Newcomer advice

Should you need to place your standmount speakers on a sideboard (rather than a dedicated stand) there are numerous isolation devices (especially from IsoAcoustics) which will provide the isolation to help the speakers retain their performance.  These devices come in a range of price points as well.  So if (in your instance) fashion trumps function, not all will be lost!  There are many reasons to favour standmounts;  at the same price point (floorstander vs standmount) you will get better drivers and enclosure for the standmount.  A lot of the speaker cost is tied up in the box.  

Perol posted:

Perhaps show wife the little Neat Iota Alpha's

The bookshelf Iota's are great too, just need to raise them a bit if placing on furnitures

I have to say "no way" will Iotas fill a room with music, at least not to my taste. I tried them at home with my Qute2.

Another vote for Neat Iotas. Colour options for decor matching and work well wall mounted.  I would also pair with a small (discrete) sub to help fill in the lower registers. There are a set of ‘stands’ designed for them for shelf or side board mounting but personally I find them a bit ugly.  I have a set, wall mounted, without sub on the end of a 72/HiCap/140 and they sound great, very musical.  The room they are in is, however, considerably smaller than yours so I can’t vouch for them working well in such a large space.

Be sure to take your wife to the demos along with a piece of music she likes, you may well find she'll change her mind. My wife did. Rich