apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We didn't have a TV for years...but recently I caved and we bought a small one. It's hidden away in the guest room. I am really not keen on a living room that has a TV front and center though I understand that for the audiophile, TV placement and stereo setup is essential to "good sound".

Oddly enough, our lack of TV in the living room occasionally bothers guests. I think some people like TV for the background noise and distraction.

Our TV is in the living room. Our couch faces it but we have two other chairs that do not. We watch the TV often (film major in the house) although its mostly movies and sports, not television shows. I refuse to feel bad about it :)

We don't own a television; we watch what we want to watch on our laptops (also don't own a desktop computer).

I'm always amazed at how this site is so against owning books but supports centering one's home life around a television.

I have a huge 52" lcd in my living room and i love it. Couldn't live without it.

Definitely not the central focus of my living space.
I made a conscious effort to move it off the side, where it won't always seen.

As in your case, it also doubles as our computer monitor, but can work in split screens when necessary.

wende- I have three bookshelves of books and an awesome 32" LCD tv. I think the site is against both books and TVs (or at least the book is... doesn't one of the later chapters suggest getting rid of your tv? its been a while since I've read it).

I saw forget trying to 'hide' the tele. In our living room, we have a wall-mounted LCD that sits over a credenza directly across from the couch...but when there's guests over, we just simply turn it off. And please, for the love of Pete no more TV's mounted over fireplaces!

our 32" LCD is in the center of the living room area with the couch across from it. we recently re-arranged and now no longer have all of the chairs facing the TV (big step). we mainly watch movies, tv seasons that we rented, and play wii on the TV.

I love TV. When I was a kid, the TV went away for a week to the sick-appliance hospital. Every time I'd see the empty spot in our den, I'd tear up.

Now, I live in a studio apartment. My TV sits on the center line of the room about two feet away from the closest wall on a 360-degree turntable.

I wonder if this site is really "against" owning books or if it suggests selling books that have already been read in order to maximize space in a small apartment?

I just saw something interesting the other day. It's a small electronic tablet from Amazon.com that is used to download books from their site for a very small fee. You then read the books on this device which displays them just a like a regular book.

I wish I could hide away my television but my living room is very small. Perhaps I will move it to the guest bedroom one day and have that setup as an entertainment room.

No television here, I watch movies and such on my laptop when I feel like visual imput. Mostly I read. All the books. In my studio (250 Sq. Ft) apartment. Why is getting rid of books such a good idea?

Sold it on Craig's list over a year ago. I watch DVDs and some downloaded TV episodes on my laptop. I don't miss the clutter of TV and accoutrements at all. But, I recently have been glued to Lost, which I've been getting from Netflix, and I have started to miss being able to view something without having the box on my lap all the time. But, not enough to get another TV. Eventually, I'd like a flat screen, but that's too rich for my blood now. Or maybe a nice Apple screen doubling for computer and as TV substitute. Whatever it is, it has to look good and not take up a lot of space.

I am a big reader and I have no attachment to books at all. Clear 'em out and trade 'em in at the used bookstore, or give away or trade with others. If I want to keep a book - reference or some sentimental reason - I do. But, I keep most stuff moving.

I live in a small 1 bedroom, and the 32" television is in the bedroom.

The living room is where I like to cook/entertain. My experience is that having a TV inhibits the ability to truly focus on guests, and allow eye contact/ or good conversation.

To add, TV in the living room adds to the risk to having it on all the time, which can really suck the life out of a room.

My only tv is in the bedroom--I like to watch Golden Girls before I go to bed (for me that show works better than a sleeping pill). I use my living room for reading. I have a collection of "good" books in my shelves but I get my trashy lit fix from my local library. Recently at a party a guest asked if I was trying to "prove a point" by not having a tv in my living room.

Mine is on a rolling cart in a closet. I roll it out when I want to watch it and put it away when I'm finished.

I've got a 27in TV in the living room, but I worked to tuck it into a corner rather than to have it front and center. I'd love a flatscreen because they are so much smaller, but the current TV is dual voltage/multisystem so I have to hang onto it for when I head back overseas. I suspect the 7 bookcases in the house are much more obtrusive then the TV, but they bother me a lot less!

I am interested in de-centralizing the TV because we have a small space and the dark screen just draws your eye right to it. But i'm not anti-TV. Like anything, if you exercise a little self-control, it won't take over your life--especially if you have kids.

Mine lives in a huge pine armoire with my home theatre and DVD storage. It's nice because when I have company over I can close the doors and have the apartment nearly media free (my computer monitor, however, is quite prominent as it's the size of my tv - 30") but usually the doors remain open when I'm home alone, as I do use my TV or the radio part of the components often.

