This Is a Genius (and Potentially Cheap!) Way to Conceal Your TV
So you want a Samsung The Frame TV, but you don’t like the price tag. Join the club! I perpetually have it on my home wishlist, but the good news is you can still transform your flatscreen into a work of art… and for a fraction of the cost. Take a page out of designer Hollie Velten-Lattrell’s playbook, and use a textile to hide your high-tech television. All it takes some scissors, paint, fabric, and mounting hardware to do so.
For this particular solution, Velten-Lattrell, who owns the design and creative firm Spaces by Hollie Velten, commissioned a textile cover for client Margeaux Gertmenian’s television when she remodeled her 1920s Tudor home in New Jersey. Gertmenian wanted her house to reflect the airiness of the ocean and woods, but a slick flat screen TV would throw off the “tree house” vibe they were going for in the main living space. That’s when Gertmenian came up with the idea of a textile TV cover to conceal the family’s electronics when not in use.
Velten-Lattrell commissioned artist Janelle Pietrzak from All Roads Design to create the textile, which is fairly simple and resembles a sun, echoing the circular Etsy pulls on the IKEA console below it. The hanging hardware here is custom, but the tapestry essentially is mounted like a curtain. You can commission a TV cover from any artist you admire, but if you’re working with a tight budget, you can also try to DIY a TV tapestry yourself.
To make your own textile TV cover, source a thick fabric to act as your tapestry. Use either a sewing machine or hemming tape to create a pocket at the top of the fabric for the dowel that will hold your piece in place. Once you’ve created that pocket, paint or embellish the front of the fabric in a design that will best match your living room’s look. If you’re not crafty, try to find a small flat weave rug, or use a piece of thick, patterned fabric that you can convert into a tapestry. Canvas or linen blends work well for this project, and know that dimensions will vary depending on the size of your television. It’s also best to leave a little buffer space around the edges of your tapestry so it completely covers the TV and then some, but more on that below.
For mounting, install two sturdy hooks in a finish of your choosing approximately three inches above your television. Cut your dowel so it’s approximately 10 inches longer than the television screen (5 inches on the right and 5 inches on the left), and slip it into the fabric’s pocket. Then place the tapestry onto the hooks by the dowel. When you want to watch TV, simply roll up the fabric or take down the tapestry entirely. There you have it! You have transformed your wall mounted TV into a work of art, and if you know how to find fabric on the cheap, this project won’t set you back anywhere close to what The Frame costs.