Living Rooms That Don't Revolve Around the Box
Take the focus away from the TV screen and make your living room a more pleasant environment that doesn't involve an ‘entertainment unit’
Somewhere around the mid-noughties, it became socially acceptable to buy an extremely large flat-screen TV and hang it on the wall, and then organise your entire living room around it. Until that point, buying a huge TV was more of a commitment, since the bigger the screen, the bigger the back end.
The flat-screen changed all that. Suddenly, even huge TVs were only 10 centimetres deep, and so they started appearing on walls above fireplaces, even built in to their own (shudder) nooks, and there was nothing around them in homage to this most wondrous piece of technology. And when this happened, something deep inside us as a species died a little.
The flat-screen changed all that. Suddenly, even huge TVs were only 10 centimetres deep, and so they started appearing on walls above fireplaces, even built in to their own (shudder) nooks, and there was nothing around them in homage to this most wondrous piece of technology. And when this happened, something deep inside us as a species died a little.
Thankfully, as the following rooms show, some people still have the good sense not to organise their entire living spaces around the telly – and even if you have to have one in the room, there are myriad ways of hiding it away.
Distract! Distract!
Granted, sometimes you don’t have anywhere to put the box except on the wall, facing the couch. When this happens, you could at least think of it as one part of a collection of things you might like to look at, and hang framed artworks around it.
Granted, sometimes you don’t have anywhere to put the box except on the wall, facing the couch. When this happens, you could at least think of it as one part of a collection of things you might like to look at, and hang framed artworks around it.
Equally clever: hang the TV in a narrow space next to a bookshelf covered with beautiful books. While you’re at it, why not buy a Tracey Emin digital artwork from Sedition, and turn the goggle box into high art too?
Hiding in plain sight
Even better, put the TV inside the bookshelf – the books will do the talking when the telly’s not on. In this particularly inspired example, a beautiful custom-built wall of storage houses books, magazines, records, mementos – and the TV. The speakers, naturally, stay out all the time for pitch-perfect stereo listening.
Even better, put the TV inside the bookshelf – the books will do the talking when the telly’s not on. In this particularly inspired example, a beautiful custom-built wall of storage houses books, magazines, records, mementos – and the TV. The speakers, naturally, stay out all the time for pitch-perfect stereo listening.
When the owners are ready to watch, they slide the timber doors back and there is a very large screen readily accessible for binge watching of Transparent. Note also the Togo couches by Ligne Roset – possibly the most comfortable couches developed.
Fun houzz: spot the TV
Fun houzz: spot the TV
In a long narrow space like this one, you might need to take a different approach – put the telly in a cupboard, a little bit higher up, which gives you room at ground level for displaying beautiful things such as ceramics, books or flowers. The cupboard doors here simply slide back when you need the TV – a neat arrangement.
Project yourself
Before we go any further, let’s just acknowledge the undeniable genius that is Mad Men, the series about drunken advertising executives in New York that ran for seven gripping series at precisely the time the flat screen came to ascendance.
The owners of this appealing living room have the good sense to watch Mad Men, in all its high-res glory, on a projector. Don Draper would surely approve. The only disadvantage with this approach is that you need a big blank white wall, which needs to be big and blank and white even when you’re not projecting high-brow TV on it.
Before we go any further, let’s just acknowledge the undeniable genius that is Mad Men, the series about drunken advertising executives in New York that ran for seven gripping series at precisely the time the flat screen came to ascendance.
The owners of this appealing living room have the good sense to watch Mad Men, in all its high-res glory, on a projector. Don Draper would surely approve. The only disadvantage with this approach is that you need a big blank white wall, which needs to be big and blank and white even when you’re not projecting high-brow TV on it.
Make it beautiful
Taking it one step further, the TV here is hidden behind a custom-made piece of woodwork that has managed to make a thing of great beauty out of something so prosaic. Note how the grain from the original pieces of timber flows across the doors, and how the dimensions of the cupboard are square rather than rectangular, like a big oil painting. Instead of a big black ugly screen sitting above this fireplace, there’s a beautifully crafted piece of furniture.
The other key here is that the chairs sit facing each other – two of them have their backs to the TV cupboard. It’s not a shrine, so why stare at it as if it is one?