I don't really understand all the hubub about TVs. When they were bulky black boxes, it made sense to try to hide them. But now they're so thin, I don't find them obtrusive at all.

What I DO find obtrusive are open-plan kitchens where I have to look at somebody's refrigerator while I'm having cocktails on the sofa. When everyone wants to have housework appliances in the main room, the TV is the least of the problems.

Rick, I love the rolling cart solution - how smart!

I went cold turkey on tv when I moved into my own place here in New York. After years of living with roommates, not only did I not have a television, but I had kinda gotten used to not thinking of it as "mine" anyway.

So now, I use my laptop ("tummy tv") for the occasional movie or tv show. The radio has become my primary source of entertainment and news.

My TV saga: I recently sold my 27" TV behemoth. I don't get any reception where I live now, but I traded my brother a little bitty TV for this one, thinking the big screen would make movie-watching more enjoyable. Well, I don't watch movies, either! I can't sit that long unless I have a book or company. It was the center of my living room and I never turned it on. I realized it was ridiculous to have a huge appliance taking up space in a small room when you don't even use it! I balked for a long time, though, because it's hard to give up your TV. Everyone has a TV; you're a weirdo if you don't have one. I fell into my TV sale, but it was actually exhilarating when they finally took it away. It's gone to a better home now - a 19 year-old guy who will play video games and watch sports and other stuff.
Don't get me wrong - if I got TV reception, I'd still have that sucker. But you get used to not having one. I miss out on references to TV shows and commercials, but I have the Internet. :-) (My brother doesn't have a TV anymore, either.)

P.S. I don't have many books, either, even though I am a reading nut. I use the library! If you saw my apartment, you'd think I never did anything. Which is only partly true!

Studies show that folks with a TV in the bedroom have less sex. Sounds like a chicken or the egg scenario to me... but regardless, the flat screen lives in the living room-- don't want to tempt fate!

Wow! Great post. This is funny as I just literally re-designed/configured my entire duplex loft around the TV. It should be finished this week or next in time for coolest smallest in the next month or two.

It was in the living room on custom made cabinets under the windows. Like Celia and mbc I choose to eliminate TV from my living room all together. First I am a single guy, kind of sucks the life out of you when you turn the tv on when you come home and then pass out on the sofa(we all do it). Yes many nights lost that way. Now I am back to getting proper sleep in my bed with my 20" flat panel across the way. Plus in the 1 week I have had it upstairs I have probably watched it 50% less. With the removal of the TV in the living room I can now add the Mies Barcelona daybed I have always wanted for additional seating for guests and a giant photograph on the one wall which is almost 20 feet tall. On the other side is a fireplace with tons of books stacked on it now. The balance is so much better since the focal points are the furniture I collected and not the damn tv in the middle. The living room is intended to be for entertaining and talking and reading in my opinion. I may buy a small 5 or 7" for the kitchen so I can have the news in the morning with coffee and when I am getting ready for work.

Let me tell you removing the TV from the living room is life changing in my opinion. (everyone should try this) really it is amazing. I am not a frat boy so no football games on the big screen with the guys. If I really feel compelled to have that, there are plently of bars on the block. If I want to watch a movie with a girl best place in my opinion is under the covers.

That’s great 212gretchen thanks. Good to know that. Hopefully that will not be the residual effect of my efforts to make my apartment more efficient and stylish. However, all of me knows what is more exciting and TV is not it.

i have a tv wall so i guess u could say it's the center of the room. i plan on adding a textile panel or framed artwork that can be hung to some type of hardware where it can slide back and forth over the TV to cover it.

I currently keep mine hidden behind a shoji screen. I would love to get a flat panel but can't afford it (this is the Year of Fixing Up the House, including Large Ticket Infrastructure Projects). I would love to give it up if I could watch TV on my computer monitor (flat panel). Maybe I will give that a try. I've already given away my fridge and don't miss it!

Well, we have a gazillion books (I'm a big-time re-reader) AND a big TV, so I guess we're sinners on both counts. The books are extremely well-organized on a bank of 9-foot-tall bookcases in the kitchen. The TV is in a corner of the living room. Our living room has two sitting areas, one of which is more oriented to the TV, but only if we want it to be. The TV sits on a swivel platform on a low-lying unit. When we want to watch, we tilt it toward the sitting area. When we don't want to watch, we tilt it back. It's pretty inobtrusive.

