i like it, i also like the speaker i eventually noticed tucked in.
Although i feel like the tv should be centered in the niche...

wonderful!! and the color-coordinated books was a great touch. Easier on the eye.

We did the exact same thing and never even considered the blasphemy aspect. The TV is on a bracket so it can be pulled out from the wall and angled toward the viewer(s). We're still working on cord management and getting shows off our old Tivo box (the silver box) so we can get rid of it.

http://flickr.com/photos/pookndamon/3027470665/

I've never been huge into the grouping books by color but it really works here. I also REALLY like the blue painted behind the TV. What color is that? I think I want to steal it for the interior of my open shelves.

I think putting the TV in the bookcase here makes a lot of sense. What is confusing is why it's mounted offcenter. I keep wanting to reach into the picture and nudge it right until it's perfectly centered in the opening.

I think the TV looks great there. The color-coding...I can't deal with it. I color-coded all my books during my first pregnancy after seeing chotda's photostream on flickr. It's been driving me crazy for 3 years. I can't find anything! Now that I'm in my second pregnancy, I'm waiting for the nesting instinct to kick in and the nausea to subside so I can re-arrange them by Dewey Decimal!

it's a great idea, though i'd like to see the TV more centered within its space.

Mine's in my bookcase:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norarocket/1368492687/in/set-72157601987619059/

And, it's a tube! With only rabbit ears! Take *that*, the future!!

I happen to love this option. It makes the television 'belong' to the room. The blue niche is a wonderful choice. Great job!

i i am absolutely on the "YES to arranging books by color" side, especially when you have that many books on such an important wall. The incorporation of the TV overall is well done, and the blue background helps to define the area even better.

how do you find anything if all your books are colourcoded? What if you forget what colour the spine is?!

I really like how it turned out

It's a good idea, but not centering the TV in the niche is making my brain hurt.

i don't think it looks terribly awful...but why is it not centered? that's really throwing me off.

Why isn't the TV centered in the niche?

It has the look of a custom built-in cabinetry and that's a great shade of blue. Nice job!

Love this! What a great idea.

I like it but would have centered the TV in the opening. I'm one of those symmetry people. Book organization looks nice.

Without commenting on the Books-By-Color arrangement, I really like the way this turned out - especially the contrasting color and the TV off-center in it's niche.

I kinda don't mind the DVD player in this location either

about a million times better than over the mantel

I love the idea, and the additional space surrounding the TV. HOWEVER- the lovely, color coded books and geometric nature of the case makes me REALLY want to center that TV and DVD player.

Please, please center! My OCD can't take it!

TV in shelves is not a problem for me, but as a librarian, color organizing books just suggests the books have no meaning to you -- if arranged by topic or author, depending on how you seek them, the books have a function. By color (unless you have an amazing memory) they are essentially lost, therefore just functionless objects. (Also, I happen to value dust jackets for their art and as protection for books I care about.) I'll never accept the books as decor "by the yard" kind of thinking. (Not as pedestals, either.)

lovely!

we do it not infrequently at my a/v installation job, i think it's a fine idea. but somebody needs to dress those wires that are peeking out in the bottom shelf.

It is what it is. I think it's honest looking. Can something look honest !? Now, to read or to watch. That is the question.

It's a good idea, but hide those cords, find a way to hide that cable box, and it also bothers me that it's hung off-center. And as much as I'm tired of seeing color coded libraries, since you're using the TV in the space as a focal point it helps draw attention away from the books. It would have been a chaotic eye puzzle if left the way they were before. Good job, just find a way to hide the mess.

Sorry if I sounded like a mynah bird with my comment, when I posted it appeared to have no comments. Weird.

However, hide those cords!!! :)

Thanks everyone. I forgot to mention that the TV is off center because the mount it's on needed to go into studs, and the studs are off center there - we couldn't figure out an easy way around that. Like I said, the DVD player will be moving, and yes! all of you who mentioned the cords are right - they need to be tacked up to the underside of the shelves so you can't see them.

Oh - the blue is Benjamin Moore's Summer Nights (#777) - it's really gorgeous in person.

elizabeth- depending on what kind of bracket you're using, and what the weight of the TV is, we've had success with mounting smaller televisions on one stud, and using molly bolts in two additional spots to brace the bracket. depending on where exactly the studs are placed, you might also be able to mount the bracket on the two studs and then move the television over on the bracket so that it's pushed as far to the right as you can do without showing the mount on the left side - often when it's a matter of just a few inches that's all you need...

To Sherry the librarian and everyone else who dislikes the organization of books by color...actually, books do have quite a bit of meaning to me, and the color-coded system of book organization works extremely well for me. For some strange reason, I always remember what color the cover of a book is if I have read it. If I haven't read it yet, it is more difficult for me to remember what the cover looks like, but I put unread books on a separate shelf so that is not a problem. As I sit here, the colors of dozens of books and their titles are flying through my mind. One of these days I should have someone quiz me so that I can give people hard data on the efficacy of this system for me.

