Reply to What's an absolute "No" in your house search?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Family room where the only place to put a TV is over the fireplace.[/quote]

Hold on - THAT ^^^ is a deal breaker for you?  [/quote]

PP isn't the only one! I HATE TVs over the fireplace. And we watch enough TV that not having someplace else to put it would make this if not a dealbreaker, a real downside.

Lack of sidewalks and/or not walkable would be an actual dealbreaker for me. Walking is my main form of exercise and it's how I decompress, and not being able to step out my door and walk would make me miserable.[/quote]

+1 hate it! You have to look up so high, it’s uncomfortable. And the TV has to be really small. Plus it looks so tacky.[/quote]

No it doesn’t. It’s 2021. Ppl watch TV. Big deal[/quote]

That's the point - I like watching TV and I want the TV to have a good place to go, where it'll be enjoyable to watch. I don't want it to feel like I just stuck it in the only available spot and who cares if it's uncomfortable and ugly there.

We actually live on a busy street - yeah I know - but have a nice quiet room in the back where we have some comfortable couches, and the TV at eye level for when we're sitting on them. I enjoy the privacy of not watching TV in a room in the front of the house - I don't like feeling on display when we're vegging out - and I like that we can look straight ahead, not up, to watch.

I'm sure you get used to staring above the fireplace! I just don't like it, and a house would have to be pretty fantastic for me to get that setup.[/quote]

I hate it too.  And I hate that our recently purchased house has an HDMI port above it.  We were able to hide it with a mirror but it was tough to find.

I love a good fireplace and I want the mantle to be seasonally decorated and cozy.  A TV does not do that[/quote]

I think a tv above the fireplace is just about the most god-awful thing ever.  Who wants a television to be the focal point of the room?  We have a fireplace in our family room and in our living room. They are beautiful.  And I keep the mantle decorated as well.  Our television is in the family room inside a built in cabinet that closes when we aren’t watching television. [/quote]

The only people I know who have TV’s over their mantle either a) grew up on TV and truly can’t live without it, therefore it really is the centerpiece of their house or B) don’t care for interior design. There are so many more interesting ways to stage your home but it’s convenient and some people just don’t care. [/quote]

I guess I'm a bit amused/surprised by the level of hate here, but in fairness it is probably worth pointing out that having a TV over a mantle doesn't mean you can't decorate said mantle. I have a pretty thick fall garland along with candles and a small picture on ours right now with room to spare. We got The Frame TV (with one of the optional decorative frames) and have hidden our sound system along with all the cords so it doesn't take up any space other than the wall.

And while I'll ignore the blanket statement about not carrying about interior design, given it is intentionally judgmental, most folks I know with a TV over the fireplace (including us) don't watch TV that much and the placement likely speaks to that--I personally don't mind looking up slightly when on our couch watching TV, but all the folks on here that complain that such an angle would hurt their neck likely must watch a lot more TV than us.

Anyways, I really do get why some wouldn't like it--but the above take is a bit overblown. 
[/quote]

It’s not a diss, it’s true. From a historical standpoint, fireplaces existed as the focal point of the home - it was where the heat came from. Families gathered - still do - around the fireplace. You don’t have to be a designer to know that the first place your eye goes to, directly or not, is to the fireplace. Why you would want to stick a television above one is beyond me, decorated mantle or not. A nice piece or pieces of artwork - which speaks to your personal style and shibui - is what any expert will tell you should anchor your space. For some people I guess that’s their television. [/quote]

This is getting silly. All I have been responding to are claims that you can’t place anything on a mantle if there is a TV over a fireplace—as well as pointing out that there is a bit of a tension in claiming people who have TVs over their fireplace are obsessed with TV when you also recognize another set on here object to the placement because it makes it too uncomfortable to watch TV. Those things don’t jive.

You seem determined to hate on this one aspect of many folks home to a degree that is genuinely a bit odd, so I’ll leave you with this: Any true “expert” will help you make your space work for your family in a practical sense while still making sure it’s as visually pleasing as possible. Any designer who defaults to art over the fireplace, as you suggest, is pretty second rate. In some spaces, a mirror is more pleasing—in others, leaving the space over a mantle bare to highlight brickwork or molding is the best choice (particularly when paired with appropriate accents on the mantle). And yes, if the room demands it, an appropriately spaced, higher end TV (meaning it doesn’t result in a black box dominating a room) may be the right choice for a family.

That said, there are certainly families that don’t give a damn about style and just look at function. And while I may not agree with many of the choices families of that mindset choose, good for them! The only important rule about home design is that it makes the family that lives in the home happy. [/quote]

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