TV Niche above the fireplace.

8 years ago

We have a house that was built in around the year 2000 - it has a niche above the fireplace that was designed for a CRT TV. So it is pretty deep, and the power/cable/cat5 are all in the back. At some point a few years back, I had the little shelf built, and painted the interior black so it wouldn't be quite so ugly.

Currently I have a 38" flat screen in there, but we can't go any larger as the sides of the niche get in the way. My wife would like larger - she suggested just covering it over, but that would cover over the outlet that would be needed along with the cable/cat5, and for that matter covering over an outlet like that would be against code. And it would create a new problem in that we need a new place to put the TiVo box.

The cheap/easy way out of this is to just create a wood frame over the mouth of the niche and mount a larger flatscreen on that. But it would look kind of funny when we go to sell.

The next thing we could do is just demo the niche completely - cut it off above the fireplace. That gets a little more complex - at the moment I don't think there is any wiring in the sides, and the back of the niche is flush with the walls outside of the niche (so the outlet would not need to be moved as long as the wires don't run through there). We would need some sort of thing to cover it over - maybe a slab of granite, or some such. Thus the job would probably just involve trimming off the framing timbers for the sides of the niche, and doing a bit of drywall, and putting something over it that made it look finished. But I am not quite sure where to cut it off so that it doesn't look funny as there is already a fireplace mantel

The last thing we could do is remove both the niche and the fireplace. The fireplace is nothing special - it is a gas fireplace that vents the exhaust into the room. It looks OK, but we never use the thing - the exhaust gas bothers my wife. That would involve even more work - gas, electrical, flooring, drywall. I don't want to go down that road unless there is a very good reason for it.

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Sina Sadeddin Architectural Design

8 years ago

I would drywall over the niche and find a new spot for the TV. It looks so high where it is, I can't image its comfortable to watch.

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Comments (12)

K R
8 years ago
My vote is to get rid of it all together, but I love to watch tv and couldn’t imagine watching a small tv that high up. :)) What’s to the left of it? Can you take a picture from further out?
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sheloveslayouts
8 years ago
There's no other place to put a big TV?
eric3649
Original Author
8 years ago
Yeah - pardon all of the cat accessories :-)

So what we sort of have are 3 niches, really. Tall ones to either side of the fireplace, and then the TV niche above the fireplace.
sheloveslayouts
8 years ago
I'd take out the fireplace. *gasp* I know. It's just taking up a bunch of room in what appears to be a not-very-big living room.
PRO
Sina Sadeddin Architectural Design
8 years ago
After seeing the pictures I think taking the fireplace out would be the best bet. It really dominates the space and since it doesn't even appear to work properly you're not losing anything.
eric3649
Original Author
8 years ago
I could put a big TV on the opposite wall, I guess. But there is no cable/cat5 there, so no signal source. This is a townhouse, so there are really only two walls where one could put it, and in the living room there is only one cable outlet - over the fireplace.

Someone suggested just putting it on the floor in front of the fireplace - possibly elevated a few feet by something or another. Which is probably my cheapest way forward. I could then put a vase or something where the TV is currently.
sheloveslayouts
8 years ago
Do you think the fireplace and tv niche are original? Looking at the window placement and the stair railing, it makes me wonder if this was a later addition.
eric3649
Original Author
8 years ago
This is all the way the builder did it - my wife is the original owner. The fireplace is one of those eye-candy things that they think help to sell the house, but aren't all that useful in the end. Builders do a lot of that sort of thing.

I guess I can talk to our neighbor who is a realtor and see what she thinks about removal of the fireplace.
sheloveslayouts
8 years ago
If the realtor says the fireplace is a must, I bet you can demo the niche and scoot the fireplace box back quite a bit. Maybe you could even move it back and to the side to make room for a modern TV.
sheloveslayouts
8 years ago
We removed a large fireplace to improve our layout. No regrets. When we crave a fire... Netflix...
mtvhike
8 years ago
I don't know what people have against a higher TV; it all depends on your seating. If you have a larger TV with your seating being a reclining couch across the room, I think it would be very comfortable. I would find a TV whose height is a little less than the distance between the top of the mantle and the top of the current TV opening, and mount it in front.