UPGRADE YOUR TV ROOM
Make your space more inviting for flopping down and relaxing
With so much time spent at home, many of us are binge-watching TV in alarming amounts — and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
To get the most out of your time in front of the
TV, you need more than just a handful of streaming services: You need a comfortable room where you want to flop down for hours. Designing a TV room, however, isn’t like designing a kitchen or bathroom. There are few hardand-fast rules.
Why? While homes have accommodated activities like cooking, dining and sleeping for centuries, watching TV is still relatively new. It’s “only been a design problem for about 70 years,” said Thomas Morbitzer, a partner at Ammor Architecture in New York.
And during that time, the technology has changed dramatically. Where boxy TVs once filled up space-hogging cabinets, now some flat-panel screens are as slender as picture frames.
“The TV is a big deal in most houses,” Morbitzer said. “But what’s funny is that everybody’s is totally different.”
Still, the architects and designers we spoke to offered plenty of ideas for creating inviting spaces for watching TV, whether your screen is in a dedicated media room or a corner of the living room.
Position the TV
Plunking down a TV on a cabinet or mounting it on a wall sounds simple enough. But before you do that, take note of the rest of the room.
Often, a TV competes with other elements for attention. “There’s always that challenge between the fireplace, the television and the view,” said Grant Kirkpatrick, a partner at KAA Design in Los Angeles. “Every day, we’re dealing with where we can put the TV so it’s practical but not the focal point.”
In a room with a fireplace, the TV is often mounted high above the mantel, but that isn’t always the best choice, Kirkpatrick said. Sure, it makes one wall the focus of the room, but it also requires viewers to look up when they’re seated, which can be uncomfortable.
So what’s the ideal height for a TV? That “depends on the distance from the
TV, the size of the TV and the height of the sofas,” Morbitzer said. Generally, he said, “we’re comfortable putting TVs between 50 and 54 inches, on center, from the floor.”
Consider the TV wall
When TVs had smaller screens and larger enclosures, hiding them in armoires was a popular strategy. Nowthat larger screens are de rigueur, hiding a TV in a cabinet is more difficult. But it’s not impossible.
A mm or Architecture designed a Manhattan loft with a retractable screen and a hidden projector, doing away with the big-screen TVentirely. Workshop/APD, a New York-based firm, sometimes hides the TVbehind a large piece of art with a motorized mechanism that slides the artwork out of the way when it’s time to watch “The Queen’s Gambit.”
“We get into these discussions about how to create an amazing space that’s enjoyable to sit in, where it doesn’t feel like you’re just looking at a black box the whole time,” said Matthew Berman, a principal at Workshop/APD.
That doesn’t always require motors and sliding panels, Berman said. Sometimes he positions the TVin a wall of built-in shelving, so it becomes just one element in a larger expanse of books and decorative objects. Or the shelving might be installed on either side of the TVfor a similar effect.
Plan the seating
Furnishing a TV room isn’t like furnishing a formal living room. “Eschewing formality is typically good practice for a TV room,” said Andrew Bowen, a partner at ASHNYC. “We think about it as a place where people really just want to relax, unwind, turn off the world outside and focus on whatever entertainment is in front of them.”
That means, “first and foremost, you really need ample comfortable seating,” he said. “In general, it’s good to have deeper seats” than you’d have in a normal living room, because people often prefer to recline while watching TV, rather than sitting up with perfect posture.
Many sofas have a depth of 36 or 37 inches, but one with a depth of 40 or 41 inches might be preferable in a TV room, as it offers space for spreading out.
Sectional sofas are popular in TV rooms for similar reasons: They foster a casual vibe and support various modes of seating, while allowing people to face different directions in rooms with multiple focal points.
Manage the wires
You may have a number of components running in and out of your TV— cable boxes, streaming devices, sound bars, video game systems. To keep them and the wires that go with them from looking cluttered, you’ll need a plan for where to put everything.
Alow cabinet below the TV can hide extra components, and with holes drilled in the back, it can provide access for wires. If you have multiple cables running from the TV to the cabinet, tie them together using Velcro straps or zip ties.
Better yet, think about built-in cabinetry. Morbitzer said his firm often mounts the TV on a panel that sits slightly out from the wall, so cords can be concealed behind it. If the bottom cabinets have doors made of a semitransparent material like metal mesh or woven cane, you can hide components and still operate them with infrared remote controls.
Control the light
It’s nice to be able to control light levels in any room, but in a TV room it’s especially important.
First, study the natural light in the room. If one wall is often drenched in sunlight, try to put the TV somewhere else.
If the entire room is generally bright and sunny, it might be worth adding blackout shades or heavy drapery that can be pulled over the windows during the day. For additional flexibility, Morbitzer recommended using multiple fixtures on dimmers, so you can have a bright room when you’re not watching TV and a darker room when you are.
Be sure to include floor or table lamps beside some seats, he advised, “so if somebody wants to read a book while people are watching TV, they can do that discreetly, without having to have the overhead light on.”