You love it, you hate it, you ban it from the bedroom, you try to decorate around it, you're even considering getting one for outdoors. Just face facts. Television is a part of our lives; we watch movies on it, we play games on it, for some of us it acts as a large computer monitor, others surf the web on it. But we'd rather not have it be the dominant item in our living room. Here's our best tips on how to hide it in plain view.
- Sometimes the best thing to do is not to hide the TV at all but let it blend into a bookcase, lean on an easel or, our favorite, blend it into a salon style arrangement
- If your home has a fireplace, you might be just tempted to call it a day and hang it over the mantel. Here are some tips you might want to check out before you do that.
- A frame won't hide the tv, but it may make it blend into your home's decor a little better.
- If your room needs a focal point and you'd rather it not be the television, trying installing a faux fireplace mantel that works as a cabinet to hide your television and its cables.
- You can also try painting the wall the TV is mounted on, either the entire wall or just a strip or a box. While black would seem the most logical choice, check this post before you make a decision
. - For a very small space that needs a mirror to open it up, try this idea and hide it behind the mirror.
- Against a dark colored wall, a television fades from view
- But if a dark color will make your already small space seem oppressive, a large, graphic wallpaper will make the wall, not the tv, the focal point.
- The simplest advice: Try arranging your room in a way that doesn't make the tv the focal point.
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Four-P...
On Saying No to Paleo: Why Eating Isn't One Size Fits All
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
I love that the TV in the 3rd pic appears to be showing a commercial for a maxi pad or adult diaper. That could easily have been photoshopped out!
Can anybody testify to the viewing height / neck strain problem associated with placing a television above a fireplace mantel?
Heck yeah. I'm fully yoinking that picture frame idea in photo #4 when I move into my BFs house this summer and have to contend with his 52" monstrosity. (I'll need a really BIG picture frame...)
I get neck strain just looking at the second photo. I can understand why they did it, though. Anywhere else, the TV would block some of the lovely windows.
Placing the television inside a fireplace seems like a clever idea at first but it's too low for my taste. The coffee table would block the view, good thing it's transparent in the third photo.
i feel that tv's above fire places are there for the aesthetic and not functionality.
Where does the red media console in picture number one come from? Ikea? I've been trying to find something similar to this for awhile now.
inkybrushes -
It looks like a Besta bench from Ikea with casters, but the series doesn't come in red. I just bought one of those last week and it looks so much better than my old tv stand. I put glass doors on it and have it flush with the carpet, no accessories or cords visible.
agreeing with EC here - that particular solution is brilliant!
I would like to know where the red media center comes from as well. Thanks.
How is any one of those TVs hidden? They all look like gaping black holes to me.
I'm not saying this is bad -- if you want the focus of your room to be a TV which many people apparently do. But if you want to hide it, you need to put it into something with doors, or arrange it so it drops into something or you can cover it with something.
I think if you're someone who really watches your TV, you need to accept it and put it at a proper eye level for being seated on your couch or in your comfy chair. The only correct level on a fireplace is hanging from the mantle, which would look weird.
For me, the TV in the last photo is too far away from the couch--if I'm actually watching a TV, rather than just having it on in the background, I want to be fairly close, to get that real theatre-type experience. In a larger multi-use room, I would create a TV-watching area, and a talking/reading area.
agree with foulard.
i LOVE the layout of the room in the last photo, and tried it in my home. but alas, the tv was MUCH too far away to watch comfortably.
now, if we had a large projection screen on the blank canvas (white wall) behind our television (instead of the tv we have now), i would be smitten with that configuration in our home, and the one in the last photos.
best part of the projector is that when the television is not in use, the wall is just a wall, nothing more.
For years I fought the good fight with hiding my tv. The living room was supposed to be for living, not watching, I thought.
I had a huge, hulking armoire that I really didn't love just to hide the tv.
No more! I really think that most everyone has a tv. It's a fact of life. I'm not tryin' to put my fridge in a frame. It's a tv. I'm much happier with it out on a smaller piece of furniture. No big whoop having it out where people can see *gasp* that we own a tv.
My future thin tv will go into a bookshelf and it most certainly will be on the right height, as well. A great comfort then will also be that no matter how ugly the monstrosity will be, most of the time I won't have to look into it's gaping emptiness, wondering whether it will swallow me whole today or maybe on another one.
@repressd: At least the fluid is of somewhat right colour and not those silly blue ones that would come out of only royal ladies.
seriously, what's with me and typing today? *into a bookshelf, behind doors*
Gotta agree w/ Surfjack.
I see those ghastly TV/Stereo Entertainment centers and huge TV armoires all the time on CL - I wonder what they'll be used for now that most TV's are thinner and wider, and stereos are more compact?
