Me like!

This would be really neat if it there were a mechanism that made it possible for the TV to pull forward and then be raised to a correct viewing height.

Although it's stated that this is a comfortable viewing height..I really don't think it is. Unless her furniture is super low, or she likes to watch TV lying down, it's at an awkward level.

But yeah, it looks pretty.

This is obviously for people who barely watch tv.

Looks great, unfortunately, impractical.

Agree wholeheartedly with twoheadedboy. Even if it is at a comfortable viewing height, there can't be a coffee table or ottoman in front of it, so the viewer can't put his/her feet up while relaxing.

I am SO impressed with this, yes its a little low, but swing arm mounts are readily available and so a "out and up" option would be completely feasible. Also, the screen she made is gorgeous and would be worth a post on its own.

You can see the table in front of it is actually clear, and remember the first televisions were set low like this, I found them more comfortable then the habit everyone has now of hanging flat screens too high up on the wall.

I'd love to see more posts mixing the soft art of decorating with fearless electronic hacks like this. Stuff like this is why i subscribe to MAKE.

Can't we all learn to love and live with our electronics, since they are such a part of our lives? Not sure why it has to be hidden in the first place. There are ways to arrange furniture so that the TV is not the focal point in the room...and I believe there was an older post here that covered that.

Clever if flawed. I love the screen a lot, and the fireplace installation is amusing, especially if you got one of those video fires for party use, but it is not vaguely reasonable for regular viewing. Eye level. I'm short, but my eyes are higher than that!! ;^) We have our Tivo unit at about the height of the top of the tv screen in this room, and the remote has to be held unnaturally high since the coffee table in between blocks the signal.

This is a great idea, particularly for people who have non-working fireplaces, or fireplaces they just don't use. Our fireplace works, but it's so inefficient that we never use it.

Pretty!

Hey! Our TV is in our non working fireplace mantel and it is perfect for us. We live in a Brooklyn Brownstone and literally it is the only place it could go in out parlor... It is not too low when you are sitting on the sofa. Only problem in our one year old loves to turn it off and on ;-)

Oh the bedroom it will be too low to watch in bed... our flat screen is on the wall across from our bed in our bedroom. She may want to hide it over her mantle in her bedroom. We saw a setup on a housetour in Brooklyn that had a flat screen housed behind a one way mirror so when it was not in use it was a mirror :-)

I cant watch on a TV that low. Imagine playing Wii on that thing. it's a great idea but just doesnt look right with me.

I would have hung it on the wall above the fireplace but now other will say it's too high.

Wow... this person must hate both fireplaces _and_ TVs!

I love that fireplace screen backed by plexi mirrors ! I have hideous gas heaters stuck into my fireplaces and am dying to find some way to mask them...

I do like this so much more than mounting the TV as a "picture" above the fireplace - at least it may be more comfortable to watch TV looking down than up.

This looks lovely. We currently have our TV on a stand right in front of our mantle which is bricked off. I wish we could do this, but drilling into a hollow chimney doesn't seem like a wise choice to me.

wow! Good ideas

You don't have a TV? I'm impressed.

But then again, how else would a person have time to run this blog?

I absolutely love this idea. Also, after a quick look through her web site and the NYTimes article that ran featuring her studio renovation in NYC, I'd love to see a more in-depth house tour featuring her current space.

LOVE! And I don't think it's too low. I grew up with an old-fashioned TV that was built like a piece of furniture. That thing sat on the floor and was not too low at all.

TV is too low. It is better to have it higher than lower. If you are sitting back or leaning back on a recliner, your head is naturally tilted to look up.

There is also no room for DVD player or cable box.

Anyway, I don't like the idea of having to hide the tv. Where do the 5.1 speakers go?

I have a tv mounted in front of a non-working fireplace.

Yes, it is a little low, but only by a few inches. This can be changed. Much preferred to that ubiquitous (suburban) placement over the fireplace. My neck hurts thinking about that.

We have a crackling fire dvd. People love the irony.

The glass table in between the tv and sofa works.

I would think the TV is too low to watch without sitting on the floor. This would really only work in a bachelor pad where the guy may only be using the television for video games.

i like this.

but its a tiny teeny tad too low for my personal taste.

