Changing screen habits have a visual effect on decor

Kirsty Mcluckie eyes the role of television in the home

From the TV in a cupboard in the 1950s and 60s and the iconic space design in the 70s, to the home bar of the 80s and the modernday minimalist look, our living rooms have evolved with social changes, influenced by technological progress.

Sony has just published the results of a poll of 6,000 Europeans which it says shows that the TV is still the heart of the living room as one of its most revered items, coming second in importance only to the sofas people watch them from.

But as a nation we are ambivalent about the presence of television sets in our homes.

There is a snobbery around too much telly watching and when it comes time to sell our properties, the smartest interiors are photographed sans gogglebox, as if it never crosses the householders mind to binge watch a box set or tune in to Love Island.

Instead the furniture is artfully arranged around the fireplace, when surely the more usual day to day tableau is all seating turned with Mecca-like focus on the box in the corner.

It is true that when choosing images to grace the property pages, I tend to prefer interiors that aren’t dominated by a huge black screen, but that might be my inner Hyacinth Bucket revealing itself.

Certainly technological advances change the way we use our living rooms.

I spent my 1970s childhood lounging on the floor of our sitting room, elbows on the floor and chin in hands to watch telly for hours. I’m not sure that I actually recall sitting in an armchair till my teens.

My own children did no such thing, and it is only thinking about it now that I’ve realised that televisions in my youth

were so small that to give Tops of the Pops our full concentration, we had to resort to positioning ourselves just a few feet away.

Fortunately the dire parental warnings of resulting square eyes have so far failed to manifest themselves.

These days screens are getting bigger and today’s mollycoddled children can recline on the sofa at leisure.

But big TV screens, unless at the centre of a very modern interior, can spoil the look of an otherwise beautiful room. Wall mounted monsters take a space where we may previously have placed a mirror or painting.

For the ultimate luxury, huge TVS are housed within home cinema rooms with front facing seats, specific to their purpose.

I’m not sure that I would want a vast screen, no matter how slim, dominating a room, even if I could afford one.

And however much more rewarding watching the rugby highlights is in ultra HD, using the technology to view Coronation Street could be downright alarming.

Sony’s take on the evolution of the TV is that the consumer wants ever larger screens with acoustic multi-audio technology, woofers and tweeters and surround sound.

But with the trend for viewers to watch programmes streamed online, on their phones, laptops or tablets, more households have moved to watching TV alone, in bed, or seated at the kitchen counter.

Perhaps the next way in which our viewing habits influence our home decor is that we return to TVS in beautiful wooden cabinets, to be opened only on the odd occasion that the family sits down to watch together.