I agree with Margante. Frankly, I don't get why TV is so demonized. Sure, there's a tonne of crappy programming out there, but there's also some amazing stuff available, too. Saying you unilaterally hate TV because of the bad shows is like saying you unilaterally hate books because of the bodice-rippers or you hate the internet because of all the cheap porn. And as for falling prey to watching it all the time, that's really the individual person's fault, not the box's.

i lived w/o tv from 2000 to just last month! i started feeling it would be nice to have something to watch when i was too tired to read & too sick to do much else. i have an illness that makes me sick allot so it became a concern.
my tv is fairly hidden. if you open my front door, it would be behind the door. you can see it from the couch though. i think it's good to think about what you see when you enter a room.
i'm about to move to an open, studio like place. so, thinking about where to put the tv was hard. i'm going to put it on a low table at the base of the stairs.
i don't think people should shun tv completely, but it's good to know how to live w/o it. i think when the tv is the basis for the furniture arrangement people end up communicating less. i've experienced that anyway.
everything in moderation.
BESIDES I HAVE TO WATCH LOST!

98" screen with projector. In a dedicated theater room that doubles as a guest space. There are no other TVs in the apartment.

My TV is in the corner of my living room, and although the main focus of that room is the 20-foot-long mural, the furniture is arranged to make it very easy to watch TV or have a conversation, instead, if I have company.

Also, I sculpted some old-timey filigree around the proscenium of the TV (a 1981 Zenith), making it look like it were built in 1881 instead, and it sits in a cabinet that was originally a dresser when I found it on the street. I'm hoping that since the cable box is suppposedly going to continue to be the liaison between the digital world and my old tube-type telly, that I might not need to replace it until it actually goes ahead and dies.

I don't have a TV.. funny because before I moved to LA I lived with my Comcast employee boyfriend. We had a TV and every channel imaginable (for free). Now it's just me in my studio and I haven't felt a big enough urge to buy a TV and pay for cable.

I read up on the news online and watch movies on my computer. I don't really miss it.

I grew up without a tv but I really enjoy watching stuff like The Office, as well as some movies. We have a flatscreen 20" tv on a media unit in our guest room (pull-out sofa), and the living room is centered around the fireplace. We really only ever go into guest room to watch specific shows.

I totally respect the desire to hide tv's/not make them the focal point.

That said, our new flat screen IS the focal point of our living room, becuase we really enjoy watching movies together (the bf is movie obsessed-that is how he learned to speak english!) It works for us, and there is enough seating in the room/ moveable seating in other rooms that if the occaision demands it is possible to turn the tv off and enjoy company...

My sofa faces my TV, and my TV isn't hidden. I watch it, and I don't mind saying so. I will say that there are times that I feel I watch too much, but if that's the worst thing I do, I'll be okay. I gave it up for a few months once, and that was a great experiment in finding other things to fill time, but I gradually started watching it again. I'm not into hiding things like the TV or books...it's one thing if you don't like watching TV or don't want to, or don't want to see the TV when you're not using it, but people who think they're morally superior (and you know there are some out there) because they don't watch TV drive me crazy. When guests are over, unless that's what they're over for, it stays off.

Even if I had a guest room, I would still have a tv in the living room. I don't have cable so the tv is off most of the time. I listen to npr at work so that takes care of my news and most of my entertainment fix. My last apartment's layout didn't allow for the tv to be front and center, but that meant we could never have friends over to watch college football! Now, our sofa does face the tv, but it's not the center of gravity in the room, and when it's off you hardly notice it -- we do have other chairs and 5 large windows with trees outside. And I don't think I should feel guilty about watching Lost marathons snuggled up with my cats, husband, and blanket. Or the occasional Brothers and Sisters or college game with a bowl of pasta on the couch. Yes, we have a tv and an entire wall lined with books in our main room. I love it.

i live in a sub 500sqft apt but was gifted a 42" plasma from my parents after i moved in. there's no way it cannot be a focal point.

i try not to have it on when i have guests over, but bf really loves to have "the game" on and there are days where i'm sitting in front of it (just the current location of the couch) and forget it's even there for hours and hours. i do enjoy having it on as background while i'm cooking since my living room and kitchen are the same thing!

Here here, Christine and AmyV. My sleek new 37" LCD is the focal point of my living room and that's fine by me. I love TV. After 31 years I've finally decided to stop hiding that fact. TV is fantastic! It's not all "Flavor of Love," people. This week I'm looking forward to snuggling under a throw and catching up on shows like Mad Men, the new LOST, and yes, even last Sunday's installment of Masterpiece Theater on DVR (for non-TV buffs, they're doing a three-month Austen marathon). For a while I was sans TV and watched DVDs on my iBook (probably frying my ovaries to boot). Just not the same thing. (And yes, I have lots of friends, and am socially adept, etc. etc.)