BUT if i were living in that house..i would be ok with it

i think its a great idea but i doubt she ever bothers to put that screen in front of it, except maybe when guests come over. my experience with hiding things, like cords and wires, is that its just a hassle when you have to access something so i end up just leaving it exposed.

Ah man, seems like a lot of work... For a questionable result.

I like it. And as much as I first doubted the level, you probably just have to in the room to see how it works. The screen is genius, and the only flaw I can see is where the screen might go when you've removed it to use the technology behind it.

Television snobbery rears its head again.

Decorators hate them because they spoil the artificial little stage sets they create. As designers, they'd benefit from rethinking their premises, whenever they find themselves "hiding" useful objects in this manner.

Putting a frequently-used television in an ersatz nineteenth century artifact is a dishonest, inelegant solution; it's an embarrasssing indication of a lack of faith in our own values.

And, thanks, Maxwell, for the status-signaler: "I don't even have a television, but IF I did...". Too busy in scholarly pursuits, no doubt.

If I wanted to hide our television in style, I'd go out to every thrift shop, yard sale, etc within a several mile radius until I found an appropriate cabinet or armoire that I could refinish to match our things and then use that with our television. But for now, with our lifestyle, our TV sits in it's place of honor with the couch facing it.

Now to bring on the insults I'm sure to get. But before you do, we love having movie nights at our place and the TV is black and it sits on a black TV stand so as we've gotten used to it, we just stop noticing it. But we are in love with our 32 inch flat screen LCD HD TV.

Huh. I think it's brilliant. I only have a TV to watch movies (which I love doing). But I hate that it's such a huge presence in the room when it's not on.

Interesting, I've thought of putting the TV in our non-working fireplace, but I just haven't been able to go through with it.
Ironicly up until this last century people gathered around the glowing roar of a hot fire, today people gather around the glowing roar of the hot TV. This makes the transformation complete.

We have a custom built 1954 ranch with a "fireplace" that was built to house electric logs. There are even two electrical outlets in there. I finally convinced my husband to put the TV in there. I love it, but our 10 month old does mess with it all the time.

What about the dvd player? Where does it go?

Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

It looks very pretty but I agree with those who said the placement is too low.

I'm more interested in the accent chair in front of the fireplace. Where did it come from?

shirley temple of doom: you protest too much. It just reveals your fear of being judged so you attack pre-emptively.

Who says that not having a TV is status snobbery? You do, apparently. No one else mentioned it. why are you so sensitive? Maybe some people can't afford the high flat-screen prices and monthly cable bill, making TV-less-ness an anti-status symbol. Or maybe they watch TV on their computers (lots of stuff is available online now). Or maybe they just don't value TV. Accusing others of not trusting "our own" values shows that you don't trust yours. is it too threatening to imagine someone doesn't value TV as much as you do?

retract your claws. it's embarrassing.

hm. i must say that i do not really understand why it would be desirable to "hide" the tv? i am not really fond of sticking electronics into anything else - if you like to watch tv, why not simply have a tv and integrate into your place as a tv? it is not something you need to be ashamed of.

(nor is not having a tv, actually :-D )

i am impressed with the quality of the work, though.

Totally agree with shirley-temple-of-doom.

beccane, if you missed it, the writer of the article says he doesn't have a tv.

There is a big bias against tvs in all the decorating shows and magazines. They are always hiding the "ugly" tv in an armoire or behind a painting, as if it needs to be hidden. They always place it so you'd have to turn your head sideways to watch it, or in some other non-ergonomic position.

My living room is for living. It's not a fancy parlour where we just read by a fire. I love watching tv and if I spend a lot of time doing it, any armoire with a tv is going to have its doors open all the time.

And I'm also against putting the tv in the basement. Why would I spend all my time there when I can be in a much nicer room upstairs.

Maike - I agree with you. It is so sad to see how ashamed people are to have certain appliances. I can't count the threads over how people hide their microwave (ones who also say they use it almost daily too). Anything you are going to use regularly shouldn't be hidden. No one should be ashamed to have a television (or microwave or toaster oven or whatever) - it's your life.

Webherring - It is sad to hide it. Ours is not hidden - it has it's place of honor on a nice TV stand we got when we got the nice flat panel TV. If I had a big enough place, yeah I'd probably have a TV room and a sitting room - but for now, I'd rather not have to hide in the guest room crowded onto the daybed just to watch television.

