Yes, it can be too high! and I think this one would give me a kink in the neck unless I were on the sofa. Ideal height is 44" from the bottom of the screen to the floor, but when you are combining your focal points (fireplace and tv) together, you have to make some compromises. It looks like this one is mounted on a tilting bracket to face down to the viewer, which must help with reflections.

My inlaws have this exact problem- tv is over the fireplace and is too high.
Walking into the room feels awkward because tv is out of place and forget watching it
It does kill the neck. I have suggested to them a build in on one side but they argue it's the only place for it to go......there is alway a talented designer that can make it work.
Good luck.

Betsy We had sold a house 9 years ago and the couple bought it completely furnished right down to all accessories. That part hurt as it takes years to collect things But didn't want to lose the sale so sold it all. I was invited back a year later and I wanted to cry.. There used to be a beautiful wall and such great pics on it and all was gone but in its place hung this huge tv. My heart sunk it truly did. I didn't want to be rude so I hid my feelings . ( plus) I wished I had back those pics and things that once hung there. To each his own I guess. I was lucky in that house though as I had a large loft so we watched tv up there and you know our guest never minded going up to the loft if they came to see something special on tv. I like your suggestion for your inlaws to have a place built along on the side actually it can add to the room .

My inlaws bout the house fully furnished right down to the sheets in ranch mirage,ca!
It's a weird way to buy a house, I like to make it my own........

If it's not too far in the planning process, I'd like to make a suggestion. If you are frankly and openly using this room as an all-purpose tv-watching and entertainment room, then why make the tv secondary to the fireplace? To me, these sky-scraping tv's over the fireplace are trying too hard to look like a period house that's trying to belong to the 21st century.

If I were you, I would re-think this wall. If you mount a tv with the bottom 44" above the floor, you have room to place a settee/banquette/sofa underneath and increase your seating. Typically, you'd look for a back height of 36-38" and you'd be fine. Make sure the depth of the back of the furniture piece is sufficient that there is head clearance for a sitter not to hit the tv screen, but it shouldn't be hard to find something suitable.

Then I'd flank the seating piece, which could be 72" or wider, depending on the size of the tv screen, with built-ins. In the built-in, you could incorporate a modern electrical fireplace which would give you the ambiance you're looking for, but would not be a problem with unwanted heat and venting. Together with display shelves and closed storage at the bottom, you'd have a wonderful place to store movies and components and also display your treasures with indirect lighting.

I recommend getting a designer to create the plan for this wall. The potential benefits of this scheme are enormous! What do you think? While I wrote this, I saw two more comments being posted and will now see what the buzz is!

hey Betsy For sure I feel same way. But you know when a lot of time is spent decorating there are some people who have no idea on which way to turn or they just do not like to shop , so they opt to buy furnished . This particular couple traveled in a huge Rv so all they wanted to do was settle in and start to live and enjoy right away.. I too have such fun taking my time and putting our personality's into our home but were lucky we can do that. And now with Houzz oh my such fun I have personally received great ideas from some of these wonderful designers on here . I prefer to do my own thing but even me at times get stumped and now we have the ability to ask for help and help does come. Love it.

Cynthia Some great ideas there. Would be nice for sure if there was another place to use for Tv. watching , when many of us had the family room . Unfortunately not all have the space set aside for a tv hang out type room.

I problem have the same problem and would appreciate a suggeston. My mantle is 76 inches long with 27 inches of wall space on the left side and 31" on the other. The mantle is too high to place the TV on top. To the left of the 27" of wall space is a beam that runs from floor to (high) ceiling then 76 more inches of wall space - but that additional space is part of a work/desk area. The most convenient place for TV waching is to place is on either side of the fireplace--but I cant seems to make that look quite right.

also could use sugggestions of how to do window treatments on 4 sets of sliding glass door in this room with high ceilings.

Hi libbyann. I've done a quick sketch with one window treatment idea you might like. It would require a custom drapery workroom to make it though. If you can't see it very well, email me and I'll send you the full picture with details. Still thinking about your television dilemma! Not an easy one.

Yes, part of the picture is cut off. It's the wrong shape for houzz's specs.

Without seeing a room plan and knowing your budget, I would say that the best solution is to mount the tv over the fireplace. It would be cleaner and less cluttered than having it beside the fireplace on the stand it's on now. But I would definitely replace it with a larger tv, both to give you a more theatrical experience, and to balance off the size and bulk of the fireplace below.

If you are stashing your components in that piece of furniture, you may be interested to know that there are ways now of putting the components in another room altogether. For our new set-up, we have them in the basement below our tv. When I aim the remote at the tv, there's a sensor there that activates the other gadgets. Magic!

I disagree with Cynthia who is saying TV should be 44" from floor to bottom of TV. A fixed dimension to the bottom of TV makes no sense because TV's come in all kind of sizes and bezel widths so the center of TV's would be of all kinds of varying height off the floor. Rather 44" is the approx distance from the floor to the CENTER of the TV. This lines up approximately to the EYE height of a seated person looking straight ahead (kinda makes sense right?). That translated in my case of a 56" plasma being 24" off floor.

we have a 60 inch plasma and its 27 inches from the floor to the bottom of the tv its seems perfect to us

So, if you had one wall would you center your tv or your fireplace on it....I would then put the other as a corner piece? So fireplace in corner or center on main wall? Or tv in corner or center on wall with cabinetry?