I have a 20" LCD TV that is in a small cabinet in the living room. You must open the doors to watch DVDs, sorry no tv reception or cable!

I only watch the thing when i have company, otherwise its Books for me. I have Three bookcases in the livingroom.

The only electronics i have on "display" is the stereo. It is usually on. I do not display any of the media for it however, like I have seen(yuck) in many livingrooms.

42" plasma...and I watch Mad Men AND Flavor of Love...

One in the livingroom, hidden in a cabinet when not in use. One in the bedroom, so we can watch the Daily Show before drifting off to sleep. And one in my studio, so I can have The Sopranos to keep me company as I quilt.

we have a 50" hi-def that i cannot help but make the center of our small space. but it was given to us for free, so my wallet loves it. and planet earth has never looked better-- (okay, neither has project runway.) and to be honest, it's REALLY easy to turn off. tv doesn't make everyone a drone. it is merely one of my many delights!

jlg, more power to you! My current VH1 show of choice is Celebrity Rehab.

We have a 32" LCD (that we think of as a Netflix appliance) in a 750sf home. We don't get reception and don't have cable, but we watch probably 3 movies per week at home (3 per year at the theater). Even though it's front and center in the living room, I wanted to decentralize it. The lovely ladies at desire to inspire gave us some great advice!

I just stopped paying for cable works really good and I have more $$ in my pocket. I do rent vidoes but only once a week ..... majeral

and again, my new piano finish flat screen is actually quite beautiful...like a piece of art... :)

My TV is by no means the center of my living room. It’s on a low, roller cart that’s at an angle off the corner of the living room. Plus I have a flat screen (one of those Poloroid 20” ones) that’s only about 2” thick so it really doesn’t stick out of the wall décor at all. Matter of fact you can only really see it from one seat on the couch. That tends to be ‘my’ seat when I’m alone.

Here is a pic of it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/surferartchick/2201193176/

re: where is your TV?
When reality TV proliferated I gave my TV away.
Now, 6 years later, I'm set up to download programs on my mac. I scroll the many choices and have yet to download any TV.
I get the odd movie sometimes and enjoy the entertainment
from my bed.
The lack of commercial media, including radio, has really changed the way I operate.
The internet offers so much quality radio and video options without the annoying media 'buzz'.

Don't own one.

My laptop sits on an ottoman or work station desk if I want to watch something.

For that matter why own a computer? Most people have them at work or can use one in a library so why have one in your home, right?

Sorry if someone already mentioned this but.....I find it odd that the TV generally gets the design snub but I hardly ever see the computer getting the same bad rap. Depending on what you own computers can take up as much space, and look just as ugly as a TV can, not to mention you can spend as much time addicted to one as the other.

The TV we own looks much nicer than the big bulky Hp pavilion I have, but when I bought it I needed windows for work (microsoft) and was also into gaming and 3DS. Someday I'll get a nice laptop that will take up less space but until then I won't feel bad for using my PC. I enjoy it much like I enjoy the 5 or 6 hours I spend a week (less now that "the office" and "30 rock" are not new) in front of my TV.

Besides my use on the computer is usually solitary, even if I am chatting with friends there is no real human interaction. When I watch my TV it's always with my partner, we laugh together, we cuddle, and often discuss our opinions on whatever we watch from news to design to cooking.

I know people who will tell me they have sold their TV, and will only use their PC for the shows they are interested in, as if they are making some huge sacrifice or major lifestyle change. Not really. Your still sitting and watching a screen. Tell me how you cut down your TV or computer use by half and used it to do something more creative and I'll be impressed.

If you don't use one, that's fine, but it's no better or worse than other electronic, they all have their good points and bad ones. It all comes down to how you use them, what you sacrifice in using them, how much you invest when integrating them into your living space.

Mine is in the corner of my living room hung on the upper portion of the wall of the stairwell to the second floor. It's a thirty-two inch flat screen mounted on a swing arm wall mount. It can be stored flat against the wall or pulled out at an angle into the corner that allows viewing from the seating area in the living room.

I have a large flat screen on the wall in my living room but you'd never know it was there. I painted some of my own artwork on a 3.5" deep gallery framed 30 x 40" canvas and hung it over the TV, the canvas is deep enough to hang flush on the wall and completely conceal the television from all sides. I had to cut a small divot in the back of the frame so it could still be flush with the wall over the wires and I covered the hanging wires with wall mounted cord concealers and painted them the same colour as the wall.

There's also one in my guest room.