Beccane-- If I were fearful of being attacked for owning a TV, I'd be inclined to NOT post on this topic rather than question the habit of hiding them (assuming I'm logical, that is.)

Who says TV is a class issue, you ask? Only anyone who's honest, and has given the subject a moment's thought.

I'll share an observation: uneducated lower class people tend to have enormous TV sets, prominently displayed, and they watch 24/7.

Since those who suffer from class-anxiety actually CARE how others perceive them, they do silly things like hide TV sets behind faux-firescreens at the foot of their bed, so as not to be mistaken for some kinda TV worshiping prole.

Secure people are indifferent to what visitors may think-- they put their televisions in convenient places, and make no apologies for owning one.

The fireplace mantle is much more beautiful than the T.V., great idea.

shirley-temple -- I'm not so sure I agree with your observation since I know plenty of well educated middle class people who own their television. I do fully agree only insecure people worry enough to hide their televisions - if you like your TV, then tell people to go to hell if they whine about seeing it.

I'll hold my opinions on the issue of covering up technology in the in the home, but, whatever your viewpoint, making sure that those electronics are well-ventilated is key to ensuring fire safety as well as longevity of the appliances. In the first picture it appears that the cable box or dvd player was placed vertically -- really inconvenient if you have to actually use the thing, but looks necessary given the shallow space. However, in the bedroom pictures, I think the comments about the viewing angle are really important. With the bed right in front of the TV like that you'd have fairly poor viewing even if you were sitting straight up in bed. And even though LCDs these days have really wide viewing angles, you won't get the optimal picture when viewing from steeper angles.

Finally, it's a losing game. It might just be TVs now that people worry about, but there is absolutely no doubt that technology will continue to encroach inside our everyday living spaces. Covering things up is not a long term solution (especially if you actually use the technology!) -- we need to build furniture and spaces that can interact better with current technology and evolve for future needs. Just my opinion, but the future will require much tighter communication and integration between furniture makers and technology producers. If I buy a nice piece of furniture that I expect to hand to my (someday) children, I need to think about how its use might change as technology and our social interaction with technology change.

If someone finds a way to elegantly blend or hide a TV into the decor in a functional way- I think good for them. I don't think it necessarily means that someone is ashamed of TV viewing just because they don't want television displayed prominently.

I happen to LOVE watching TV but (and I suspect I'm not in the minority) I hate how clunky the physical object looks. I wouldn't adopt this solution because of time/money/and possible viewing issues, but I'm always on the lookout for good TV masking ideas!

And I do think there is something to Shirley-Temple-Of-Doom's first comment. I often sense people are bragging when they pronounce that they don't own a TV. Especially in cases like this, where Maxwell's statement about not owning one is irrelevant to the post.

Actually, if you are lying down on a low sofa, this is the perfect viewing height. Most people hang their TVs too high, I like this arrangement, I actually have a wood mantel in storage, my plan was to insert a rectangular fabric shade, floating inside the opening and use the mantel as a floor lamp of sorts. Thanks for the post, it has thinking. Room looks great! http://www.designbyphoto.com/Site%206/Home.html

We did the same thing in our house a few months ago. But we didn't go to the trouble of wall mounting it and it still looks and works very well. I will post a photo at some point, we love it and it is not too low for us. Plus it is totally hidden when not in use.

Also our intention is not to necessarily hide the technology...we just wanted to put art above the mantle instead of the tv. putting the tv inside the mantle allows room above for mirrors, artwork etc..why not have the best of it all.

designbyphoto -- Yes, laying down would be a good viewing angle - but honestly, are you always going to want to lie down/sit on the floor to watch your TV? What if you and your significant other want to watch - that would mean both of you sitting on the floor or someone on the floor while the other is laying on the couch.

I'd rather see a TV over the mantle than another mirror - mirrors in every room just tend to creep me out since I honestly don't care to see that much of myself and I have to think weirdly of anyone who does.

Agreed with Shirley-Temple-Of-Doom and StudioStarter and others - for me it was the "I don't EVEN HAVE a television" (emphasis added). If there weren't some TV snobbery at play there either would have been no statement regarding his TV ownership at all or simply "I don't have a television."

