TV on the wall

[SunshineAndFizz]

To make more space in our living room I want to put our TV on the wall above our fireplace (Victorian style house with tallish fireplace/wall height).

DH hates the idea as he think we'll be 'looking up' and a TV should be eye height when we're sitting on the sofa. I just don't think it's an issue if it's slightly higher.

AIBU to want to do this?

We have ours on a bracket above the fireplace that you pull down so it does go in front of the fireplace so you can’t then use it. The intention was to put it back up again but we’re too lazy to keep moving it so it’s permanently down

www.reddit.com/r/TVTooHigh/

TV on the wall is fine so long as the centre of the screen is at eye level when sitting down for viewing. This means above a fireplace will almost certainly be too high.

There really is no point trying to pretend you don’t own a TV by disguising it as something else. Just try to avoid the TV being the primary feature of the room, unless you have a specific room just for TV watching.

Previous house we had the TV on the wall in the alcove by the fireplace on a pullout bracket, lower than above the fireplace.
Current house it's sat on a unit, the room would be in no way big enough to watch it comfortably above the fireplace.

The TV mirrors mentioned by a pp look gorgeous, but shockingly expensive and mirrors shouldn't be above a working fireplace.

Small TV and big bookcase? That's the true MN way.

Ugh I hate TVs over the fireplace. Like you DH I hate looking up at it. I have all my TVs at eye level.

Even when I go to other peoples houses with TVs above the fireplace or just mounted really high, I can't watch them as they cause eye and neck strain for me.

Phew! I'm ok then 👍🏼😂

@Whatsmyname100 Not art, but ours looks like a painting when it's off. The screen changes to really beautiful images.

Might want to check how much that's costing you. My 55" TV offers to do that, but I've measured it with a wattmeter at the plug and it uses 75W to do it - which is £200/year at my current electric rates.

TV's on the wall, especially above a fireplace, are absolutely dreadful.

😂

New money as an insult, how tiresome. I think someone needs to go away and brush up on their ‘how to make myself seem of a higher class than I actually am’ conduct.

I really like the television disguised as a mirror, who knew such a thing existed? Brilliant.

Gotta love MN, it's a TV not a portal to hell.
We have an ancient, ugly chunky TV with a built in DVD player, because we are skint, but it's OK we have books too...

@kittensinthekitchen "No TV? What does your furniture point at then?" 🤣

😆We only got a flat screen tv seven years ago. Prior to that we were watching an old CRT which stubbornly refused to stop working. We eventually decided to get rid as the screen seemed ridiculously small relative to the amount of space the set took up, but we got carried away and bought a 50in curved flatscreen. We have books too though.

I’m more concerned about the wiring. I don’t like wires dangling down the wall, or trailing everywhere.

You can use paintable cable trunking or get cabling sockets put into the wall behind the tv, I don't even see the cabling an more as its all hidden away and the painted trunking blends in well to the painted wall.

Our wiring is run through the wall behind it and out at the plug socket so it can’t be seen. It just looks like an over mantle mirror 90% of the time.

Wiring would worry me if it was dangling and we had kids though, so I’d always trunk it or run it through a wall.

@MoiraQueen ”It’s a tv not a portal to hell” made me laugh out loud!

What my late OH called the Wetherspoons School of Style, horrible on a domestic scale.

Me too! I really hate seeing them.

i can’t stand wall-mounted TVs that are angled downwards. They just look as if they are going to fall down. For me it’s like having pictures that are hung squint.

I think TVs can be great on the wall, but above a fireplace makes them too high for comfortable viewing.

Out of interest, (apologies for derailing OP) why should you not have a mirror over a working fireplace? I can’t find anything online about this but assume it’s about the heat causing the glass to break if there isn’t a large mantel or gap between the fire and the mirror?

@Whatsthestoryboringglory

It's a fire risk. Leaning to look into the mirror whilst the fire is lit, there have been numerous incidents of people's clothing catching fire, one of which happened locally so it always sticks in my mind. It would depend on the type of fire you have though

Ah! Of course. Thank you, that makes perfect sense.

I hate tvs on the wall! A neck-achingly awkward angle and... can I say it...? A little bit chavvy.

(here comes the pile-on!)

Although good feng shui apparently 🤷‍♀️.

I won’t pile on, I think that’s a fairly common reason people don’t like them on walls; a PP mentioned the “Wetherspoons” look.

Despite having ours on the wall, we both dislike the look in an old house. Which is why we’ve covered it with a mirror. A massive tv above the fireplace didn’t look right in our room, to us.