I returned the first Brimnes TV stand before I even opened the box. My living room is 9 feet wide at the TV wall, and I'd ordered the 47-inch version without measuring the actual floor space because, you know, walls are walls. Turned out the base of the stand is 41 inches deep with the legs, and my radiator sticks out 6 inches — so the stand would have blocked the heat and looked stupid. The second time I bought it, I measured everything: the TV width, the cabinet depth, the cable routing, even the gap between the sofa and the stand. That second Brimnes has been in my apartment for eight months, and it's fine. Not perfect, but fine. Here's what I wish someone told me before I wrestled the box up three flights of stairs.
Measure the room, not just the wall
You think you're buying a TV stand, but you're actually buying a piece of furniture that has to coexist with door frames, baseboard heaters, and your own walking path. The Brimnes 47-inch is 47¼ inches wide, 15¾ inches deep, and 18¾ inches high. That depth is a trap — I measured the wall width but not the depth to the sofa, and my coffee table is 18 inches from the TV wall. The stand would have made the walkway about 12 inches, which is technically walkable but feels like a slot canyon. I ended up moving the coffee table to the other side of the room, and now the living room is actually more open than before. My point: measure the depth, measure the width, and then add 4 inches of breathing room on each side. The stand will never sit perfectly flush against the wall because of the outlet bumps and cable clutter behind it (you'll see why in a second).
The weight limit is real, and I hit it
I have a 55-inch LG that weighs about 35 pounds with the stand, and the Brimnes spec says it holds up to 110 pounds on top. That seems like a lot, but I know a guy who put a 65-inch on it (that's around 50 pounds) and he said the center started to sag after a few months. The top is just particleboard with a honeycomb core, so it's not built like a hardwood slab. I ended up gluing a 12-inch-wide strip of ¼-inch plywood under the TV's feet to spread the load — that's what the hardware store guy suggested — and it's been solid since. If you're planning to use the top as a bookshelf too, remember every pound counts.
Assembly: one full Saturday, and a second set of hands
Getting the Brimnes out of the box is like playing Tetris with panels. There are about 30 pieces, and the instructions are the usual flat-pack hieroglyphics. I'm not handy, and it took me four hours with a break to make coffee and swear. The cam locks are fine, but the screw holes don't always line up unless you put the dowels in the right order. My boyfriend held the side panels while I tightened the cams, and honestly, without a second person, you'll want to at least have a stack of books to prop up panels. Also — pro tip — use a drill with a low clutch for the screws, but watch out: drive them in too far and you'll split the particleboard. I stripped two holes because I got impatient, but they're hidden behind the doors, so whatever.
The doors themselves are hinged on the outside, which means when they're open they stick out past the sides of the stand. That's fine if you have room, but in my tight space, I have to pull the stand away from the wall to fully open the right door if my floor lamp is in the way. So measure the swing arc too, not just the footprint.
Storage: plenty, but the shelves are shallow
The Brimnes has two cabinets with an adjustable shelf in each, and a small open cubby in the middle. The cabinets are about 14 inches deep inside, which fits game consoles, DVD cases, and board games, but not a deep home-theater receiver — those things are 18 inches deep and will stick out the back. The cable management hole in the back is about 2 inches wide, and it's easy to run cables through, but the hole is on the left side of each cabinet, so if your outlet is on the right, you'll have cables snaking across the back. I solved it with a power strip mounted inside the cabinet on the right, and I drilled my own hole (yes, I actually drilled into a brand-new IKEA stand, but the particleboard cuts cleanly with a hole saw).
What the Brimnes is good for (and what it isn't)
I'll say this: the Brimnes is cheap and it does a job. It looks like a solid piece from across the room, with the white finish and the dark-brown legs — but it's not solid wood, and it shows when you look close. If your TV is 55 inches or smaller and you have a straightforward wall, no weird radiators, it's a fine stand. What I learned is that I would NOT recommend a Brimnes for a corner setup, because the doors don't open at 180 degrees, and anything wider than a 55-inch TV makes the top look small. If I had to do it again, I'd probably spend a little more on a wider stand, like the Hardwood TV Stand: I Bought Three, and Only One Survived My Measure — that one has more solid wood and better weight distribution. But for my second apartment, the Brimnes at $99 was the right price.
The one change I'd make
If your walls are snug, buy the smaller 31-inch version, even if your TV is on the heavier side. You can put the TV on the wall if you're brave, but I'm renting, so I didn't. The smaller one would have left more walking space in my room and I could've used a single cabinet for the consoles and put the bins in the middle cubby. But I didn't. I'm stuck with the 47 and I've learned to live with it.
The next step you should take
The quickest way to avoid the mess I made is to grab a tape measure and a pencil right now. Write your wall width and your TV's width on a sticky note, add 10 inches to the TV width for elbow room, and if the Brimnes 47-inch is narrower than that, you're fine. Then measure the depth to your sofa and subtract the 15¾ inches — if you have less than 18 inches left, think about a shallower stand like the Tv Stand Console Table — Measure This Before You Click Buy which has slimmer depth options. Do that before you order, and you won't have to learn your lesson the way I did: by pushing a 50-pound cardboard box back into my car for the return trip.