I always find television disdain curious, especially when it is coming from people who spend a lot of time online. The internet is full of content controlled by others just like television. Sure, you may have a bit more say about the what, where, and when of that delivery with the internet, but with choice of cable channels and DVRs, you can have that much control over your viewing as well. And yes, you can also contribute more to the internet, but I'd venture to say that most of us spend more time taking in what the internet has to offer than publishing. Even among those who publish online, you still spend time surfing for those links, reading others' sites, etc.

More on topic - that bedroom installation looks like it is going to be too low to be viewed from bed (and it seems like that is the point, since the tv is just beyond the foot of the bed).

As an Interior Designer I think this is brilliant. I just bought a flat screen for my home and I do have a fireplace, but I use it in winter. I have it hung on a wall.I will be making an enclosure for it too even though I do watch TV often.I don't mind moving a cover aside if it means hiding the TV's black rectangle on the wall.
To me it is not a status symbol as some like to think.

I agree that the viewing angle is too low. We have a television over our fireplace and find the viewing angle to be perfect.

**Having said that** I think an ideal solution would be to incorporate a raised mantle. It would be more involved, but it would also look more integrated.

Looking at the very top picture for this post, I can't help but think that just a 10"-12" hearth, built with attractive (in this case whitewashed perhaps) bricks or some other material, would boost the viewing area up to the perfect height. I could even see doing a faux white marble hearth, so you would still have a clean, smooth line.

It's just a design preference.
Some people like having open cabinets in the kitchen and others like being able to close the door on the cabinets.

When he wrote, "I don't even have a television", I took it to mean that it's just not a design issue he has had to face rather than any implied snobbery.

If you want to flaunt the tv, go ahead. If you want to hide it, that's your choice.

Why the level of hostility in some of these threads?

I set up my spaces for ME. It's never happened, but if a visitor came over and started critiquing my living/working/whatever spaces, I'd just shrug. Why should I care what anyone thinks? Does having the admiration of others based on so-called 'status' make me money? No it doesn't. So I couldn't give a rat's ass...

well, I'd like to hide my TV if it were in my living room. I don't know about class politics or whatever. That's just my preference. And I'm now thinking of moving it to the living room, so...

I don't have a fireplace. Any suggestions on how to hide the TV when it's too large for a cabinet? A drape perhaps?

It's a bit on the low side, but you could easily take the same idea with a taller mantlepiece and get it at a fine viewing height. No stranger than sticking a TV in an armoir.

First of all - I love watching TV - and watch quite frequently - I am hardly "ashamed" to have one in my living room. However - I think that TVs are ugly and detract from the asthetics of a room. If I am not watching it, I don't want to look at a huge black box that has no visual charm whatsoever. If you don't mind it - good for you - since they are a pain to hide. But there is no need to label those of us that find them ugly as hypocritical snobs. Maybe someday electronics design will be better integrated with interior design and give the consumer more choices - until then I don't want a big ugly TV in my face when not in use.

wow, i nerve has been struck!
here's my 2 cents: TV may have been considered a class issue in the past, but are home theatres and TV's in your fridge or kitchen more classy than the "enormous" TV's of the lower class? I think the intellectual old guard who eschew TV are on the wane. Today, it's not whether you own a TV or not or the size, but how much you watch, what you watch & when.

oh, and i like the idea, why not frame your TV with a beautiful mantle?

Pretty, but....

....both this installation and an over-the-fireplace placement are an opthamologist's nightmare. Very bad for the eyes.

jdk19930:

What position would the opthamologist recommend?

shirley-temple-of-doom:

I defend your pre-emptive attack on anti-TV snobbery. There is so much good TV on these days.

It would be nice to build a low fireplace mantle around a radiator, mount the tv above that and have that awesome screen in front of the radiator when not in use.

It's entirely too low but it it was above the mantle, it would be too high. Like I said... a low mantle so its all comfortable.

As much as I would love to reclaim the 52" of TV wallspace to prettify my living room, there's no way the male half of this household would allow it! He loves his big TV and his video games. We relax in the evenings by watching movies on it before bed, and it really is nice. The TV is the center of our living room and it's going to stay that way!

