T.V. Cover-Up Part I

No, I'm not talking about some mass conspiracy.  I'm referring to the trend of covering the decor eye sore known as television.  This isn't new.  Actually it's a return to old ways.  In the early decades of television there were two ways of concealing this piece of technology.  Firstly, sets were made surrounded by tasteful wooden consoles meant to help the set blend in with the furniture.  Some consoles even had cabinet doors that closed over the set when not in use to better camouflage its presence.  Televisions at that time weren't though of as disposable.  When the T.V. was on the fritz, it was time to call the repairman.  Something which our family did on more than one occasion. I recall the repairman once had to haul of our heavy set in its bulky console frame to his shop to repair it properly.  That was the beginning of the end for that particular set.  When it finally gave up the ghost, we never again had a set that came in a wooden console.  It was all ugly junk from there on out.

The second way of concealing a television was to have it in a separate room known as the "family room" or the "den."  This room was to be off the beaten path, with a more formal living room saved for having company over.  I remember this being a standard feature in homes when I was a child, but as I grew, I noticed that more and more people, my own family included, began to make the television the center of their living spaces, to the point of having all furniture pointed at it even when the arrangement discouraged conversation with guests or family members.  

Now that televisions are bigger than ever before, they're even harder to hide, but with the return to an interest in having a beautiful, tasteful home there has been a rise in interest in once again trying to hide the television in plain sight.  The largest and least complicated trend I've seen is to make a gallery around the set and then build a picture frame for the television with a screen saver of a painting running all the time.  I like this example from thriftydecorchick.com :

I long considered doing this for my own loft, but I know me.  I'm a bit of a utility freak.  I just can't leave the T.V. on all the time which means I would never use this and would just have a frame on my T.V. and that feels pointless.  Another option which I like much better and would love to do one day is build a custom cabinet like this one by Christine McConnell :

If you're not familiar with Ms. McConnell's work, I encourage you to check her out and then forever feel inferior in everything you make and do and are.  I love her and I love her videos, but I can definitely never measure up.  All that aside, Mr. Bleu is on board for an idea like this...one day.  For now we're swamped with finishing construction, so this just isn't a priority.  So, I continued to puzzle over this little quandary and finally found an easy and inexpensive solution that doesn't waste any electricity.

Before I get to that, here's the space I'm working with.  Originally we were going to put the T.V. on a side wall where it wouldn't get any window glare, but for some reason, probably just to get it off the floor and out of the way while we were building the loft, we decided to mount it to this this beam...and it's jus there...and I have no idea why.  Since we've just kept going, I guess it's there to stay and I am dealing with it.

We purchased this map tapestry years ago from Hobby Lobby and it hung on our wall (you can see a post with this map here)  until that pesky leaky roof damaged it.  I took it down and stored it until we had the roof repaired.  As I have been working on decorating the loft, I thought of this piece and decided to see if it would fit the set.  It didn't quite, but close enough for me.  I filled a sink with warm water to gently wash the dust and water stain off and to my extreme disappointment, the print washed off too.

Fortunately Hobby Lobby still has it online so, I purchased another and when it came in I put it over the T.V. to see how it fit.  As you can see it was just shy of covering it.  Waste not, want not.  I decided to trim the sides off the now ruined piece and sew them to the edges of the new map in order to extend the new cover out to the entire width of my television.

I inserted the old top dowel rod with the hanging loop into the bottom so that I can just fold it up to hang it.  It's easy to move out of the way when it's T.V. time and easy to put back over when we're done, plus it matches the vibe of the room.

While I was still trying to solve this situation, Mr. Bleu finished the shelving for our entertainment center and I now wanted to cover this as well as the T.V. but that will have to wait for another post, which is why I've called this "Part I."  I also would like to do something different with the sound bar and the cords, but again that will come later.  You can also see the progress we're making on other parts of the house in these photos.  The ceiling is finished, just needs a light fixture, and the wallpaper is getting put up as well.  I love the way this print works so well with the color of the loft and the library.  I didn't plan it that way, but am so very thankful that it worked out.

The map works very well in hiding the T.V. and I decided to put another map at the back to hide the back of the T.V. as you walk into the library.  I hope one day to have Mr. Bleu do a painting to hang there, but projects like that have really taken a back seat at the moment, so the map is just to tide me over.  I'll include photos of that when I do a post on the library.  For now, I have a hook in the ceiling that I hang the map on and tuck it behind the T.V. whenever we want to use it.

In Part II of this post, I'll show you how I hid the sound system in this room and hopefully have this entertainment center finished.