Two schools of thought on how to handle flat-screen tvs on modern media walls.
TVs today are like belly buttons: innies or outies. The innie camp wants to hide or disguise the tube so it isn’t omnipresent. The outties let the screen speak for itself visually and seek ways to integrate it into modern media walls while concealing the required wires, boxes and speakers.
In the past, we’ve only shown innie solutions – Allison’s beloved TV in Disguise behind a copper paneled screen and some handsome Architectural TV Cabinets. I’ve stayed out of the conversation until now but Christmas is coming an, jumbo flat-screens top the list of expected good-buys for the holiday. These modern designer media walls offer great ideas.
A paneled wall, inset with steel strips, provides a handsome, sweeping backdrop for mounting a flat screen [top]. The low, curved cabinet below can conceal the auxiliary equipment and also provide DVD storage. What I like about this approach by Miami designer Pepe Calderin is the directness – the TV simply hugs the wall. Lighting can be tricky but the thin, curved soffit allows the ceiling lights to be moved far enough away so there’s no glare. Speakers have been cleverly recessed high in the wall, above the paneling, and are nearly undetectable.
Monster TV lovers will revel in the glitzy, in-your-face wall created by New York designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, who recessed this flat-screen in a black lacquer shell, with the speakers below. While it looks slick, it wouldn’t be difficult to create a faux wall built out just far enough to integrate the flat screen and wiring. That surface could have any type of treatment from plain paint, to paneling, stone, or metal facing.
Another room by Noriega-Ortiz offers a hybrid solution. The flat screen hangs directly on the wall but a pair of high shelves helps shield the screen and a tall curtain hung from a ceiling track can be pulled across and behind the freestanding chest that essentially serves as a TV cabinet.
Our house in the country is neither sleek nor especially modern. But we are outties –Mr. AM never misses a game and I can look on from the kitchen — so it was a no-brainer to put the flat screen into the bookcase on one side of the fireplace. I didn’t want to mount heat-sensitive electronics over a working hearth that we use almost every night during the cool months. The bookcase shelves are 14-inches deep which easily accomodates the TV stand. A grommet was drilled to handle the wiring and the tuner box slides under the TV so we don’t need to open cabinet doors to change channels. Meanwhile, the six foot space in our bedroom built-in — initially designed for a jumbo – is still naked, though if prices are right, it may not be by the time the ball drops on the New Year.
(Source: bnodesign.com, pepecalderindesign.com)
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we are outies too, though I am not sure how totally happy I am with that. Does anyone know anyone who runs slide shows on their screen as a decorative element?
I don’t know anyone who does the slide show thing though I’ve been in a doctor’s office with cheesy nature photos done like screen savers. TV makers should let us upload wallpaper images so it could double as respectable wall art vs a black rectangle. But I don’t mind the black which, for me, is better than an ugly cabinet with a ton of clutter.
We’re outies, too. Maybe someday I’ll have a sophisticated enough decor running through my home to switch to being an innie, but if the Legos get to live out in the open then so do the TVs. 😉
So glad to see this posting as I’d come to believe that it was the last word in plebian sensibilities to be an outtie. But, then again, I’ve not been much impressed by the big boxy TV armoires either so had resigned to the knowledge that I was not haute culture in my makeup. So this is a great post for self-validation! 🙂
I love the many options the outties have dreamed up that you’ve found but my special favorites are the first and the last. Love the hanging steel strips that admit so much flexibility in the placement of the tube – well, I love wood and steel always anyhow.
And it is always a pleasure to view your house shots. Aside from the clever use of furniture to mount your TV, the firebox looks splendid.
Long live outties. But there are TV folk and non-TV folk. I’m in the first batch for sure. Glad to be in such good company.