Living room built-ins can provide storage, TV placement, and shelving in one floor-to-ceiling setup. They can address clutter while also shaping the room’s style.
A built-in can replace a wall with a custom appearance. These 25 ideas show different ways to use built-in cabinets in the living room.
Built-In Storage Designs for Living Rooms
Open shelves and closed cabinets can share the same wall. The shelves provide display storage, while the closed cabinets offer concealed storage. Together, this combined storage works well in high-use rooms and supports an organized appearance.
Wood is paired with the cabinet finish and helps frame the room’s furnishings. Choose coastal blue, warm greige, or white according to the household’s use.
Two Charcoal Wood Cabinets
A television is positioned above the fireplace. The fireplace has white trim and a crisp mantel, while a herringbone tile surround frames it. Floating shelves backed by deep teal grasscloth display brass and glass objects.
Half-Wall Built-In Room Divider
In this open-plan space, a built-in separates the areas without creating a full wall and also provides storage. It sits against a staircase with a wood railing and a stone fireplace. The unit has a lower cubby with a soft glow, a sofa positioned behind it, white millwork capped with a stained walnut top, a rear drawer, and a glass-front display cabinet.
Niche Display with Backlighting
Pale taupe cabinetry frames and flanks a centered TV. Two tall niches on either side have LED strips, softly glowing wood interiors, trailing greenery, a brass bowl, and amber glass. A low shaker cabinet base contains a soundbar and other media equipment.
Glass Display Cabinetry
Woven chairs are paired with the item near cabinetry. The wood table is paired with it there as well. This item suits a dining nook and a living room reading wall, and it displays something else.
Two Slim Built-In Towers
The towers use a white-on-white color scheme. A mantel sits on the marble-surrounded fireplace, with two slim built-in towers flanking it.
Their upper sections have open shelves holding framed photos and sculptural pieces, while closed cabinets in the lower sections provide concealed storage. Two brass picture lights above the towers illuminate them.
Greige Cabinetry Media Wall
At the base are shaker cupboards and shaker drawers. The matte greige cabinetry covers the full wall and frames a wall-mounted television.
Display bays on both sides step upward, with a trailing plant, framed photos, and a small diffuser used for display styling. Round brass knobs cover the cabinet fronts, and overhead lighting is used in the evening.
Shaker Base Cabinetry
The main feature is paired with the shelving and the overhead light. The shelves are bare, with books and baskets intended for them. Overhead hangs a rope chandelier shaped like an orb.
Dining Hutch in Soft Blue
Powder blue shaker cabinetry runs the length of the dining wall, with a dark wood floor below it for contrast. The hutch includes a white counter, a recessed niche, open stepped shelving in the middle, and a drawer below.
A framed print, small lamp, and stacked books are displayed on it. The hutch is intended for a dining room and provides storage and display.
Charcoal Desk Nook Built-In
Warm oak forms the desktop, with brass bar pulls on the charcoal desk built-in. Two open shelves flank it, and the board-and-batten back panel frames the desk nook.
A brass ring chandelier hangs above. This charcoal and brass combination is associated with dark living room style, while the built-in supports books and work in a home office.
Glossy Cabinet with an Arch
In one corner, seafoam high-gloss millwork surrounds an arched, mullioned glass door. Patterned wallpaper backs the shelving behind the display china, and brass knobs are fitted to the lower drawers.
The cabinet is paired with a burgundy velvet chair and a moody landscape. The design uses moody jewel tones and has old-world drama.
Cream Wardrobe TV Niche
A recessed television niche sits within the floor-to-ceiling cream cabinetry. The wardrobe wall provides household storage, including stacked drawer banks beneath the niche.
Brass bin pulls and turned brass knobs cover the cabinet fronts, while wall sconces flank the television screen. Gingham ottomans and a low rattan table sit beside the screen.
Cream Built-In Shelving
Vertical beadboard paneling backs the cream built-in shelving around the recessed television. The shelving contains books on its open shelves and lower cabinets with brass knobs.
