Nothing sucks the beauty out of a room like the mammoth black hole of a television screen. Now, over the years, we’ve definitely seen enormous boob tube enhancements. Certainly, the screens have gotten flatter and thinner but they still seem to loom in the room, glaring at us with their blank, unseeing eye. I’ll agree they’re a modern necessity in any active space. In the South, we always say if you want to guarantee attendance in a room, put liquor and a TV in it. As designers, though, our quandary is always how to cleverly veil the video.
The following are some examples of how we’ve put the TV on the QT. In the caption of the pictures, I’ll explain where the television is cleverly hiding in plain sight.
In this beach house, a small monitor was secreted behind one of the framed pictures. An obvious homage to the old safe-behind-the-painting seen in old movies.
An intimate fireside inglenook off a kitchen serves as a great place to warm up and catch up on a favorite program. The TV? It’s tucked underneath the knee space of the adjacent island.
Here, a cozy gentleman’s study serves as an impromptu TV lounge. The television is subtly located in an upholstered box nestled under the desk. A pair of modern chaises beckon even the most stylish of couch potatoes.
Finding the TV in the room of this lake house is like playing Where’s Waldo? Give up? That beautiful tapestry hanging on the wall slides to the side along the metal track at the top (with the decorative mirror attached, mind you), revealing a television behind.
Even the most formal of salons can accommodate a TV if you’re clever. This one is well hidden. Notice the long bench on the left in front of the window? There’s a TV located there. With a touch of the remote, it ascends from the seat. We actually recessed the mass of the TV into the floor system so an enormous television emerges inexplicably from a low bench. Design lessons learned from the classic circus clown car….
Greg Tankersley,
for McALPINE
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Good one, Greg! I sunbathed on the dock and guessed the tv’s whereabouts before reading the location. The Lake and I miss y’all.
Loved this. Your designs are beautiful no matter where the TV is!