I don't care how much TV people watch, tv's are just ugly things, plain and simple. Why not hide it if it's not in use? We clean our desks, too. We make our beds. We put our dishes away. We use all those things daily, too, but we put them away. Why not put the TV away as well? Frankly, I'd much rather look at my dishes than my TV, but the dishes also go behind closed doors.

That said, I'm not a huge fan of this solution, but that's ok. It's an innovative approach and if it can give people good ideas for their own environments, then that's great.

For the record, ours is in the basement behind cabinet doors. Hidden from view except for when we watch it. For us, living room is for conversation. That doesn't mean it has to be that way for others (for those of your crying snobbery - and I'm sorry, but that's your own insecurity speaking). It's not like I look down on people who have their TVs front and centre; it's just not a choice I'd make.

Oh good-- the TV thread is back!

wc_canuck-- I ask this in all sincerity: how is it a hallmark of insecurity to point out that there's a definite snobbery against television-watching? I don't understand your logic, please expand on that point.

People who hide TVs often say that they do so because TVs are ugly. I suppose I'd agree that a television would stick out like a sore thumb in a slavishly-period room, full of antiques.

I guess I reject that aesthetic as false. Since I've bought into the basic modernist precepts* for most of my life, the notion of living in an environment that's strictly "for show" seems terribly stuffy.

(*Modern design should fulfill the practical
needs of modern life.
*Modern design should express the spirit of
our times.
*Modern design should express the purpose of
an object, never making it seem to be what
it is not.
*Modern design should be simple, its structure,
evident in its appearance, avoiding extrane-
ous enrichment.)

Here's my solution to the TV problem. Link to a Picasa album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/elliottbanfield/Pandora?authkey=Gv1sRgCNSJ242ag4fmnAE#

I would like to get feedback on this idea.

Elliott Banfield
http://www.elliottbanfield.com/

In response to shirley...doom:

I don't think there's a wrong reason for liking an object of art or decoration. People should be encouraged to follow their instincts. If those instincts lead to a Louis XIV room, so be it.

Decades ago, the modern movement swept everything else aside, and it was assumed that hip people were modern. Our politicians still think that way, with their appeal to "history" as requiring them to vote this or that way.

But I think that people who embrace that mode of thought have put themselves into a straitjacket. "Live and let live" should be our motto.

I'm tired of the high-tech hearth. let the TV be a TV.

"I don't think there's a wrong reason for liking an object of art or decoration."

Oh, I don't know... I could argue that it's 'wrong' to like certain things.

For instance, lots of people 'like' what they 'like' only because to them it speaks of luxury & class-- think of large ornate crystal chandeliers hung from eight-foot ceilings, or wood-grained laminate grandfather clocks, or flocked-velvet wallpaper in the kitchen, or plastic Tiffany-style lamp shades.

Only following their instincts, each and every person who decorates this way--

Shirley...doom: it's just a fact that the TV display isn't compatible with the taste of many people.

You blame the people for that incompatibility, on grounds that they should get with it, be hip and modern.

But I think that modernism itself is flawed. It's inhuman. That was the theme of Fahrenheit 451, which makes the case much better than I can.

Getting rid of the TV isn't an option, because it's a part of our culture; but there's no sin in hiding it.

regarding 'why hide the TV'

I love to watch TV, but I do cover the screen with a beautiful cloth when the TV is not in use.
The blank screen acts as an energy void, ask the more feng shui literate among us to explain.

also having 3 kids, it makes turning on the TV more of a ceremony, special time instead of the TV ALWAYS being on

I love TV, but I do think it's ugly. I have mine in a nice armoire with doors. I will admit, I rarely close the doors, but if I entertain I can easily hide it. Hiding things you don't find attractive does not make you a snob, and loving TV doesn't make you a low class dummy. There's some great stuff to watch! Lost is back people!! :D

love it!

Okay, a little late to this thread, but I just wanted to say I think the idea is absolutely fabulous and that we did something similar by incorporating the TV into a divider built to look like the original architectural detail in our 100-year-old home. The height for us is perfect for viewing, but then again, nine times out of 10 when I am watching TV I'm stretched out on the couch. I also find that TVs over mantles hurt my neck!

Can you tell me who makes the white and blue floral upholstery fabric for the chair next to the fireplace? Just what I am looking for... thanks!

