Look through some Apartment Therapy house tours and you'll start to notice a trend or two. One trend you can't ignore? Records and books are totally chic when displayed in open shelving. DVDs and video games are simply not as common, and yet many of us own them.
It's hard to come by a sophisticated look, but these days there are more options than ever when deciding whether to display vs. store your video games and movies.
Swapping your covers for something more chic can be a conversation starter. Cases from JamesBit combine classic Penguin book covers with video game titles. These cases are perfect for the vintage gaming nerd and can even be customized. They're $2 each on Etsy.
Thematic tchotchkes are a lot more interesting when combined with your movies. For example, in Amber Abramson's house tour, we find bears and flags flanked by movies, new and old.
Displaying your movies can add a lot of clutter to an otherwise open and clean space. The fix? By choosing a media stand that has a lot of built in storage, you can stack hundreds of games and movies inside. Mike captures this idea well in his apartment tour.
There are myriad shelving options in every price range and style online. This pocket shelving unit from Stringfurniture makes an appearance in a Swedish house tour that is the pinnacle of media minimalism.
Large televisions are just begging to be the center of attention in modern homes. Especially when fireplaces are involved. When flanked by great media storage, they truly stand out. In Daniel's loft, the media storage adds great weight to the room, while hiding all his favorite movies.
Embrace your collection. To be honest, my media collection is out of control, and when it gets to that point, sometimes it's best to just embrace it. That's what Jenny and Collin did in their Austin office. They filled an entire wall with shelving and packed it with games, movies and books. The result is impressive from a design and organizational perspective.
Consider "where" and "what" you display. Even if you buy a quality media unit, it's nice to change up the look from time to time. Kelly and Michael leave one door open on their piece; it's a nice touch that shows off their cleanly organized and dust free media.
Store your collection in decorative storage. There are more affordable and design-friendly storage boxes available now than ever before. I love the idea of organizing your movies and games by genre in boxes like these orange ones showcased over at Better Homes and Gardens (they're either the same or similar to The Container Store Stockholm line).
(Images: as credited above)
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Commercial Flour Sa...
A Real Dinner, Fast: 5 Favorite Types of Almost-No-Work Meals
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Our 500+ strong DVD collection is always sort of a pain, but many of them are rare or out-of-production films and I find so much value in their contents. In our old condo we took over a shallow linen closet, but after moving this August we're still trying to make something work aesthetically and functionally.
I love the JamesBit covers.
We still have an old school 32" TV in a cabinet, which is where my husband keeps any video games. Our DVDs are in the basement, because we usually stream from Netflix and there isn't a good spot for them in the living room (something I am actually happy about). The room in the basement where we keep them also has a pool table and we're working on turning it into a man cave-ish room, so I think I'll like the DVDs on display down there once it's finished.
I really love the game covers - tempted to change my whole collection for them!
Ohh brilliant idea on the covers! Now how do I convince the husband to let me do this?
I swapped out all my cases for a cd/dvd storage binder from Case Logic. Looks very inconspicuous on the shelf and holds over 200 dvds.
Nthing the video game cover love! For our movies, I put all the cases in storage and stuck the DVDs in a binder full of DVD holder pages. We didn't have that many DVDs, though, so they all fit into one binder and we don't need any sorting method.
I did find a stack of slim, colored jewel cases at a thrift store; that's how we store all our software/driver CDs. It's much neater than the piles of paper sleeves we had before.
Those first covers look like they should be Wes Anderson movies, which conjures hilarious images of what these games would look like if they were directed by him.
I recently got rid of all my CDs -- they're all on my computer and haven't been touched in years -- and I feel like the DVDs will follow some day, too. I love to declutter, so I look forward to that day.
Approx. 16 years ago, I sold my husband's hoarded stereo albums, not thinking about the great art on those covers (we were no longer listening to "33s.")
Now we have a huge collection of CD's (in addition to our digital music). Anyone who interrupts the alphabetical order in the huge entertainment center is a dead woman. (The order is somewhat "off," according to this former English academic; hubby is in IT and applies his own logic, not the MLA rules.)
The abyss widens: I am now afraid to move the books in the new bookshelves--DH has "given" me part of them and the rest of my books are boxed. I used to have my own study and small library.
I'm venting here--I know. TYVM for allowing me this opportunity. Not many consider these issues significant.
@ Rusk Dorsey.... wow, what a snob
@RuskDorsey-- forget that dude above me. Your comment cracked me up.
Such a great idea! I'm going to re-do my "Hubs" collection of Games. By the way love how you have Skyrim and Mass Effect!
I also really like the cover idea. It's super simple to make your own template in Photoshop, and just choose colours and fonts you like. Print them on regular paper and you have an instant colour-coordinated collection.
I keep TV on DVD in binders, and my movies are in storage boxes. I don't have so many DVDs that my collection would look great on display, and I don't really need my houseguests judging me based on my love of romantic comedy.
I am so in love with those game covers - I just moved mine to a (newly empty!) spot on my bookshelf, and while they're in a better spot, and behind everything, I'd still like to unify them a little bit. Wonder-wonderful idea!
I'm definitely in the "embrace it" camp...with 1500 dvds/blu rays and counting, we have no way of hiding them and instead keep them organized alphabetically on built-in shelving in our office. It always gets a big reaction when friends visit our home for the first time!
Or you can get a good computer and just go with Steam. I don't do consoles anymore. The only games I care about enough to display are my TES GOTY editions.
And have half of the people who play Skyrim played Oblivion? Or Morrowind? Why do I always get blank stares when I bring up any TES title that's *not* Skyrim?