It looks really nice! I love the color-grouped books on this wall, too.

I think color-grouped books look great, and depending on how large your collection is, I don't think it's too difficult to find something. If that was a problem though, I would probably come up with some sort of personal library system. Maybe just a file on my computer with the title, author, and spine color. But I'm weird.

get a piece of 1" plywood cut to the same size as the opening, mount that to the studs, and mount the TV to the plywood. centered.
i think the dvd player should go in a shelf of all white books, to blend in more :)

It looks great.

Except for the color coded books part. That's awful.

I like the idea of a tv hung on the wall. However, NOT in shelving units with books. I also think a tv should be behind closed doors when not in use. And, I HATE color coded books. Books on shelves provide enough interest without color blocking which I think is hideous. If you want to look at art, go to a gallery.

I have a deep dislike of the look of televisions, and this is one of the more tasteful set-ups I've seen. The books-by-color add a lovely distraction and somehow the TV doesn't seem like the center of attention (as it does, say, over a fireplace).

I have a 15" flat screen TV that I don't use because I don't have anywhere to put it that looks nice to me (and I'd rather go without). I really like this - it's something I'll consider doing. Like others above, I cannot understand why the TV isn't centered, however - it comes really close to ruining the aesthetic.

I love how you say this was a project for a 'client'...the 'client' is your mother or some such family member...I recognize the kitchen from a previous before and after (and the odd-man-out chair still bothers me)

amiencc - you're right, the client was my mother, and this is in a home of my family's, but if you think that means that I wasn't held to my usual professional standards you're kidding yourself. My mother is by FAR the hardest client I've ever worked with - she questions me/expects much more of me than any non-family member who's ever hired me. :)

I don't know... this might be awful, but I find it to be blasphemous. I find the TV/book combo to be distracting, and there's something I just really hate about having books and the TV so close together.

I hope you have some blue paint left, because you need to take that tv down and center it.

as somebody has already suggested, get a piece of 3/4 or 1" finish grade plywood cut the size of the opening.

you can hang your TV from anywhere on the plywood.

in fact, if you mount the plywood spaced out from the back wall with 2x2 material, you can cut holes and run your wires in behind. move the dvd player to the bookshelf below.

Please center it, because it looks like it could topple off any minute! I could never live with that. I like symmetry; I also like things that are deliberately off-center but not this time --it's simply disturbing. Great concept, though go the extra step and center that thing, at least on the box it's sitting on.

I tend to think a set of doors, while a bit out of place would still look better than a tv. And I know it's been said but would centering the tv and hiding the wires really have been so hard? I actually liked it better before. It was awkward but at least it looked unplanned.

Love the TV nook. Agree it needs to be centered but dave.darling already explained how (a good trick to use anywhere you have to have studs, but they are not convenient to the design you want. Attach the wood to the studs, and then attach the tv to the wood. Good for floating shelves, cabinets, etc)

But, I actually winced at the color organization of the books in the after photo. Makes my brain hurt, but I know (from other posts at AT) that others apparently enjoy this method of display.

I like it-- I have been toying with the idea of mounting a decoratve frame on a smaller flat screen tv and installing it literally on the front my Expedit bookcase. I love this look when it is "real art," so I want to try it out with the TV. I know people will be agast at the notion of television as art...but my room is small and I -gasp- need my television.

Gosh, I am surprised at how being left of centre really hurts some of you! The telly being off centre works - it's great - and the colour coded books add interest. Nice work!

I think it'd work better if the television were centered and best if the space fit the T.V. with less open area around it. Part of the balance issue which doesn't sit well with me is that all of the other nooks are crammed full with no space around them and there is the T.V. with asymmetrical free space around it.

The whole effect would work better, in my opinion, if the books shelves were weeded out a bit and there was more open area in the entire bookcase with other decorative objects. At the very least, I'd put the DVD player on a shelf by itself and take the books out from where they're crammed in with the speakers to make it feel like the space can breath a little.

I would have cut the drywall out, screwed some 2x4's between the studs, put the drywall back up, and paint. It wouldn't be a big deal at all, and as a designer, you should have thought of that right away. The off centered TV looks awful, and the color coded books are always a bad idea. Every time I see that, I cringe. The only thing worse than color coding books is to buy books just to fill a space as decor and never read them.

It might be okay, if it weren't so far to the left. I'd try to get that left margin to be the same as the top and bottom margin, so the dimensions relate to each other in some way. Also, I'd find a way to hide the cable box.

A lot of people commented that the TV is not centered but I like the fact that its not centered...Cannot really say why I like it this way but it seems to be comforting to my eye in its position..I always like things that fit into something...I am a big beleiver in built in's...

SherryBinNH is right on. Books as pedestals for vases creep me out in particular. They are not coasters!

I agree with tigerlilly, I like it off center.
But no on the color coding of books