I have never been a gamer, beyond my childhood Nintendo Wii. And today, I am grateful for that: most gaming furniture is ergonomic, yes, but not exactly visually attractive — best reserved for a hidden-away gaming room in my eyes. So when I saw that IKEA has launched a nine-piece collection in collaboration with XBOX, truthfully, I figured it would be something for... other people to enjoy. That was until I actually looked at it.
It was the collection's rolling TV stand that changed my mind. Rather than solving the problem you might expect from gaming furniture, it tackles an altogether different one: our tendency to let the TV dictate the entire living room. In fact, that was the starting point for the YXSTABY TV Stand, IKEA's in-house designer Lukas Bazle tells me. "Everything gets arranged around it and facing the TV. I think making it movable is the biggest evolution in home furnishing since the TV arrived in our living rooms in the sixties and seventies,” he adds.
A big claim, perhaps, but with conversation rooms making a comeback and analog living having its moment, I’m inclined to agree. At the heart of YXSTABY is a recognition that gaming furniture should no longer be confined to teen bedrooms or so-called 'man caves'. As gaming becomes a more commonplace part of everyday home life, the furniture that comes with it is increasingly finding its way into our living rooms, whether by choice or simply because there isn’t another room to spare. That means it needs to coexist with everything else a living room accommodates: conversation, reading, entertaining, lounging, and, yes, gaming. "A living room does more jobs than almost any other room; it has been important for us that the TV stand should work with all kinds of different setups," Lukas says. "It's about adapting to people's needs and behaviour, not dictating them."
IKEA has developed all sorts of forward-thinking products in its day, and it’s time to add the rolling YXSTABY TV Stand to the roster. Available in black or white powder-coated steel, it’s a conventional TV stand on which you can mount a screen up to 55 inches. At 113cm tall, 137cm wide, and 59.5cm deep at the base, the sturdy A-frame gives a sturdy footing, keeping the whole thing from tipping over under the screen’s weight.
Beneath the screen, a 44cm deep wooden shelf houses consoles, remotes, controllers, and anything else you want within reach, while clever features at the rear keep the inevitable tangle of cables out of sight. Then, of course, there are the wheels: classic lockable IKEA castors that transform this minimal TV stand into a screen that can move with you, rather than dictating where everything else in the room has to go.
So, is the YXSTABY TV Stand about to transform our living rooms? "I don't think it changes how people want to use their room; it gives them the freedom to finally do it without much effort," Lukas says. "The room stops having a fixed front, which I think is the real shift. In general, we see people wanting to furnish for social spaces, arranging a room around being together rather than around the screen."
There are plenty of other boxes ticked by putting a TV on wheels, too. The idea actually came to Lukas while gaming, when he realized his screen was too far away to make out the details. "For gaming, the TV needs to come closer," he explains — and a rolling TV stand makes that not just possible but a two-second job.
But the real appeal is arguably what happens when you’re not gaming (or watching TV at all). For small-space dwellers without a spare room to retreat to for a digital detox, a movable TV means the living room no longer has to be permanently arranged around a screen. "A couple sharing a limited space where they have different interests and hobbies would need different setups," Lukas agrees. "One of them rolls the TV out in front of the sofa to game, and then the other pushes it back against the wall to have room for yoga. There are a lot of everyday situations like that. And you can finally buy the sofa you actually like, because you can put it in whatever corner of the room you want. Before, the sofa usually had to go on the wall opposite wherever the TV fitted, which was most often the wall without a window."
As Lukas suggests, it’s time to say sayonara to the age-old TV wall — and the shift towards more flexible, social living rooms is already showing up elsewhere in furniture design, too. Here are six more stylish rolling TV stands to shop.
Pedestal’s Moon Rollin’ TV Stand had a viral moment earlier this year, and for good reason. It’s slim, sculptural, and available in a punchy palette including a very on-trend chrome. At 107cm tall and 78cm wide, it’s a little more compact than IKEA’s YXSTABY TV Stand and forgoes a lower shelf, but what it loses in storage it makes up for in visual impact. The powder-coated steel frame sweeps into curved A-frame legs, with four castors ready to wheel the screen wherever you fancy.
I’ve been spotting more of these deliberately unobtrusive TV frames recently, marrying minimalist silhouettes with an industrial edge. MUUBS’ Tenji TV Stand softens the look slightly by appearing to cradle the screen within its slender frame, but there’s more to it than good looks. Four wheels, two of them lockable, allow you to pull the TV forwards, push it back, or wheel it into another room entirely. And while the frame looks almost improbably light, the screen is securely held in place by adjustable straps at the rear.
For something with a little more storage, this rolling TV stand accommodates screens from 32 to 75 inches on a sturdy steel bracket, with two wooden shelves tucked between its curving chrome legs. There’s room for the usual console-and-remote paraphernalia, but the shelves are equally suited to books, vases, or whatever else you’d rather have on show. At 122cm tall, 80cm wide, and just 29cm deep, it has a particularly slender footprint, while four locking castors roll on a 360° plane, allowing the whole thing to swivel in practically any direction.
Denmark’s answer to IKEA, JYSK has already hopped on the rolling-TV trend with its EJDRUP TV Stand. Available in beige or chrome, it props your screen up almost like an easel, with four lockable castors tucked beneath the angled legs. It accommodates TVs between 32 and 65 inches, while a shelf directly beneath the screen provides a handy perch for remotes, consoles, and other living-room detritus.
A taller option at 140cm tall, this minimal TV stand holds your 40 to 75-inch screen on a sturdy steel bracket. A single tubular steel column supports the TV, ending at a simple circular base, giving it an unusually light visual footprint for such a substantial piece. Hidden beneath the base are four smooth-rolling castors. Four concealed castors sit beneath the 52cm-diameter base, so it can be moved around the room or wheeled through to another when the occasion calls.
Specializing in TV stands, FITUEYES has thought this one through. With the profile of an artist’s easel, this rolling model combines two shelves with built-in cable management and, particularly usefully, a rotating bracket that lets you adjust the angle of the screen once you’ve found its new home. It stands 134cm tall and 77cm wide at the base, accommodates TVs between 32 and 65 inches, and sits on smooth-rolling wheels that make repositioning it considerably less of a production.
Despite being designed with gamers in mind, IKEA’s XBOX TV stand would be surprisingly at home in an analog living room, where the TV isn’t the permanent center of attention. Tuck it into a corner most of the time, then wheel it out for movie night, a gaming session, or whenever you actually fancy watching something. The rest of the room gets to be a living room again.
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