Don’t sacrifice safety for style. Your home theater should be a unique expression of your interior design taste, but don’t let the trends dictate your style or make you forget about safety.

As the trends move towards thinner HDTVs, they also move toward thinner entertainment centers to hold them. Our TVs are also getting bigger, and that means they are getting heavier too. And despite the growing number of children who are tech-savvy, not enough is being done to keep them safe in our expanding, and increasingly precarious, home theaters.

In 2007, which was the last year that full statistics were available, there were nearly 17,000 children rushed to the emergency room because heavy or unstable furniture fell on them. And the study that released these numbers claims that since 1990, these types of injuries have increased by 41% – half of which were from falling TVs alone. Three quarters of those harmed by heavy or unstable furniture were children under six, who simply don’t have the knowledge that furniture should not be climbed on. (Read a report on this study here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30686493/

Our flat panel TVs are beautiful things – sleek, thin, stylish. But they are also extremely heavy (often weighing over 100 pounds) and have a narrow center of gravity, making them more prone to toppling over than older, chunkier TVs. A balance must be struck between safety and style – you don’t have to sacrifice your brand new HDTV to keep your home safe, but you do need to be aware that it can be a hazard.

One simple, effective and arguable even more stylish way to secure your LCD or plasma TV is to use a wall mount as opposed to that euro-styled entertainment center. The entertainment center might look pretty sleek, a glossy piano black to match your TV, but it is no doubt a thin, low-sitting unit that is expected to hold the weight of your thin, top-heavy TV, balanced precariously on an equally thin stand. With a wall mount, your TV will not only be out of reach of little, exploring hands, but it will also have a unique style that is unmatched by any entertainment center.

You can use a wall mount TV frame to infuse your home theater with supreme style. And as an added bonus, it is more stable and safe than an entertainment center, if professionally installed. HD Envy offers a variety of wall mount TV frame choices, from artistic wood frames to classy leather frames to fully customizable frames for the most unique look possible.

There is no reason why you should fear that your TV is not secure. By using a wall mount, and preferably one that conforms to the VESA guidelines, your HDTV will be securely attached to your wall – and will enjoy all the benefits of mobility with the tilting, rotating arm of most wall mounts. The HD Envy wall mount TV frame that you use to polish the look uses a bracket system that conforms with industry guidelines, so you are secure in your knowledge that your TV is safely mounted to the wall while you’re watching the latest Disney feature with your kids.

Lauren is a contributing author for the HD Envy blog. At HD Envy, you’ll find a wide selection of stylish, safe and affordable wall mount TV Frame options for your home theater. You can customize the color, size and details of the frame in order to perfectly match your home theater. And because each wall mount TV frame is crafted by engineers using industry guidelines and is based on styles found in contemporary setting all around the world, you will get a product that is long-lasting, unique and secure.