Making a Big Screen TV Work - BTSH Around The House Tip of the Week

So, you have done your research, and you have carefully chosen that big screen TV for it’s sound, picture, and size. But have you figured out where you’re going to put it? When staging a home, it is common practice to eliminate TVs wherever possible. Unless we are showing a room as a “man den”, we don’t want the TV to be the focal point. This is generally easiest to do when the home is not being occupied. However, realistically, the average person watches about 20-26 hours of TV each week, so eliminating the TV altogether isn’t always practical. When entertaining, drawing the focus away from the TV can often be a dilemma. While occasionally your entertainment is centered around the big game, generally you aim to distract from the big TV in the room.

Choosing Your TV
While I can’t tell you how to choose your TV from a resolution point of view, or whether LCD is better than Plasma, I can advise you on choosing the appropriate sized TV for your room. It’s been shown that choosing a smaller TV that fits the room appropriately will allow for a more enjoyable viewing experience then choosing one that is just too large for your room. Sometimes bigger really isn’t better. The chart to the right provides a bit of a guideline to ensure that you get the most out of your HDTV.

Positioning Your TV
For starters, lose the traditional entertainment center. Today’s flat-screen TVs offer the advantage of being able to mount them almost anywhere. You can mount on a flexible arm so that you can store flat against the wall when not in use, and angle appropriately to maximize viewing when it is in use. This helps to minimize it as a focal point. Another idea to “camouflage” the TV is to use a dark paint or wallpaper on the wall, so that the TV blends into the wall. Media accessories can be stored in decorative cabinets above and/or below.
Another idea is to surround the TV by artwork. An asymmetrical design works best for this, helping to blend the TV into the background. For an added touch, consider adding a frame to the TV.

Perhaps my favourite method though for concealing your big screen TV when not in use is the 2-way mirror. This is one of those ideas that you see, and really wish you had thought of it yourself. While I can’t take credit for the idea, I can certainly promote the cleverness of it. When the TV is off, you simply have an elegant mirror mounted above your fireplace or other focal point, however when the TV is on, it comes through the glass brilliantly.

Written by Shauna Lynn, Beyond The Stage Homes
www.beyondthestagehomes.com