While great for entertainment, television sets don't make appealing decorative pieces for the home.
As prices have dropped, sales of large, flat-screen TVs have mushroomed -- and so has the challenge of where to put them for designers and homeowners.
Bill McMahon demonstrates how his flat-screen TV disappears into the rear of his entertainment unit.
Unlike the early days of television, when having a set was a status symbol, homeowners today are either banishing the TV to another room, if space allows, or using furniture to soften and downplay their living-room gadgetry.
"I didn't want the television to stick out like a sore thumb," says homeowner Bill McMahon. "I wanted the TV to be integrated into the
architecture of the home." For McMahon, who was an architect early in his career, the answer was a custom-made cabinet that hides the TV when it's not in use. A press of the remote control and the 42-inch flat-screen plasma set rises from the cabinet.
McMahon, 60, now a movie set designer, says he chose to have the television hidden in his architect-designed, three-bedroom house because the structure did not have many walls. He and his partner, Joan Shoults, preferred to showcase their art collection instead.
"The site called for this solution," he says. "It fits with the design elements of the house."
If hiding the television is difficult or too expensive, designers often incorporate it into a wall unit to soften the impact.
"I always try to come up with a feature that makes for an interesting design," says Cori Roy, an interior designer. "Sometimes I hide the screen behind a sliding door, sometimes I hang an art piece in front of the screen."
Another strategy is to position a mirror on wheels in front of the set, so it can be rolled away when the TV is in use. While not a fan of placing a wide-screen TV over the fireplace mantle, Roy acknowledges that there are few other choices for some homeowners in small spaces.
"Its not a faux-pas, but eye-level is preferable."
Some merchants think consumers and designers have it all wrong.
"Buying a television and then trying to find a solution to hide it afterwards is backward," says Bob Coltard, who co-owns a local furniture store. "It is wiser to find a cabinet that matches the home's decor first -- then choose a TV that fits."
A popular furniture option is to bracket the screen between two towers with a bridge over the top. The cabinet the TV sits on usually houses a DVD player and other audio-video equipment. While the majority of TVs merely sit on top of a cabinet, powered units that raise and lower the screen, like McMahon's, are becoming popular.
"Measure before you buy," Coltard says. "A good rule of thumb is to spend as much on the cabinet as you would on your television."
Builder Gordon Hemsworth says it's not just available wall space that determines where the TV goes. He says today's homeowners have greater choices when it comes to placement of their sets because of the structured wiring that is incorporated in most new homes he builds.
"Generally each room in a new home has smart wiring that can deliver data from the Internet and receive TV signals from satellite or cable sources," Hemsworth says. "Almost 95 per cent of my projects come with the enhanced wiring."
Typically, structured wiring and smart panels can add approximately $5,000 to the cost of a 5,000-square-foot house, says Doug Shea, an audio-visual consultant who provides custom solutions for homeowners. Smart wiring gives a homeowner the ability to control heat, light, audio and alarms from controls throughout a house.
"It's future-proofing your house," Shea says. "Even if the consumer does not use the features today, the components are in place for use any time in the future." He points out that, while wiring is straightforward in new construction, retrofitting an existing structure with smart wiring is much more time-consuming and expensive. The benefit for designers and owners, Shea says, is that all the wiring associated with a television is hidden.
"It reduces the clutter."
While smart wiring opens possibilities for TV placement, homeowners who have bigger budgets can choose to dedicate a room to a home theatre. Hemsworth says consumers can spend from a few thousand dollars for a simple layout with four speakers in a den to hundreds of thousands for a room with a rear projection 120-inch screen and surround-sound system.
"There really is no limit," he says.
New technology has blurred the lines between televisions and computers as well. Consumers can link their computers to their televisions and some larger LCD panels can double as screens for computers and gaming consoles.
"Think of them simply as a high-definition monitor -- a monitor that happens to have a built-in TV tuner," says Austin Mayo, general manager of A B Sound. Mayo says use of the monitor for gaming and computer work is commonplace, especially among younger families with children. Much of the popularity has to do the price of a new TV.
"A 37-inch LCD television that sold for $12,000 seven years ago sells for
$1,200 today -- that's one-tenth the cost," Mayo says. "How can you argue with that?"
Lower prices have resulted in a sales explosion, he says, with 40- to 52-inch televisions screens representing the majority of units delivered in North America. The lower prices mean consumers often buy more than one TV.
"While the mainstream television may be a 42- or 50-inch set in a common area, many homes are sporting a smaller unit, perhaps a widescreen 32-inch, in the bedroom for more intimate viewing," Mayo says.
-- Canwest News Service
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