Hidden TVs

With smart house technology expanding, hidden tvs can pop up, flip up or drop down almost anywhere.

For heavy TV viewers like Mr. AM and myself, hidden tvs aren’t practical. Sets in our house are on day and night. Yet some object to naked flat screens on aesthetic terms and require cover ups. Allison installed her great room TV behind sliding wood and copper panels which were custom made and much admired. One new approach are TVs on motorized lifts which can pop up, drop down, flip up or down, and swivel. A motorized TV lift is concealed beneath a trapdoor in a living room cabinet [top]. A source like Nexus 21 specializes in TV tech. That’s the solution used fora pre-World War II Swedish apartment where running wires can be an issue with plaster walls. A cabinet that houses the flat screen and also conceals a pair of radiators (holes are drilled in the top to let heat escape) is both clever and practical. Now you see the TV.

Now you don’t.

This isn’t the first flip-down TV I’ve seen — one was attached to the lid of a large blanket box. Here’s the modern equivalent in a platform bed designed by Stephen Shadley in a Beverly Hills home once owned by Jennifer Aniston. The motorized TV lift raises the flat screen to vertical and perhaps it also has some type of transformer mechanism that makes it higher as well. I will say one thing about this hidden tv: it would take a treasure hunt to find it. But new 4K tv technology makes the search especially exciting.

Anyone seeking a motorized TV lift like this one will want to know about Activated Decor, a specialty source out of Tampa, Florida. That’s the vendor used by designer Thierry Despont to create the pop up TV in the foot board of a custom bed in a Long Island home. Since a black flat screen would draw attention away from the all-white bedroom decor, concealment is both strategic and cool.

A recessed niche above a modern fireplace is anothe smart place to mount a big flat screen. The face of the niche is built out just beyond bookshelves on either side. The ledge above the firebox supports a track that allows a panel to slide away. When closed, it looks like a blank wall.

The bronze panel to the left of the fireplace matches the fireplace surround in the book matched walnut partition wall in a Manhattan apartment study by Shelton, Mindel & Assocs. When the bronze panel moves to the right — across the bookshelf — the fireplace gets added emphasis since its height is essentially doubled. This elegant and practical architectural approach to a hidden tv almost becomes modern sculpture.

I adore the way top kitchen designer Mick De Giulio tucked a small flat screen into a shallow “appliance garage” space behind a range and concealed it with one of his gorgeous marble-tile silders. We saw the way Mick favors hidden compartments behind the range in his Kitchen of the Year for House Beautiful. Here, there’s condiment storage and tv sauce.

A blogger’s DIY “industrial style” hidden tv set up was constructed with plumbing pipe supplies and a chippy old weathered door sawn in half crosswise to imitate a “barn door” look. This fills a niche in the living room and the Liz Marie blog provides a list of supplies, a method for the DIY assembly plus a series of photos showing how it looks from various angles for anyone who wants to try it. The informal cottage look of this cover up can be duplicated with a trip to Home Depot — once you’ve found the perfect door.

Anyone seeking an affordable, readymade solution for a hidden tv need look no further than Pottery Barn. The Gallery Frame TV cover measures 61 x 43-inches. There appear to be two different mats for framing photos on each side. Or, the mats can be discarded in favor of graphics or artwork under the plexiglas. The clinker is a steep shipping charge but, bless their mass-market hearts, PB is almost everywhere. Also, there are two other styles including a mirrored hidden tv cover and one made with textured wood doors.

One nice thing about a gas fireplace is the absence of a brick flue. So the TV is concealed behind weathered barn wood planks of the faux-chimney over the cantilevered firebox. Look closely and you can see hinges and little black knobs.

Now here’s an elegant way to hide a tv in an antique. Set a Directoire glass-door library cabinet set on a leggy writing table and install shirred curtains to conceal the contents. Low tech but high style. Armoires need not apply!

(Source: jurnaldedesigninterior.com, nytimes, AD, Trad Home, lizmarieblog, potterybarn, AD, AD countryliving, domainehome)

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