"...would like to know where the red media center comes from..."
Looks to me like an IKEA Lack shelving unit, on it's side and built without a couple of the shelves, then mounted on casters...
...or it could just as easily be a box made of double-layered furniture-grade 3/4" birch plywood with red lacquer paint and casters.
our shot at hiding in plane sight.... tv in fireplace...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23938938@N00/4660127205/
I don't think any of these are particularly 'hidden'!
(is it just me, or is the wallpaper of the second-last one seriously bubbled to the right?)
Personally if you want to hide your tv, doors are the answer. We have a big Besta system with a sliding door that is fantastic. It serves a double purpose - when the door isn't over the TV, it's over our books, old photos and sentimental/precious items from relatives etc, protecting them from curious little hands. Likewise when we have guests, we can hide the TV, and all our things are nicely on display!
I'm moving in with my boyfriend this summer, and not only does he have a 46" television, but also a blu-ray player, a DVD player, a playstation, a wii, about a million DVDs and blu-rays...but he insists we can't put the tv on a low console (which I'd like) because it can be knocked over. He has one of those glass and metal monstrosities with matching shelving for the movies. It's heinous. And we're going to be renting and can't mount it on the wall. None of these solutions will work. Sigh...
I have suspended a pair of projectors from the ceiling so there is no unsightly altar to popular culture on view. The projectors throw TV images onto a white wall and a white sliding door respectively giving images 8ft and 16ft wide respectively. This is by far the best solution I have yet found.
I second the opinion that the red TV stand is an IKEA Lack shelving unit with casters. It is currently available in red. I use one of these units horizontally (it's designed for either vertical or horizontal placement) and also left out a shelf to accommodate a stereo. Mine fits perfectly into a wall cut-out and looks built in.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40105627
Isn't the fireplace a bit low for watching tv? I'm annoyed enough when i have to look at the bottom of the screen instead of middle... talk about a pain in the neck...
Not a fan of over (too high) or in (gah!) the fireplace. Thank goodness for Midcentury modern. I found a fantastic narrow rosewood credenza with sliding doors, perfect for placing the narrow tv on top. I gave up on hiding it--if I am spending that much on a tv I am not putting it inside a cabinet--the heat is not good for it.
I do love the tv in front of dark patterned wallpaper though. I celebrate that dvd (and any other) collections are becoming a thing of the past.
I like the first (photos), third (in the fireplace) and last (not hidden) for my home. I'll start collecting picture frames and clustering my art...
My widescreen laptop is my TV. I hide it by shutting the lid. Hee.
Was at a friend's house once and the television was so HUGE that I didn't even SEE it until later in the day when someone turned it on.
Love love love the first one, and am so grateful! It solves the problem I was having committing to a spot for the living room telly.
I don't think that any of these is a particularly attractive solution. I find the projector-over-the mantle trend atrociously fugly. I do actually like the projector idea mentioned above (my BF has one for movies and Hulu), though I believe they are expensive. I choose to go without a TV so I don't waste 30 hours of my week watching reruns of Law & Order or Top Chef or whatever is on these days.
When our old square TV crapped out, and we had to purchase a wide-screen (it's about all that's out there to buy), I had to figure out what to do with our TV cabinet, which was a very nice Asian-inspired cabinet from Cost Plus. We added a couple drawer units from Ikea inside, and it became the hubby's clothing armoire.
EmmyL, it's true, none of them are particularly attractive if you don't want a TV...still, it's nice for those of us who do stoop that low to be able to be above-board about it. Like putting your bar table out in public. :-)
Viewing angle depends on distance to the set. Think of how your viewing angle changes in a movie theater the closer you get to the screen. The screen itself is in the same position.
That second room, given its size, seems totally fine.
I wish people would get past this argument. It's not *automatically* too high.
And yeah, EmmyL, if you are anti-TV, would *anything* ever suit you? And besides, people complaining about how TV is a waste of time, but doing it on a BLOG, always makes me laugh.
On a completely random note, Repressed: That's *so* not a maxi pad. It's someone with gastric issues pointing to his/her pink-highlighted midsection.
Having a TV doesn't force you to waste time. I have a TV and it is on for about 7.5 hours a week. I typically watch one movie or TV show DVD a week, one TV show I particularly like and then 5, half-hour workouts. I have the TV in the living room because it is where I work out and the most convenient spot to have it when guests are over. Having the TV in the living room a design challenge, turning mom onto BtVS, priceless. Mine is on a low console and I am building my gallery wall around it. My walls are a darker color and the frames are dark wood so the TV doesn't actually stand out very much because the artwork is striking.