cable box.  The IR System is designed to relay commands from your cable remote down to flashing emitters inside cabinet that then bounce the commands to cable box.  There is no programming required to set this system up.  It is already built in, ready for you to use.  Simply plug and play!

Do you have an Apple TV within your TV lift cabinet?   If so, you may be interested to learn that the Apple TV is now offering Hulu Plus as part of their available paid VOD streaming services.

It took Hulu Plus many years before finally making their services available on the Apple TV.  Why did it take so long to become available?  It stems down to two main reasons.

In order to offer Hulu Plus app onto the Apple TV, Apple insists new Hulu Plus subscribers register through Apple’s in-app purchasing and subscription renewal.  Apple therefore gets a percentage of the $7.99 monthly subscription fee and also gets ownership of new member’s billing information.  Having customer’s personal information is valuable intellectual property.  Hulu Plus was reluctant to lose their hold on customers’ information and see profit margins cut.  However, with rumors of the latest Apple smart TV underway, it became more important than ever to get Hulu Plus streamed on Apple devices.

The other reason why it took so long for Hulu Plus to be added as an app to the Apple TV is that Hulu needed the Apple TV able to support viable ads.   Most streaming apps offered on the Apple TV are ad-free until fairly recently.  Being ad-free would not work with Hulu Plus’ business model, where most of their revenue comes from selling ad space.  Hulu Plus wanted to wait until the Apple TV’s platform became mature enough to serve their viable ads. Fortunately, the Apple TV ad platform has matured enough to now support Hulu Plus.

While this partnership took a while to come together it looks to be a win-win situation for both companies.  Apple can now offer their customers stronger programming content thus increasing their Apple TV sales.  Hulu Plus now has the opportunity to reach more subscribers through Apple’s existing customer database.

Do you have speakers or a sound bar that you would like to fit within one of our TV lift cabinets?  If so, you may be wondering what cabinets would work best for your audio equipment. We have many large traditional and modern lift consoles that are designed with space specifically for speakers and sound bars.

LIFT CABINETS BEST SUITED FOR SOUND BARS

Our Banyan Creek XL, Remington, Concord, and Soho TV lift cabinets are best suited to store a long sound bar.  The Concord has a cubby space towards the top of cabinet geared for the sound bar, whereas the other three cabinets have a pull out drawer with interchangeable wood and speaker cloths. The drawer front panel can be changed to speaker cloth for maximum sound quality.

LIFT CABINETS BEST SUITED FOR SPEAKERS

If you have speakers, we have several more options available for you.  Most of our large cabinets are designed with at least one interchangeable wood panel drawer or cabinet door.  The wood panels can be removed and switched out with speaker cloth panel.  The list of cabinets that are designed with speaker cloth panels are Banyan Creek, Craftsman, Coastal Creation, Estates, Kensington, Nottingham, Restoration, Sycamore, and Willowcraft.