Really, this whole idea (hiding your TV in your fireplace) strikes me as one of those "seems-neat-but-ahem-really?" concepts, best confined to the drawing board. My cursory scan of the dozens of prior comments disclosed a few pointers to the impracticality of it all... The low viewing angle (likely to create chiropractic bills), for one. The hassle of covering/uncovering the TV when one is a frequent TV-viewer, for another. There are more.

One issue for me (which others may have already stated) is that many current flat-screen TVs are so well-designed that they are aesthetic objects in the minimalist vein, worthy of being shown off and not concealed. Then too, the marriage of TV and fireplace seems surreal, like Breton's celebrated Furry Cup (Le Déjeuner en Fourrure)... or oxymoronic even, like a solar-powered lantern.

As one prior poster suggested, let a TV be a TV, and seen! Ultimately I agree with "iknowstyle" who posted last March: if you go for this idea, then you probably care for neither TVs nor fireplaces.

Oh, give it a rest. To each his or her own!

It's like the shoes issue. Some people want to take 'em off at the door (hide the TV), and some want to wear 'em in the house (show the TV). You're not going to agree with each other, and neither is right or wrong.

It's preference, people. Don't have a cow over it.

Sheesh.

being embarrased about tv ownership is so 20th century!

my first thought when i saw this was "pretty!" then i read the article and my second thought was "brilliant!". then i read the comments...yes it's ok to have a tv. yes it is ok to "hide" it. i think by hide most folks really mean integrate. tv's do tend to dominate a room (the big black box on the wall-yikes). i don't think this particular solution would work for everyone, but it obviously suits the needs and tastes of this homeowner and so, my final thought is "well done!"

I have my tv in a large low cabinet. It reminds me of one of the floor cabinet tvs my family had when I was little. I really like it. Now I feel like I have a family room when the door is open and a living room when it is closed. Yup, to each their own.

It's beautiful!

Forget hiding the tv.. i just want that mantel.

Love the look. My only concern is if the TV is getting enough air circulation as it can build up a fair amount of heat.

My TV is mounted over the fireplace (finally bit the bullet) and I made my own TV cover using a foam board, covered it with paintable wallpaper and painted a pretty picture on it, then framed it with styrofoam molding so the whole thing is very light. Next attached two self-locking hinges to the cover and attached velcro to the hinges, and put two velcro fastener on the top of the TV.

TV cover = watch less TV. When TV is in use, put the TV cover infront of the fireplace. This way only one big black box is exposed at the time, instead of two.

My issue with this isn't the height or the camouflage aspect of it either. Electronics need ventilation... clear & simple. My techie husband would FLIP if I ever suggested this- he insisted whatever held our TV/box/HTPC needed to be fully open on the front and back. Without the ventilation, electronics die faster, overheat often, have more problems, and our HTPC wouldn't be able to function...

For me it's about being able to properly maintain your stuff... If the owner doesn't watch tv much & is ok with the risks, fine. But I don't think it's wise to market this idea to masses who may or may not understand the potential consequences...

Was that magenta arrow really necessary? They didn't camouflage it SO well that I couldn't see it =P

Well, it's certainly better than putting the TV on top of the mantlepiece. At least this way it could work fairly well with some very low couch.

I'll bet the reason she hasn't put one in the bedroom is that it's completely unworkable. Look how close the end of the bed is - you couldn't actually see the TV unless you were flopped on your stomach at the end of the bed - which is a position most adults have outgrown finding comfortable for any longer than 3 minutes! Ah, to be teenagers again.

She'd probably be a bit better off just putting in a flame alternative in that one, really.

I think the idea certainly has merit. I'd say if you *really* want to go about doing this, bite the bullet and have a new, custom mantle made, so you can actually put the TV at an appropriate height.

Nice idea for someone who doesn't use their fireplace. Although is it too low? Above the mantel is just too high typically and it looks better w a mirror or artwork.

xo,
cristin

goodness! i can't keep up with you people and your pro vs. anti-tv antics. sheesh!

anywho, i'd love a how-to on the lovely mirrored screen. i also have an antique mantle with only a blank wall behind it...i'd love to diy something like this! :)

too low, but pretty.

