Watch the Big Game in Style
In honor of the Superbowl, I went out in search of some great creative ways of working the TV and related paraphanalia into a good design.
Anyone who’s ever arranged a living room before can tell you that it’s not always that easy! Especially with the older TV’s which were big and bulky. Newer flat panel versions help the design, but are rough on the wallet!
I’ve picked out a few different styles to show you.
Clean and Neat
I really love the picture at the top of the post (except the little speaker on the floor under the TV). It’s an easy thing to build some drywall boxes and order a couple of glass shelves from the glass man.
The brick wall looks great, but it would look equally stunning with a bold accent color on the wall main wall. If you like this look, it’s an easy one to make happen. You could have this done in a couple of weekends!
What About the Kids?
That was my question when I got to liking the top photo too much. A super clean decor is hard to maintain when there are people actually living in the house!
One idea is to give the kids an area of there own! Build a small entertainment center in a play room and they can play games or watch movies out from under foot!
I really like the curved front of the unit shown here. It allows the recess in the wall to be only about 16″ deep, but still brings the shelf out far enough to hold an old fashioned tube TV in the center.
If you wanted to build something like this you could leave the fronts open and use baskets. Curved doors are hard to make, but they can be ordered online.
Bookcases
One of the great advantages of the newer flat panel TV’s is that they can be incorporated into the design without being the focal point.
The Nester and I had a few words recently about whether or not all the chairs should face the TV.
You can see in this design that the TV isn’t the main focus of the room. This works out well here and the TV is set high enough that the furniture is out of the way when viewing.
I Wheely Don’t Watch Much TV
Get it? So, for that reason, I love this little contraption. Roll it out of the way when not in use! This way it becomes a nice table against a wall that doesn’t have to be right in the best “viewing” spot all the time.
Just keep your floor covering in mind! Something like this could actually cause some dented tracks in hardwood flooring.
Build It!
If you’ve got the tools and know how to use them, or want to learn, this is a cool unit above that you can build from plans bought online. These are available for about $10 from plansnow.com .
Buy It!
I found this at Crate & Barrell. It seemed a little steep to me at around $600.00 but it looks great! If you look close enough and grab your tools, you could have a good start by halftime!
You do have a pile of lumber around in case of emergencies don’t you?
Enjoy the game!
photos 2-4 – www.bhg.com
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great ideas! We put our (old fashioned-?) deep t.v. on an old dresser at an angle in a corner of the bonus room. The drawers hide all of the video game stuff.
Any ideas of what to do with a tall tv cabinet? Too narrow for a deep large tv, too small for a widescreen.
Found you through the Nester… enjoying your (and your wife’s) websites!
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Oh, you’re so clever. With words and pictures! Those are great, thanks for sharing some inspiration.
Kimm at Reinvented’s last blog post..Saturday Shout-Outs
Love this! I’m also a build-it-vs-buy-it individual!! I love hawking over the steeply priced furniture and then building my own to mimic it! That lovely Crate and Barrel piece could easily be built for under $200 if you have the motivation :0)
Great post!
Too bad for those Cardinals–they were so close to chasing down that dream. Good game overall though, excellent (or, miraculous?) win for Pitts!
All the best.
Tammy P
This is one of my complaints in my living room. I would eventually love to have some custom cabinets built along one wall to hold the tv and dvds and some pretty things.
SoBella Creations’s last blog post..LaDesigns2
Great post! My DH and I were just talking about our living room yesterday as a matter of fact….we’d like to “take it back” from our kids. Between doll houses, baby swings, and bouncy seats…our living room is more for entertaining our children than entertaining ourselves and our friends/family!!
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