apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Depends on the size of your television, but hang it at the height you'll be watching, i.e. mark where you want to hang it and sit down to check whether it's a comfortable height before mounting it.

Eye level when you're seated, or slightly lower.

I would have put the TV to the side of the fireplace, in one of the nooks, you might have to rearrange the furniture, but it would be more comfortable and less obtrusive. Also I think that the TV above the fireplace only works if it is about 6 inches or so above eye level when sitting. Otherwise it is a strain.

definitely eye lever whilst seated. I can't STAND the TVs mounted above a fire place or just up high on a wall. Not only looks bad but makes for poor TV watching enjoyment! =)

i hate tvs above mantles. i realize design wise WHY they are there. but they are uncomfortable to watch and they look like you are displaying them. ugh, tvs aren't art no matter how thin and new it is.

I'd be curious if anyone can honestly give an answer other than eye level from seated (or, as @bepsf mentions, slightly lower). I may do a few impractical things for aesthetic reasons, but craning my neck to watch tv is not one of them. And to be honest, even if I rarely watched, I don't understand how a television looming above the fireplace could be considered a good look.

Maybe it should be hung somewhere uncomfortable, so I don't watch too much. :-P

I believe the TV should comfortably meet your eyes from the location where you will be watching it. So if you are in a chair sitting, it should meet the line that you would draw directly from your eyes. If you're laying down or putting you head back, then you can draw a line from your eyes to a higher point (but not too high).

It looks like the lazy boy looking chair might have a "put your head back" and watch tv option (in terms of the position of the body and eye level). Now the other two chairs are just kind of...screwed. So who ever you are house-sitting for either lives alone, or does not care about other potential tv watchers and placed the tv in relation to the one tv watcher. How is my detective work? Are they a bit...well...selfish? :)

if you absolutely have no other place to put the tv you could try putting it on a tilt arm mount and that might make it a little better

oh actually, now I see a little piece of arm rest on the other side...so it is not a lazy boy type chair. Looks like an L-shaped couch. hmmmm

I read once on a design website somewhere that the bottom of the TV should be not more than 40 inches from the floor.
At that height, it eleminates the possiblity of hanging the TV above a fireplace.

At eye level... that seems the most comfortable and of course the size of the television dictates how far away you have to sit. I don't understand how people can have it higher than the top of your head when sitting. So I say head level or lower, anything else is just uncomfortable.

all good ideas, AT readers! Thanks!

MODERnestS, you are funny and super detective! the photo I posted is not super wide but it is a comfy space and you can see the tv from almost all of the chairs. The couple that lives here has a newborn and enjoys having people over to hang out vs sitting around and watching tv. (that just seems to be what my boyfriend and I have been doing the few days we've been here).

i like to sit on the couch and put my feet up on the coffee table, so ideally i'd like the bottom of the television to be slightly above my toes. that would probably translate to the idiot box being about 30" off the floor.

in my current situation, it's higher than that, but not nearly as high as it would be mounted above the mantle... and it's higher than is comfortable as it is. i can't imagine how icky it would be to have it even higher. plus, with hi-def tv's the angle at which you're viewing has a definite impact on your picture quality. why spend all that money on a tv if it's not going to look as good as it should?

I have friends with theirs mounted really high over a mantle, too, and I also hate it. It's very uncomfortable to watch. I guess people didn't conceive of TV's when they were building some homes! lol

High-mounted TVs always give me a hospital vibe. I much prefer a TV closer eye-level, while seated.

Place them high, place them low, but PLEASE do not place them above a fireplace.

A TV is not a painting. (Period.)

placing them over a fire place is so bad for so many reasons. put a nice piece of art work over the fireplace, or a mirror, and put the tv in a less commanding location, unless it is in a "media room" where it is intended to command.

our condo came prewired to hang flat panel tv's on the wall. and the junction box for the connection is too high! i don't know who designed/installed the things. i mounted our tv mounting arm as low as i possibly could and still cover the junction box...and the tv is still about 5" too high for real viewing comfort. but it's lower than every other wall mounted tv in our development that i have seen.

I've experienced TV on the mantle.....VERY uncomfortable to watch and makes your home look like a sports bar.
I have my LED TV hanging on the wall just over my media cabinet which is 27" high. The TV is hanging so that there is 2" between the bottom of the TV and the top of the media cabinet. It looks great and very comfortable on the eyes and neck.

"our condo came prewired to hang flat panel tv's on the wall. and the junction box for the connection is too high! "

Easy fix: Have an electrician come out to move the junction box lower (or do it yourself - It's simple electrical work) and patch the wall where the old box was located

lol. I beg your pardon. I jumped to conclusions too quickly. I have that Jacques Clouseau quality sometimes...alas it seems as far as TV mounting from what the readers are saying, lower is just better. :)

the opposite issue drove me NUTS at ikea last weekend - we're moving and need to downsize our tv console to fit in the right space (rental = no wall mounting for us). for a quick fix, ikea hack it is! but so many of their console were very, very low to the ground - as in, less than 2' high! i'm sorry, but a tv console is NOT a coffee table!

I have been looking for a tv console and realize that even 30" is too high for me ( which sucks, because one of the Pottery Barn consoles is about that height). I'd say a bit higher than a coffee table is perfect.

Mine is on the credenza at 30" and that works for me. I wouldn't want it any higher though.

I used to read forums on tech installs - one guy said to measure the eye level of those that normally are standing in the room and measure those same people (eyes obviously) sitting (in the couch or whatever) and average the heights. then place the center of the tv at the average height.

Ive done about 10 installs (friends) and its a comfortable setup b/c everyone enjoys the height and nobody feels uncomfortable.

CHeers

Depending whether you use your fireplace or not, why not put the TV under the mantle? I love fireplaces but some places I lived have the mantle still but the fireplace was removed, or the climate makes fireplaces useless so just under the mantle or on a low tv stand in front of the mantle can work.

Don't stoop to fake fireplace DVDs though, thats just wrong.

my tv is mounted like the one in the picture....above the fire place. unfortunately there is no where else in the room it can go thanks to a bunch of window and a sectional. it is too high. period. the only way you can comfortably watch it for any period of time is if you are slouching WAY back or lying down. eventually, once there are kids in our home we will have to figure out something else cuz i certainly don't want them having to crane their necks to watch tv...perhaps intensive to start finishing the basement ;)

I never got the whole "hang our TV above the fireplace" craze. Reminds me of the saying:

Even if *all* the birds are flying in the wrong direction -- it's still the wrong direction.

I try to get it centered on eye level from the sofa - an inch or two either way is probably as far as I'd go.

eye level while sitting, but our problem is that we stand to play the wii, so we look down at the tv. We need to get a flat screen that we can tilt.

I got used to watching tv at a high height when I was little - about shoulder height on me now at 5'10. Nobody's ever complained, I HATE it when a tv is at the level of my toes - *that's* what hurts my neck.

Eye level, when standing on your tippy-toes on the coffee table. In heels. :P

When i mounted my tv in my bedroom.... i made a carboard dummy and moved it across the wall in front of my bed and i laid there to find the right spot between the right eye level and the position of the tv...

When you walk in the room the tv seems to be in an odd height, but it works wonders once you're in bed......

Aesthetic considerations aside, most definitely eye-level while seated.

i always liked...while seated where you view the tv most, eye level but just a smidge higher. Put something pretty on the mantle.

@ quari, I put my TV in in the fireplace a couple of houses ago. Worked great. The fireplace in this post looks awfully clean and unused so I agree - why not park the TV in front of the opening?

Best solution is just to kill the $%$# thing though.