how much prominence does your TV have?

[hadenough111]

In an ideal world there would be no tv in the living room and we'd have a telly watching room or 'snug'. Alas we have one room.

I HATE that the furniture is arranged around it. I can feel it staring at us when it's off and we're doing something else, like reading!

Of course we could just get rid of it but we don't want to do that.

Is there a compromise?!

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

Ours (40") is in the upstairs snug, formerly the PO's master bedroom but with a large bay window seat & door to the balcony this seemed a waste to me on a low cabinet that was constructed for the purpose using original Art Nouveau metal panels. When the room is decorated this will sit in a (newly created) recess beside the reclaimed fireplace we'll be installing. We have two sofas at right angles, the larger one facing the chimney breast, and the smaller one opposite the window seat.

This leaves the ground floor living room as more of an entertaining space (not that we ever do!) and the snug is somewhere to flop down with a book/watch dvds etc.

We have loads of 'interesting' stuff or crap, depending on your POV plus the f/p and window seat to draw your eye from the black thing in the corner!

I don't have a pic of the current set up, but do have one of our last house where we had a smaller tv in a really awkward spot on a tall cupboard DH built in next to the inglenook. You can see one of the sofas that was almost on top of it , whilst the other, larger one was opposite the f/p. Again this was in a (small) snug and we were lucky enough to have another smarter room for when friends/family visited.

[LlamaLover]

You could paint a feature wall in black/dark blue/another darker colour and put the TV against that wall so that the contrast of the black if the TV and the wall behind it isn't so harsh? It can mean the TV blends in a bit more to its surroundings.

[SparklesandBangs]

TV sits nicely in the bay window, all chairs arranged for maximum viewing. If I was posh, I'd have a best room with 2 sofas facing each other by a fire place with a large coffe table and no TV, just like in Homes & Gardens pics, although I'm sure that I'd then find a teenager in there watching media on a iPad.

[goldglittershitter]

Ours is big (eurgh) , wall mounted (eurgh) & on the chimney breast with all furniture around it (eurgh). I feel like we live in a pub! Was outnumbered by DH n DCs who think it is phenomenal.

[Hulababy]

And yes, our furniture is set up to point towards the TV.

[Hulababy]

Ours is there, in the living room, and obvious and used daily. Its stat on top of a nice media unit, along with the sky box and DH's amplifier, CD player and turntable. I've managed to sneak some ice candles on there too, to try and counter balance a bit, lol. It's not too big (40 inch, very thin black frame) but needs to be a reasonable size - our room is fairly big and I'd never read anything on it if it was much smaller.

No one I know actually hides their TV away though. Mind, someone we know does just have theirs in a Tv room, so not in their living room I guess.

[MrsPear]

Oh and those mirror TVs are over as in another life I worked in trade press and there were always ads for them

[MrsPear]

Mine is too big - I lost the arguement in John Lewis - and I hate it. In an ideal world I would buy another bookcase so the alcoves match and have a tiny one pushed back on one of the shelves and have a reading chair. I can dream. It is not even on much and gathers so much dust.

[Buttercup27]

I saw it on either a grand designs or a different house building show. It never mentioned how much it cost but it looked brilliant.
On one if the American house shows they put the TV behind one of those fake mirrors (like in police TV shows) and you pressed a button and the mirror disappeared and turned into the TV. how I miss maternity leave and day time tv

[BeaufortBelle]

Ours is tucked in an alcove but it's only 32". More than big enough. We have one TV and won't be getting another one.

[HaveYouSeenHerLately]

There are some nice frilly ones

But you could make/ commission one with a design on the front to match your decor, google has a few ideas.

[HaveYouSeenHerLately]

Are you any good at sewing? I considered making a slim jacket/ cover for mine, a bit like a padded tea cosy! I think I've seen them for sale too

[hadenough111]

Thanks for the ideas! I like your armoire Sing!

[Etak15]

My grandparents always used to have the armchair in front of the tv - you wouldn't even have known it was there then move it in the evening - the only time the telly was on- when we used to go as kids we were never allowed to just randomly put telly on as my kids do at my parents now, we used to have to look in the radio times pick what we wanted to watch and have it on for that time only! Had forgotton all about that till I saw your pic sing song! Our telly is big and on the wall above the fire, I hate it would rather have something smaller and out of the way. Dh and his family are a bit different with the telly thing - they think it's meant to be the main attraction of the room and on constantly - with surround sound

[Clayhead]

Mine's the focal point of our room, I love TV!!

[MotherofFlagons]

We have a 40in screen and DH knows (and partly agrees) that we shouldn't have a bigger one because it will dominate the living room.

Not being a big TV watcher, I absolutely hate huge screens that take over rooms. Our living room isn't big, but the TV is in one corner and we have sofas along two walls. I've made other focal points in the room, like pictures, tasteful chandelier-type light fitting, mirror, a couple of small but ornate bits of furniture/ornaments and not much else.

Hard to explain, the room looks kind of austere but the way we have it arranged means that you don't think 'TV' the first time you walk into the room.

[universallyhated]

We have our tv in the corner and have one chair at right angles to it which faces the fire place but angled so you can see both and then a sofa at right angles to the chair with a coffee table in the middle whic has ornaments on it which provides something else to look at instead of just the tv. That takes the emphasis off the tv when it's off.

[SingSongSlummy]

Mine is hidden in a tasteful 'armoire' - see pic!

[lavendersun]

I thought Bond too!

[lavendersun]

We only bought a TV in November after 30 years of not having one as a grown up so it is all fairly new to us.

I would love to put it in another room but we have an only child and so it is in the room we spend the most time in together as a family, sitting room.

The focus of the room is the inglenook/woodburner, still, as in I haven't rearranged the furniture. The TV is on an old wooden chest on the wall to the right of the fire.

It wouldn't be ideal if we watched it every day, but it seems to go on about two/three times a week at the minute so whoever gets the sofa with the naff view can cope I think.

Depends on how much you watch it as to how much you can move it I think.

[Roobix04]

Is it prominent? Well it's a 55 inch flat screen and while it is in a corner all our furniture is pointed at it. It's going on the wall right in the middle soon. This is so we can actually fit both my beautiful bookcases in which will frame the tv but hopefully make it less pronounced as the shelves will come out further then the bracket if that makes sense.

[Celticlassie]

Ours is hanging on the wall, against my strong objections. I've tried to angle the furniture so it's not all pointing to it but it's tricky to ignore.

[wowfudge]

Ooh - Buttercup that sounds like something out of a Bond villain's lair!

[wowfudge]

You asked for suggestions! You didn't say anything about tasteful . The TV doesn't bother me, but then ours is in an alcove on a stand that swivels - it is the biggest TV in the world because it is pre-thin flat screens. I couldn't bring myself to hang one on the wall. I would hate that.