TV Over Fireplace Ideas: Should You Avoid It In Your Living Room?

Wondering if you should put your TV above the fireplace in your living room? We’re sharing TV over fireplace ideas…plus living room layouts!

I had a client who I was working on these minimal fireplaces for.

A couple meetings in, she told me she wanted to put her TV above the white plaster fireplace.

Off the cuff, I feel concerned about this “wish” because of three reasons:

1. The beautiful minimal, sculptural element of a plaster fireplace would be marred by The Big Black Rectangle. (Those of you who are new here will enjoy seeing how we hid ours!)
2. The black would stand out against the white too much, in my opinion.
3. She’s like me in that she doesn’t want to be constantly reminded of the TV’s presence.

While I’ll show you below some instances where I’ve done the “TV over fireplace in living room” design request from clients and made it work as best it could…

…one of my suggestions to her was to consider a dark (think charcoal-black) plaster fireplace that went floor-to-ceiling so the TV wouldn’t jump out at her. (Rarrrrr!)

I’m totally digging the dark plaster above, and not so much the tile below, but at least they laid it out in an interesting pattern.

See how we hid our own TV in our house HERE!

The below still isn’t my favorite, but again–I’m working with trying to solve a problem for which the solution may not be “The Ideal of All Ideals”–but if it’s functional for the client and they request it, I’ll do my darndest to find the next best solution for them! 🙂

Look at these white plaster fireplaces with a TV above it–see how much it stands out visually?

By itself, the white plaster fireplaces are gorgeous, almost works of art! Stick a TV on it and…well, do you remember how I feel about seeing TVs? I hide it like I hide so much in our house! 🙂

She said, “But I always imagined it as white plaster…” and I agree the white is gorgeous. I love it! It’s one of my favorite looks right now.

Another solution is to look at maybe blending the two? White below and black above…

See how the TV blends in below?

REST EASY: I did not, however, tell her to put antlers above her fireplace. 🙂 (Sorry, couldn’t resist! Please don’t do it this way.)

Here are some designs with TVs above the white or cream-colored fireplace:

You can see more like these in our post about Living Room Layouts!

You’ll also want to read our 7 Strategies for Choosing the Perfect Interior Colors! (Each space is unique…including yours!)

Have an awkward living room layout? Read our post on How to Lay Out an Awkward or Narrow Living Room!

Next…

See what I’m suggesting to our client as an alternative for her TV over her living room fireplace in my next post about alternative ways to hide your TV! 🙂

You can also read

1. The (Only) 7 Rug Rules You Need to Know for Your Room!
2. See how we hid our own “big black box” in our hidden TV post! 🙂
3. The 12+ Simplest Plaster Fireplace Surround Ideas to Ease Your Eyes!
4. 7 Strategies for Choosing Interior Paint Colors!
5. If you’d like our help right now, check out our Design Guides!

PS: All our house projects (both clients and personal!) can be viewed HERE!