When you thumb through decorating magazines you see that a lot of people are placing large flat-screen TVs over fireplace mantels. This trend has been going on for a few years and it makes me wonder if there has been a spike in neck injuries since it started. I can't think of a more uncomfortable way to watch TV. If I'm going to be looking up, I'd rather be facing out the window with binoculars and studying the wrens nesting in our birdhouse. Or gazing at stars. Or watching a roller coaster do a loop da loop while praying that my children don't fall out of it.
So when it came time to design our family room, we were of two minds: huge TV in the center of a built-in bookcase and no fireplace ... or fireplace as the center, with a (modest?) 42-inch TV on a corner shelf.
Given that we're renovating an older house and that I've never been anywhere close to the leading edge of any technological advance, we went with the fireplace and smaller TV.
And in keeping with the 1920s era of our house, we chose to do a tile surround rather than stone, brick or wood. But the path to a lovely fireplace surround is never smooth and easy, is it?
Recent Comments