Nautical rope rests on the shelving, alongside a navy bench and a patterned armchair. The arrangement has a relaxed coastal style associated with Cape Cod.
Greige Floating Cabinet
A slim wall-mounted arrangement suits narrow corners, with a white brick wall behind it. Grass fills a marble pot beside framed city art and a patterned vase.
Black Glass Display Cabinets
Brass hardware sits on a surface set against a bright white wall. Ceramics, cutting boards, and framed pieces are styled on another surface.
Full Height Library Wall
Art, a ginger jar, a woven box, and a black wire basket sit on the shelving behind the sofa. The shelves cover the full wall and have a white shiplap backing.
Three brass library sconces cap the shelving and light it. A lower cabinet is topped with a butcher block counter.
Compact White Shaker Bar Built-In
A marble box, a mirrored tray holding wine and glassware, and eucalyptus are styled with the compact white bar built-in. The built-in includes an open-cube shelf, Shaker cabinets, and drawers, with round brass knobs and brass bar pulls. Its small footprint requires only part of a wall.
Oak Niche with an Arch
The white plaster arch frames the warm vertical oak paneling. A floating white shelf sits above a low cream Shaker cabinet with a brass bar pull.
Dried driftwood, a stacked design book, and a sculptural vase rest on the shelf. A boucle chair is paired with the fireplace surround, which is made of plaster.
Sage Built-In Window Seat
The sage built-in wraps the window seat between the units. Linen Roman shades are at the seat, along with multiple muted green pillows and a black sconce with a slim profile. The seat lies between a wardrobe with tall panels and a fumed oak glass cabinet, while painted wood contrasts with natural wood.
Floor-to-Ceiling Green Bar
Green botanical wallpaper extends through the room. Aged brass pulls are fitted to the floor-to-ceiling forest green bar built-in, which functions as a bar station. A lamp with a leather shade and a tray of decanters are styled with it.
Greige Backlit Vaulted Built-In
Greenery, books, and framed photos fill the backlit shelf bays, which provide warm lighting by night. The shelves form part of a greige built-in beneath a vaulted ceiling with beams.
A recessed TV sits in the center, with shaker cabinets below for hidden storage. By day, bifold doors open to the garden and provide daylight.
Walnut-Toned Shelves with White Cabinetry
Walnut-toned backs add contrast to the crisp white cabinetry. In the open bays, recessed lighting illuminates the shelves alongside books and greenery. The lower shaker cabinetry conceals media gear, and two brass sconces sit on either side of the TV.
Soft Sage Built-In Window Bench
A globe and a stacking toy sit on the shelves, with a small dinosaur placed on the middle shelf. The muted duck-egg blue built-in cabinetry covers the entire wall, including a cushioned window seat, two shelf towers on its sides, and drawer storage below the seat.
A plantation shutter filters the window light into a soft, even light. The kid-friendly, light and airy area supports homework and quiet time.
Greige Backlit Media Wall
A woven basket rests on the warm greige cabinetry, alongside a turned wood lamp and blue and white ginger jars. The cabinetry runs along the room's length and includes open shelf bays.
Grasscloth shelf backs sit behind the TV on the media wall, and low shaker cabinets below the TV provide concealed storage. The shelf bays glow with soft amber LED strips after dark.
Coastal Blue Built-In with Brass Hardware
A shiplap back panel backs two symmetrical open shelves placed on either side of a framed crane print. Greenery, coral, and a white ginger jar fill out the shelf styling. The powder blue Shaker doors use long brass pulls, and the coastal blue palette coordinates with the gray and blue living room.
Navy Backlit Library Built-In
Across the room, slate-navy cabinetry stretches the length of the space and provides storage. Warm walnut shelving sits alongside it, illuminated by LED lighting. At the base, drawers and shaker-style cabinets support a live-edge-toned counter, while matte black hardware finishes the cabinetry.
