Living Room Update

Let's, just for a moment, go back to before.

Help

Fast forward to today's pretty white walls and lovely window covering.

Progress

Looking better from that angle, right?  Not so much when you add the tube corner of this TV loving family's living room.

Yes, many families keep the TV out of the main floor living room.  Most of whom I know live on this street.  And yes, we do have a big beautiful one in the newly made over family room basement.

But the basement isn't always where we want to be. 

Our family of three little kids (including one crawler) tend to function better throughout the day when we're all on the same floor.  I'm in the kitchen 99% of the time.  And I can't lie, many times, Spongebob is an honorary member of our family.  Especially when dinner needs to get on the table.

I also like to catch glimpses of HGTV while feeding George a bottle...which usually happens in the living room.  The couch is comfy and only steps from the kitchen where he watches me make it (screaming crying until it's in his mouth).

And at night, there's something about watching Mad Men only one floor away from just-put-to-bed children instead of two. 

We've come to the conclusion, that in this house, we just can't not have a TV in the living room. 

So it stays.  For now.  At least for the foreseeable kid-filled future. 

Here's the ugly current state with taped-out vision behind it...nice and up close.

Gotta Go

See those two holes to the right of the awful stand?  This morning, those were the outlet and cable connections.

Goodbye

My amazing electrician came by today and moved them to the corner.  I've got a plan.  And the plan is to make them disappear.

Future Viewing Pleasure

The top half-taped box is the current TV wall mounted in the corner (it will have to mount on the right studded wall, as the left is the old drywall over lath & plaster over strapping).  The box below it is a floating corner console. 

I'm in touch with one of the fabulous carpenters from our basement job to give me a quote to build the console.  The plan is to hide the outlets and wires in the console...which will have a shelf and sliding doors to conceal the DVD player, router, wireless box, etc.  It's visually deceiving here, but the console height is just over half the height of the TV.  That way, it should ground the corner better and make everything feel less float-y.

The long-term plan is to put in a gas fireplace (this is the outside wall, so we have access to the gas line on the other side of it) and built-ins on either side.  If the TV stays even then, the new cable & outlet positions will be hidden within the built-ins.

For now, I'm excited to patch those holes and hang that TV. 

And hang some artwork, replace the bad pillows, find a new floor lamp, figure out a new coffee table...  ahhh!