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5 Ways to Decorate Around a Flat-Screen TV
Color, Placement and Accessories Help that Big Black Screen Blend In
Rebekah Zaveloff, owner and principal designer of KitchenLab, co-founder of Design in a Bag.com and Houzz contributor. I'm a self-professed tile nut and believer in good design for all! You can also visit me at: http://kitchenlabdesign.com and http://designinabag.com
Rebekah Zaveloff, owner and principal designer of KitchenLab, co-founder... More »
A Houzz reader recently asked, "How do you decorate the wall around a flat screen TV?" It's a popular question. For years, a primary task of a designer has been to play Hide the TV. When the flat-screen television arrived, I remember the relief and joy! Finally — an end to huge furniture pieces attempting to hide the eyesore of the living room. Homeowners had no problem embracing the flat screen, even with the hefty price tag. But as the novelty faded, many found their flat screen as challenging to decorate around as their old tube TV. Whether you have a fireplace to contend with or not, arranging a room around the big black rectangle can be a struggle. Here are 5 ways to pull it off.
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| 1. Add a bit of black. Unfortunately, the big shiny black box that is the flat screen TV just dominates a room. In more traditionally decorated rooms, and when white trim is involved, one solution is to have other black accents and accessories. Here the TV is over a dark stone fireplace; along with the darker brown floors, it helps ground the room. These elements and the black accents in the pillows and side table help to bounce your eye around the room and balance the black hole of the tv.
Tip: Even though there's symmetry with the two yellow chairs and the two urns on the mantle, the asymmetry of tall shelving on the left and the lower cabinet on the right help to fill the room with texture and interest. This helps to diminish the TV as a focal point. |
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| Here's another traditional living room with the TV directly over the fireplace. Again, a bit of black around the firebox helps to balance the floating black rectangle. The dark trim around the windows gives balance to the lights and darks in this room as well. Giving the eye something to latch on to and go from object to object really helps. Color is often a unifying element, but in this case, it's the dark tones.
Tip: Be careful not to hang your TV too high or you'll feel like you're in the front row of a movie theater. Lower mantles are better when installing a TV over a fireplace. |
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2: Camouflage with a dark color. Still not loving how much the black shiny rectangle jumps off the wall? Camouflage your TV with a background wall of black, brown, navy, charcoal gray — any dark color of your choosing. This room takes it all the way with the black stone fireplace and ebony floors. I especially love the recessed niche with what appears to be a moulding detail on the inside.
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by Amoroso Design
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| This room camouflages the TV with a background of dark wood veneer. There are also many fabulous wallpapers that would serve the same purpose. This is a great solution if you're more of a minimalist and don't want to clutter your walls with art or books. |
by CWB Architects
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3: Draw attention to something else in the room. The stunning mirror over the vintage fireplace steals the show in this living room. The TV is set off to the side, giving it secondary importance.
Tip: There's no need to put all eyes on the TV when arranging furniture in a room, especially if it's your living room. Even if the sofa faces the TV, a few occasional side chairs that act as if they're ignoring the TV help take the focus away.
Tip: There's no need to put all eyes on the TV when arranging furniture in a room, especially if it's your living room. Even if the sofa faces the TV, a few occasional side chairs that act as if they're ignoring the TV help take the focus away.
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The sleek dark stone facing on this fireplace helps to balance the dark TV above. Even though the woodwork in this room is white, the smallest amount of black in the table base and chair base, and the dark graphic pattern of the rug, balance the lights and darks in this room.
The metal pendant and artful display of objects on the console to the right pulls your eye away from the centralTV/fireplace.
The metal pendant and artful display of objects on the console to the right pulls your eye away from the centralTV/fireplace.
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If you have modern space, make the fireplace more of a focal point by tiling it to the ceiling. More black accents show themselves in the trim around the windows. The extended rectangle of dark stone or concrete around the fireplace draws attention to the long rectangles of the room. The TV would have much more prominence if white tile framed the firebox.
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4: Fill in the space. Books, accessories and pictures around this TV make the screen practically invisible.
Tip: If you don't have built-in shelving to fill in with books, just pack your wall with art and photography.
Tip: If you don't have built-in shelving to fill in with books, just pack your wall with art and photography.
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Creating an art wall achieves the same effect as the previous photo. And this solution doesn't require you to have a book collection or a budget for built-ins.
