13 TV Wall Designs That Make Your Screen Look Cold

This elegant TV wall design is actually also a home bar and a partition that helps the space flow efficiently. Lyons Studio’s client needed somewhere to hang a television in the open-concept living-slash-dining room, so founder Merrill Lyons dreamt up the built-in cabinet with TV niche on one side and a bar counter and storage on the other. “Creating that built-in was one of the most transformative aspects of the living room, dining room, and kitchen areas because it really cleaned things up and defined the dining and the living spaces,” says Lyons, who started her firm in 2014 and trained in industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design.

The color is also key. “The first thing I’d encourage someone to think about is the fact that when your TV is off, it’s a black rectangle,” Lyons says. “With that in mind, we try to think about how we can make that black rectangle look like it belongs on the wall. One way to do this is to paint the wall behind it a deep color so that the TV fades into it as opposed to a white wall where there will be a high level of contrast.”

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We know, it’s controversial. But Ashley Hanley doesn’t have a problem with it. “I think in general we have become obsessed with having these picture-perfect rooms, thanks to the likes of Pinterest, Instagram, etc. But typically those spaces are not realistic or conducive to everyday living, especially for newborn families,” she says. “My theory is to embrace [TVs] in the casual rooms—they are to be viewed, and there is no need to hide it.” Hanley turned the porch of this Colonial Revival home in Richmond, Virginia, into a fully equipped living space, partly by putting a television over the hearth. The black box might not fit the established aesthetic, but it’s exactly where it needs to be for comfortable viewing.

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Install a playful wallpaper on the TV room ceiling to take the focus off the flat screen. Alicia Hassen, the founder of interior design firm Brooklinteriors, built the color palette of this Williamsburg, Brooklyn, apartment’s living room on the pattern overhead. The touches of red and olive green that continue across the custom TV unit make the entire wall look cohesive and distract from the shiny rectangle at the center.

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In this colorful Texas home by Creative Tonic, Elias mounted a diminutive television in the center of the bar. Because there’s so much happening, from the mirrored back wall to bottles and elegant shelving, the screen sticks out less. In the unlikely case that the cocktails aren’t enough to get guests hovering, the TV will definitely do the trick.

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Paint the walls and ceiling the same color, stick to a monochrome palette, and mount only your television on the wall. It’s a bold choice, but why not be intentional about it? “I’m all for embracing the TV and doing something fun with it,” Elias says. In this Creative Tonic project, the built-in storage at the base of the TV wall makes it look like a current twist on a typical storage unit.

Wall-mounted TVs likely make you think of the theater, so you might as well lean into the idea. Erika Frank “painted the screen on the wall and surrounded it with a wood frame clad in black velvet to absorb any airy bleed,” she explains. “It’s an excellent way to do a screening room where a projector is involved. Much easier to touch up if damaged, and also no flimsy screen hanging down!”

Follow in ABD Studio’s footsteps and make your TV part of your bookshelf wealth aesthetic. The media room in this Lake Tahoe home incorporates the television into the shelving alongside the family’s collectables and books. It helps the TV, and the media room, flow better with the entire aesthetic of the house.

“It is significant to be sure that the television is mounted to a location that looks thoughtfully considered and tidy,” says Brittany Giannone, founder of ABD Studios. Here, “the television is nestled tastefully into a custom-built media cabinet that filled the expanse of the entire wall. This custom built-in allowed us to decoratively conceal the television within a curated collection of accessories, books, and intriguing diminutive artworks.”

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Paint the wall behind the TV a dim, moody color so it blends into the background. This is a great option if you want a flush TV but can’t do one for whatever reason. “The key to tastefully mounting a television on the wall is to make every effort to conceal it with the background behind,” Erin Sander says of this made-for-lounging porch in Dallas. “In this case, the dim siding plays a key component in the TV receding as an element in the space.”

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Joe Ireland designed this perfectly proportioned alcove to house the TV in a Chesapeake Bay home, and it makes the space look so well balanced. The shelves that frame the television enhances the effect, but a TV inset like this can work in any home. Just make sure no one wants to upgrade to a bigger screen anytime soon.

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“The idea of hiding a TV behind a piece of art is not up-to-date,” says Bronwyn Ford of Pursley Dixon Architecture. However, this custom foldable artwork is quite a unique way to disguise that black rectangle. “This home’s front room is meant for gathering with family and for entertaining, but also needed to be a casual space to relax,” she explains. “With such thoughtful details in the room, we didn’t want a TV to be the focal point over the attractive limestone fireplace,” Ford says. So they commissioned an artist, Stuart Coleman Budd, to paint four panels they provided, which were then fitted onto custom hinges. The result is a trompe l’oeil TV screen that’s uncomplicated to open and close.

If you want to give your kids a playroom that can entertain them in every possible way, put a flat screen on the wall—it’s perfect for playing those classic Disney movies. But make it part of the decor. The team at Kemble Interiors built a mini replica of this Palm Beach home in its playroom (don’t miss the copper details) and mounted a TV above the front door, giving the client’s children a fun way to utilize their imagination and an outlet for when they just want to settle down and watch something.

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As we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of powerful opinions out there about mounting TVs over fireplaces. If it’s your best option, you may want to do it in the most unobtrusive way possible. Recessing it, as seen in this Dumbo loft, lets it disappear a little. “Early on in the project, we came up with the idea of adding this wall which could both house a fireplace and recess their TV,” says Michelle Zacks. “The finishing touch was the dark-colored plaster paint finish by Kamp Studios, which adds some contrast and weight to the room and looks patinated in the same way that the surrounding concrete ceiling feels.”

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Sasha Bikoff installed this television in the walk-in closet of an Upper East Side apartment, allowing her fashion-conscious client to watch her shows (, perhaps?). Who doesn’t like to be entertained while they’re getting ready for the day?

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