Yeah, I know some of the negatives (viewing angle = sore neck, heat from fireplace, running audio, video, and electrical wires), but I cannot help but think of the positives that using the same linear wall space would afford in allowing greater occupancy in the room.
Above the fireplace opening (drop-in Heatilator unit) is 12″ of cultured marble then another 12″ of wood before the mantel. It would be nice to lower that mantel by 6-12″, but I do not know of anyone that has done this. Most I’ve seen are people simple placing it above the fireplace with no modifications to the marble-mason surround or accompanying woodwork.
This is a wood-only, gas-starting drop-in ‘token’ fireplaceplace by Heatilator. It came with the house (c. 2000) and has never been used. Have a 42″ LCD flat-panel and probably will upgrade to a 50″ plasma by mid-Summer. Suggestions for would be great.
Replies
Go to http://www.plasmabuyingguide.com and check out the FAQ and installation areas. I've got my 50" Sony plasma wall-mounted about 4' above the floor, and I don't get a sore neck. Don't have a fireplace, but I built a roll-around cab to store other equipment in under the set.
Hiding your cabling and mounting is a concern, as you will have to lag the mount into the wall, and obscure the cables, and supply AC to the unit, plus a place for your cable/sat/reciever/DVD-CD equipment.
If you're gonna go that big, I'd go with plasma, not LCD, as the plasmas are still brighter and the cost is coming way down.
We're gonna put a 32" LCD Sony in the MBR. They look pretty good.
Nuke
In the last year I have built fireplace mantles/cabinets for 4 flat screens above fireplaces. Its kind-of-a trend!
If you need I can post pics. All of the ones I've done are higher then that 12" piece of wood that is above the marble that you reference, and they function just fine.
Doug
Doug is right, televisions above mantelpices are becoming the must-have thing. I've done a few of them, too, even though it kind of turns my stomach. In the next issue or so, FHB should have an article on a nice one I did last year. Every mantel should begin with a good detailed drawing, but when you try to squeeze the largest flat-screen in with all those details and molding profiles, you really need a good drawing. Most architects and designers don't have the carpentry experience to create one of those drawings, where the details are within 1/16 in. This is one more example of why it's nice to have and know how to use Sketchup, especially since it's free.
Gary
Nice drawing, Gary.
I just did one that was built into a library door unit where the bookshelves swung out and the TV is mounted behind cabinet doors. Your sketchup article online was a bit of a help in figuring the door pivot hinge and trim.In this case, of placing the TV over the mantle, I think it is a good idea from POV of furniture arrangement. I often see people who have to decide whethre to arange for the view of the fireplace, view of the TV, or view out the window. What happens most often is the interior designers arrange for view of the FP and then occupants keep moving stuff to view the window or the TV since it is mostly used in summer when FP is out of use. So combining locations of view is helpful.Another comment on TVs. A LOT of people don't admit to awatching as much as they do. A regular thing when I renovate is for the owner to say they NEVER watch TV so don't put any cable in the walls.
Then a year later I see the installer stapling it up, so now I ignore their requests and rough in for it.I see on your drawing, the box provided seems small. Did you plan for ventilation around the unit? I went to explore possibilities at an audio video specialty shop and they told me I ought leave an inch all the way around the unit. That left me with wondering how it would look with white paint and dust bunnies - so I am having the painters do the ionterior of the space in charcoal, and mounted the TV on a swing out mount for seervice, cleaning, acccess to wires, etc.I think it was in Smart Money magazine that they recently did an article about how people are getting suprises when they have spent 2-3 grand on the TV and then discovering that they can spend another one to three grand getting it appropriately mounted in
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Nice design! Great way to ditch the components. Someone emailed me the other day asking about pivot bookcase designs and planning on doing the same thing, hiding a lot of household security components in a 'safe' room.
Yes, I made the niche about 1/2 in. bigger than the television, for ventilation, and the painters painted the interior a bit darker. The smaller deeper niche is for the hardware, which retracts. The mounting hardware pivots and pulls out, too, so you can adjust the television and see it from anywhere in the room, even tilt it down toward the bed a little, if that's your taste.