Well. Never a dull moment here, that's for sure.

my tv is on an altar and i worship everyday

All it would take is some sort of hinge to make this idea phenomenal. A hinge or arm that pivots the TV forward and upward, and clicks into place. Otherwise, how could this height possibly be appropriate? Anything between the couch and the TV is blocking whatever you're watching. A bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, for example. That'll block the view of the movie you're watching.

...but if you don't have a fireplace and don't watch THAT much TV, there's a phenomenal idea here...

Buy a fake mantle/ Install some sort of arm with a pivot and you can hide the TV. Then again, that's a lot of work, especially when there are better ways to hide a TV.

Putting a TV in where a fireplace should go makes them both look unbearably silly. And it's not 'hidden' at all!

Oh wait, I see. The screen goes over the tv screen when not viewing. But somehow that doesn't make it much better.... It's like the TV is some sort of necessary evil, but it isn't. If you don't like the way they interrupt your decor, don't buy one! Or buy a small, silver or white screened one with a built in DVD. I just can't get behind falling all over oneself to hide a behemoth of a tv screen.

I don't think hiding a TV has to be about ugly or embarrassment.

Instead, I think TV is just the easiest thing to do, and a total time waste. If you don't SEE the TV, you are more likely to do something useful or creative. Then those times you really want to watch it, voila, there it is, behind the screen/curtain/etc. If I had the time, I'd do something to hide mine.

TV concealment would encumber too much space here, so I leave mine bare in a living-family room corner. What bothers me more is how book collections, which I usually find interesting and attractive, are occasionally concealed by designers as if they were tasteless eyesores.

More incomprehensible is when designers fill a client's shelves with random books just to add color. My friend, a used book store owner, regularly received orders for, say, five feet of red hard back books. How phony. What a space killer. Were their wealthy clients illiterate? I say, make your home work for you, and make it yours.

Don't like it. I'm also not impressed by anyone who doesn't have a TV. Flat screen TVs are pretty unobtrusive anyway. Do we try to hide our books?

I love the room. It's so pretty and really don't care to comment about the validity of hiding the TV.

looks great, would LOVE a house tour of this place!

recovering cablewhore here and owner of 2 TVs... I find TVs and computer monitors fugly, so even if we use them everyday, I don't want to see them all the time. This is a nice way to deal with the TV.

lazy_lurker, I totally agree. In our current house the TV is so convenient, and in such a cozy place, that my kids turn it on as a matter of course more often than I would like. There's really no way to cover it unless I fashion some kind of TV burqa out of fabric, but I think that would look stupid.

My aesthetic opposition to it is that it is just ugly to look at. It is black and shiny. There is nothing else black and shiny in my house. If some manufacturer could create TVs that look like Haitian oil-drum art or Scandinavian furniture, I would buy it.

I find it ironic that some of the anti-TV-hiding people say "it's functional, and part of modern life, so who cares what it looks like" but you know they switched to a flat screen just for looks when they came out and have probably ripped out a kitchen or two that had "ugly" appliances. If it's all about function, we would put up with a lot of things that offend our aesthetic sensibilities--and we don't. And isn't that why we are on this site in the first place, to get ideas for making our home environments look, feel, and live better?

I remember when 32" TV's came in large plastic boxes, and people with "big screens" had TV's the size of a large piano.

Anyone who can't find a decent spot for a flat screen is just a whiner IMO.

This is too low: watching TV would be *ok*, but I'd absolutely hate to be playing with my Wii or Kinect on this thing.

We don't try to hide our 42". Instead, we have a mac mini hooked up to it, and we have art backgrounds on it when people are over, and we don't just want a black hole of a rectangle on the wall. Looks good with Eboy backgrounds in our colorful living room. :D

I have a TV built into a low hutch that is similar to this, and it is perfectly comfortable to watch while sitting on the couch. (Or lying down, which is more common in our household.) In fact, to me, it's more comfortable than hiking my neck up to watch a TV over a mantle.

I do like that I can SEE the tv in the living room. It is not my style, but I like that it works in the space. It is low to the ground, but if the couch is a little ways away, I dont think it is that bad. (Over the mantle would have been a bad situation to me).

The bedroom does not work as well because of the bed being so close.

Everyone needs to relax a little about tv viewing. TV is part of our world and it's nothing to be ashamed of and kudos to someone who can incorporate this everyday object into their everyday lives.

