TV Above Fireplace: Should You Avoid It...or Do It?

Remember my client who I was working on minimal fireplaces for?

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

I immediately get concerned about this because of 3 reasons:

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!)
The black would stand out against the white too much, in my opinion.
She’s like me in that she doesn’t want to be constantly reminded of the TV’s presence.

My suggestion 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…