Taking it one step further, the TV here is hidden behind a custom-made piece of woodwork that has managed to make a thing of great beauty out of something so prosaic. Note how the grain from the original pieces of timber flows across the doors, and how the dimensions of the cupboard are square rather than rectangular, like a big oil painting. Instead of a big black ugly screen sitting above this fireplace, there’s a beautifully crafted piece of furniture.
The other key here is that the chairs sit facing each other – two of them have their backs to the TV cupboard. It’s not a shrine, so why stare at it as if it is one?
Another version: in this case, the TV cabinetry is cleverly designed to match the panels built into the box around the fireplace. When the doors are closed, they just look like the panelling that surrounds the rest of the room.
The key to making this work, again, is the placement of the couches – when they’re set perpendicular to the fireplace like this, you’re not expecting to look at anything.
The key to making this work, again, is the placement of the couches – when they’re set perpendicular to the fireplace like this, you’re not expecting to look at anything.
What’s your angle?
If you are going to have the TV in the living room, why does the couch have to look directly at it? In this beautiful Brooklyn duplex, the TV’s tucked away under the stairs, along with some books, at an oblique angle to the couch, which faces out into the room in a friendly, conversation-inspiring sort of way.
If you are going to have the TV in the living room, why does the couch have to look directly at it? In this beautiful Brooklyn duplex, the TV’s tucked away under the stairs, along with some books, at an oblique angle to the couch, which faces out into the room in a friendly, conversation-inspiring sort of way.
Even better, hang the screen behind another couch.
Is your living room antisocial?
Is your living room antisocial?
Put it in the kitchen
Which begs the question of why we even put TVs in the living room. Here, the TV’s slipped inside a line of cabinetry next to the kitchen.
Which begs the question of why we even put TVs in the living room. Here, the TV’s slipped inside a line of cabinetry next to the kitchen.
Hang some art instead
Seems obvious, but this conservatory could easily have had a TV sitting there on the wall. Instead, there are a couple of elegant white shelves and a revolving collection of framed prints, without a telly in sight.
Seems obvious, but this conservatory could easily have had a TV sitting there on the wall. Instead, there are a couple of elegant white shelves and a revolving collection of framed prints, without a telly in sight.
Dark matter
Now this is a beautiful treatment. The telly here is tucked away to the right of the fireplace, inside a dark little space – there’s no door, but the positioning and the deep, dark cabinetry and its low position close to the floor de-emphasises the box. Instead, sitting here you first focus on the view through floor-to-ceiling glass windows over the garden, and then at the primal and infinitely more interesting display of danger, intrigue and visual interest that is a fire in winter.
Now this is a beautiful treatment. The telly here is tucked away to the right of the fireplace, inside a dark little space – there’s no door, but the positioning and the deep, dark cabinetry and its low position close to the floor de-emphasises the box. Instead, sitting here you first focus on the view through floor-to-ceiling glass windows over the garden, and then at the primal and infinitely more interesting display of danger, intrigue and visual interest that is a fire in winter.
Pop culture
Be careful with this idea, though done right it could solve all manner of issues. In this Newtown terrace in Sydney, there was nowhere else to put the TV except here – so it rises out of the cabinetry when you need it. It’s very James Bond and in the wrong hands could be fairly tasteless…
Be careful with this idea, though done right it could solve all manner of issues. In this Newtown terrace in Sydney, there was nowhere else to put the TV except here – so it rises out of the cabinetry when you need it. It’s very James Bond and in the wrong hands could be fairly tasteless…
But boy, does it look good when it’s hidden away.
TELL US
How do you deal with your TV – or is it the best thing about your living room? Tell us in the Comments section.
MORE
5 Ways to Make a Flat-Screen TV Blend In
10 Home Theatres You Simply Won’t Believe
Style Tips for Your Living Room That Won’t Break the Bank
TELL US
How do you deal with your TV – or is it the best thing about your living room? Tell us in the Comments section.
MORE
5 Ways to Make a Flat-Screen TV Blend In
10 Home Theatres You Simply Won’t Believe
Style Tips for Your Living Room That Won’t Break the Bank