In Case You Missed It: Kelly's Hide and Seek Television

Today's AT Daily email from Maxwell looks at Kelly Geisen's inspired television hutch inside a model fireplace she built herself. That's right. Before there was just a flat wall, but Kelly found an old fireplace mantel that could also serve as a flat screen's housing. More photos after the jump...

The interior designer who lives on the upper west side of Manhattan, "designed, scavenged and built this entire television housing from scratch," Maxwell writes. "Kelly, a huge collector, found the mantle at an antique shop and had it built onto the wall. Meanwhile she had already made sure that all the proper wiring was in place (cable, electricity, speakers, etc)."

3-19-kelly3.jpg.jpeg

The flat screen is installed into the mantel's opening with another, tighter frame installed around it. All the wires and boxes are hidden behind a panel below the television.

3-19-kelly5.jpg.jpeg

Above is another mantel Kelly built for the bedroom.

3-19-kelly6.jpg.jpeg

Kelly's other design trick: Using a fireplace screen to hide the TV when it's powered down. The screen is backed with plexi mirrors, which reflect tons of light.

photos: Kelly G Design

To sign up for AT's Daily Emails head over to Apartment Therapy's main page, and plug in your email on the upper left corner.

Comments (7)

I saw this on AT's main page... and it's a cool proof of concept and all, but really, wouldn't you get annoyed having to look down to see the TV? It almost looks like you'd have to move the coffee table if you were sitting directly opposite the TV.

posted by matsayswhat on March 19th 2009 at 2:50pm
view matsayswhat's profile

It's too low, but otherwise very attractive and well done. But I don't understand the need to "hide" a television. We don't hide our clocks, or telephones, and rarely our computers. But the TV is an eyesore?

posted by SunnyBlue on March 19th 2009 at 3:23pm
view SunnyBlue's profile

I agree that it's too low for comfortable viewing.

If you can't look at something which requires looking at to perform its intended purpose, then it's not high enough on your list of priorities to actually be in your home. Go Luddite if you can't handle a T.V. in your decor.

posted by Orchid64 on March 19th 2009 at 6:37pm
view Orchid64's profile

All the consoles of yesteryear were about this same height. It is not ideal, but minimally better than the TV above the firebox --let's not go there again...

Hiding a television is a legitimate decorating strategy. I wouldn't equate the dominance of a big black screen with the challenges presented by a clock or telephone

posted by sierracreek on March 19th 2009 at 7:11pm
view sierracreek's profile

I hide my telephone.

posted by a_lot_of_things on March 19th 2009 at 9:00pm
view a_lot_of_things's profile

I lose my telephone a lot, but that's not the same as hiding it, huh :)

posted by SunnyBlue on March 19th 2009 at 10:37pm
view SunnyBlue's profile

Totally agree Sunnyblue.

Enclosing a TV like that can cause it to overheat. Sony has a diagram in the manual about doing something like this.

posted by Baxatax on March 20th 2009 at 10:38am
view Baxatax's profile