Good design isn't just pretty. It needs to actually work as well. This fireplace TV idea is pretty but ultimately it's a gimmick.

The TV is waaaay too low, particularly if you are using an LCD or plasma HDTV. While viewing angles have improved, you still can't stare down at your TV without significantly diminishing the viewing quality. When sitting, the center of the TV should ideally be at eye level (around 48" - for example, a 40" lcd should stand on something about 30-34" high). Unless you want neck strain at the end of that "Top Chef" marathon, you don't want your TV much higher or lower than that.

And from what I can tell in the bedroom, she is going to need to be sitting straight up at attention if she wants to be able to see the TV at all. Look at how high and close the bed is relative to the television. Once she gets this installed she is going to find that the only one who is able to enjoy the bedroom TV are her pets who sleep on the floor.

For those who like the idea of a hidden TV but want it to be at the proper height, why not just put the television on a table in the corner behind a nice folding screen.

This would be great for watching the Yule log broadcast on Christmas.

Confused by all the hatred of those of us who don't own or like television... I don't think Maxwell's post is snobby, I think shirley-temple-of-doom's post is judgmental for claiming that just because you don't have a TV you think you're better than everyone and are a snob. I chose to get rid of my television for several reasons. I rarely watched it and it took up extra space in my small apartment, I found that I could just as easily watch shows/movies on my laptop (without commercial interruption no less). So switching to watching things on my computer was a perfect solution for me and allowed me to save space in a small apartment. And yes, JessieAnn, I spend time on the internet... um, so do you if your'e reading this blog, so not sure what the complaint is? I don't think TV is evil, I just prefer not to watch it... Is that OK?

Wow...lots of comments!! I have seen this concept before on here and during one of my "must re-arrange the living room" moments I threw out my boring entertainment center & put our tv in our non-working fireplace.

It is a bit low but not to the point where it is uncomfortable to watch. The only problem is nothing can be anywhere near it or it blocks the screen; had to re-arrange my couch because when I laid on it & tried to watch tv the corner cut off part of the screen.

TV fit perfectly & our guests think it's funny when they see it...I'll leave it for a while but don't think I want to keep it there long term.

Hahaha. Wow. Shirley...doom's comments made me laugh out loud. If I HAD A TV I would be all over hiding it so I find these ideas super clever. This is quite pretty though. I agree it's too low (esp. in the bedroom).

I'm currently interested in hiding my computer, not because I'm ashamed of it, but because it's a cluttered mess of components and cords and it gets sooo dusty! I haven't found the right thing yet, however, because I need something that will work for when I want to watch entire seasons of TV shows on the internet in one sitting. For FREE. Because I'm snobby like that. :)

"Anyone who can't find a decent spot for a flat screen is just a whiner IMO."

Wow, sealbeachy, just saw your comment after mine. You do realize that many visitors to this site live in small urban apartments, and not in large homes in affluent suburban communities? To call people whiners because they have to make compromises with their belongings in limited space is pretty insulting and rude.

Um, why was my comment removed? Because I don't like this concept now and I didn't like it when it was originally posted? :/

What a horrible idea. I can understand the desire to hide a TV as I don't like the prime focus of a room to be some piece of tech. But design should not interfere with function and this does. Put the TV behind a painting, in a closet, in a tall dresser, etc. but not in a low fireplace!

My TV is about shoulder height on a cabinet right now... and in no way is it too high to watch.

Our eyes actually move, you know. Anatomically, I can keep my head at a perfect, ergonomic angle, and move my eyes so that I can see my television set. The notion that having a TV above ground level creates neck problems has always puzzled me. Maybe if I were going to sit for 8 - 10 hours straight, unmoving, I would need to reconsider the angle of my TV.

But honestly, putting a TV at floor level means you can't go couch/coffee table/TV, which is the standard configuration in most homes, I think. I use my coffee table just as much as my TV, or even more. I don't wanna be moving it every time I decided to catch 15 minutes of "Oprah."

And yes, the bed TV is definitely useless the way it's installed.

Very pretty, though, and hypothetically I like the idea.

Sally 305: LOL on the "TV Burqa" idea. :)

We used to have our TV in a cabinet just left of our fireplace, and people commented on it being low, but I thought it was actually nice. Also I believe for the above application, there is a DVD That displays a burning fire, that you could have on!