Bespoke Floating TV Units

The defining feature of a floating unit is the gap beneath it. Rather than standing on legs or sitting flush to the floor, the cabinet is fixed to the wall on concealed brackets, leaving a visible run of skirting and flooring underneath. That gap is a design decision in itself — too shallow and the unit looks stranded, too deep and it loses the sense of weight a piece of furniture needs.

Concealed fixings are what make the effect work. The unit is hung on a French cleat or engineered bracket system fixed into the wall structure, sized to the weight of the cabinet and whatever is stored inside it. We calculate this at design stage rather than treating fixing as an afterthought, since a floating unit carries all its load through a small number of wall fixings rather than the floor.

Wall construction has a direct bearing on what is possible. A masonry wall will generally take a heavier, deeper unit than a stud partition, where fixings need to land on noggins or a ply backing board installed ahead of time. We check this during survey and, where needed, arrange additional blocking before the unit is hung.

Visual weight is worth planning deliberately. A long, shallow unit reads as light and horizontal against the wall; a deeper unit with more storage will inevitably look heavier, however it is finished. We talk through the balance between storage capacity and how substantial the piece should feel in the room before settling on dimensions.

Drawers are entirely possible in a floating unit, though soft-close mechanisms and full-extension runners need to be specified with the wall fixing in mind, since an open, loaded drawer shifts the unit's centre of gravity. We size and position drawers to keep the cabinet balanced whether they are open or closed.

Cable routes are usually taken down through the back panel or one end of the unit rather than trailing across the visible gap beneath it. Where the television is wall-mounted above the unit, we plan a continuous route from socket to equipment so nothing is left hanging in the open space the unit is designed to create.

Floor clearance also makes cleaning and lighting easier. A shadow gap beneath the unit is often lit with a discreet LED strip, which reinforces the impression that the cabinet is hovering rather than resting, and gives the room a soft secondary light source in the evening.

The overall effect is deliberately different from a built-in or freestanding unit: lighter, more contemporary, and reliant on precise wall fixing rather than floor contact for its stability and appearance.

Part of our media walls collection