Gary
I C
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Nuke
Here is 4 or 5 pictures of mantles or cabinets where flat screens go. I have several more but you should get the gist of it.
In ex-4 a panel raises to revel the flat screen - just as in ex-2 the panel lowers to hide the flat screen.
Doug
Dan, All, thanks for the replies and the many great examples. I am curious about something. As I can see that the suppliers of the big boxes are supplying turnkey solutions for a variety of architectural solutions, I wonder if fireplace surround replacements will be coming down the pipe.
Probably one of the biggest things about hanging a flat-panel over their modern (not rustic) fireplace is the homeowner knows something needs to change in the makeup of the fireplace, but that kind of project might often be looked at by the homeowner as beyond their capabilities in carpentry.
It would be interesting to see Before and After images of such skilled efforts and tk solutions for the common goal. I'll have to post a picture this weekend of my family room. Its basically a 16'x18' room with one long wall with the fireplace and edge-to-edge windows making it a tight condition. Not that uncommon in today's trackbuilding I suppose.
If you can find a picture of an installation style that you like, and post a picture of your fireplace, we may be able to point you in the right direction.
Heres one we did, wires coiled in wall ready to go when HO was ready for plasma install.
BC
That looks nice, I really like painted woodwork, well done!
Doug
Know what's funny?A few years ago, we spent a few thousand of a customers money making an entertainment unit to project something like 28" into a room with tail of TV tucked back into the wall and messing up the floorplan. These new flat panels would make that job so much better nowdays.
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That works well, especially the large coved crown.But I think I might have made the upper horizontal recessed panel to go all the way through and the vertical leg panels shorter. It's hard to say without seeing the whole scope of the room.The lower firplace surrond really feels good. It has enough bulk to appear to support the upper, something that gets forgotten too often, ending up with a top-heavy look
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Piff,
I did consider that exact option, but I was tring to stretch the look of the height without making it taller. The ceiling in that room was approx.23' Also wanted to keep the design more simple on the top to keep it from looking top heavy and try to give the effect that the lower portion is supporting the upper.
Thanks for the compliment. I will post picture of trim at pan ceiling in that room we did. Behind this trim is lighting to illuminate the pan ceiling. Looks great at night.
BC
Nice!
They really like those different textures and tones of beige, didn't they?
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We thought about putting a flat panel set there, and then decided it would be better in a different room. Unless it's hidden when not in use, a big-screen TV looks really odd in most rooms and doubly strange over a rustic fireplace. And what happens in five years when a newer technology emerges with screens 2X the current size? All that clever wallboard, tile, or stonework for nothing.
We moved all of our TV and entertainment gear to a separate room and now use the room with the main fireplace for reading and socializing. No button gepushin' or demblinkin' lights allowed.
The house we are building now and the last one have a space above the gas fireplace for a TV.
These fireplaces are in a cantilevered box that is 2 ft deep with a rear vent, and are almost full ceiling height. We left the opening above the fireplace full depth so you could even put in a normal tube TV in, or other components. The mantel has columns above the main mantel that frame the TV hole and then we installed flipper cabinet doors to hide the hole when needed. The columns are about 4" deep so that we would be able to get a pair of 26" doors to slide into the opening.
We also do the structured wiring in the house and have a couple of outlets for power, 2 RG6 cables, 2 cat5 cables, a HDMI connector, and 6 audio outlets for surround sound. These cable run close to a corner on the same wall as the fireplace where there is a identical setup, and to the structured wiring cabinet. The idea for this was the homeowners have a choice of putting the TV above the fireplace and a cabinet along the wall for the receiver, tuner, DVD player, etc. Or they can put the TV in the corner and have the other components in the space above the fireplace.
A 50" plasma is roughly at 48-50" wide and about 34" tall. Most gas firplaces are 32.5-33" tall where you can start your framing for the TV floor above, add 4" for floor and that is your minimum height of TV. But you will need it taller so the mantle looks right, and to get your clearance from fire box.