Torino Large TV Unit: is 120cm the right width for you?

The Torino Large TV Unit is listed at 120 x 40 x 50cm, the middle width in a range that also lists 180 x 40 x 50cm, 92 x 40 x 50cm and an 80 x 40 x 65cm corner unit. In a good many sitting rooms 120cm is the width that fits without taking over, and this post is about checking that it does in yours.

Who the middle width suits

120cm earns its place where 92cm looks mean and 180cm looks like a sideboard. The standard sitting room wall with a sofa facing it. An alcove at the side of a chimney breast in a bay-windowed room. A dining kitchen where the screen shares a wall with something else. It also sits under a wall-mounted screen without the top running out well past the edges of the picture, which is the proportion that tends to look right.

Measuring an alcove or a chimney breast

Alcoves are seldom square and seldom the same width top and bottom. Measure at skirting height, at the height the top will sit, and at the back of the recess as well as the front, then work to the smallest figure you get. Take 2cm off each end, because you will want to reach past the unit to a plug, and a tight fit becomes a scraped wall the first time the unit moves. If the skirting runs through the alcove and the back of the unit is flat, the skirting is what sets how far forward it stands.

Screen width against a 120cm top

A 16:9 screen measures about 0.87 of its diagonal across, so a 50in panel is roughly 111cm and a 55in roughly 122cm. On a 120cm top a 50in sits comfortably, a 55in is about level with the ends, and anything larger overhangs. Overhang only matters when the screen stands on the unit rather than on the wall: in that case measure the spread of the feet and make sure both land well inside the top. A central pedestal base is easier to accommodate than two feet set wide apart.

The questions the listing leaves open

This listing is a size list. It does not state the material, the finish or the colour, it does not say whether the space under the top is open, shelved or fitted with doors, and it gives no weight limit for the top. The three figures are not labelled either, so confirm which is the width and which the height when you order rather than trusting the order they are printed in. Those are all fair questions to put to the shop, and the answers belong on your order rather than in your memory. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond.

The sizes either side

If 120cm is wrong by one step, the Torino Small TV Unit is the 92cm version and the Torino X-Large TV Unit the 180cm. For a corner, the Torino Corner TV Unit is the one listed at 80 x 40 x 65cm. Photographs and the size list are on the Torino Large TV Unit page, with the rest of the TV units and the wider living room range alongside.