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by Amoroso Design
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| 5: Ground it. My number-one pet peeve is a TV that floats on a wall with nothing under it. I don't mind if it's over a fireplace, because that helps to ground it, but a floating TV reminds me of a hospital or bar — not desirable looks for a living room. Even when the TV is mounted to the wall, adding a console or media cabinet helps to fill in the space. Add a few artfully placed objects and you're done. |
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| A few floating shelves and a cabinet below help to fill this wall with texture, color and interest other than the TV. |
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| Even though this TV is floating pretty high above the console below, the console still adds a grounding effect. |
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| This space shows many of these different ideas in action: The symmetrical shelving filled with art and objects draws the attention away from the TV. The black firebox, black side chairs, and brown shelves and floor bounce your eye around the room. Symmetry rules, and the dark brown floor grounds everything.
More: Where to Put the Flat-Screen TV? Show Off Your Electronics Tell us: Should the TV go over the fireplace? |
Ideabook published on Feb. 28, 2011.
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There's a lot of pride with some people with regard to their A/V equipment, and especially with a smaller space (or, obviously, a home theater room), the TV will without question be a focal point if not the focal point.
But again, it all depends on the person and the space.
What I find interesting about ALL of the pictures shown in this post is that I consider them all to be a pretty big FAIL. The viewing angle of most flat panel TVs dictates that they be best-viewed at eye-level.
(the last photo is the worst, as only 1 out of the five people sitting there could even watch the TV without experiencing neck trauma)
In addition, placing them higher makes them more of a focal point because now you've got a big, dark rectangle at standing eye-level, whereas putting the TV low, where it's better to watch anyway, moves it down lower to an area where it has less visual impact when you walk into the room.
To me, the biggest design challenge with regards to the TV isn't the TV itself, but "entertainment center" furniture, most of which is poorly designed in one respect or another. On more than one occasion, I've designed custom pieces for a space because nothing "off the shelf" worked well.
If the space is patterned or a natural material like wood or concrete, for example, pick a coordinating color to paint the grilles that'll compliment the area, and use the geometry of the grilles to add some color pop or other visual interest.
The in-wall and in-ceiling speakers often come in at least rectangle, square or circle shapes, so it shouldn't be too hard to make something work.
You can also use a viewing distance calculator like the one at http://myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html where, as I'm sure you'll quickly see, you'll find that your "recommended" screen size is huge ;)
So I try to find a good solution to cover this side, have you an idea?
Instead I would suggest to highlight TV zone with a symmetrical composition around it (like in this sketch).
I tend to agree that if you have a separate living room from a family room there should be no TV. But if you have a multi-purpose room who are you kidding by trying to hide the tv?? Either you are a tv watcher or you are not.
In real world situations, TV placement will continue to be a challenge. Not all rooms offer an ideal solution, so it is always a matter of finding a balance between style and practicality. I agree that most fireplaces are too tall to allow proper TV placement above them. And hiding a TV is fine, so long as it's easily accessible. Probably the oldest trick is repurposing an antique armoire or other cabinet, which is not shown here.
:P
(*note that I make no guarantees against sticker shock)
http://www.davoneaudio.com/ray.html
http://www.focal.com/en/home-audio-loudspeakers/hifi-speakers/design-compact-speakers/dome.php
http://www.elipson.com/en/model/137_Planet-L.html
http://www.specimenproducts.com/amps/littlehorns.html
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.avantgarde-acoustic.de%2Fhornlautsprecher_einleitung.php%3Fprodukt%3Dtrioc%26t%3Deinleitung%26produkt_id%3D5%3Flang%3Den
Evelyn Cucchiara - loved the idea link. Currently my old tube TV is hidden in an armoir when not in use; however one day I'd love to have a flat screen and think that when that day comes I will probably try some kind of sliding painting or picture to disguise it when not in use.
As for the ideas pictured, I think #2 works the best... the TV is there, but isn't the main focal point of the room when not in use.
I'm talking about designers who "as a rule" think no electronics should be visible or should be put out of the way. To pre-determine anything like that, without considering that their clients might feel differently than they do, is bad design and simply unprofessional.
No, actually, you wrote this, verbatim: "TV's should never be in the living room, living room should be for socializing not for TV watching. Use a small bedroom or something for a tv room/media room."
There's not really any room for misunderstanding your comment: You specifically said where people should and should not watch TV and what they should do in a particular room in their own house.
Even in your latest comment you again dictate that "TV should never be the focal point of any room"
(and btw nowhere did I say that a TV should be the focal point of a room, even ignoring necessarily obvious exceptions to your mandate such as home theaters)