Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Hole in the Wall

Our living room used to feel like a hole in the wall until it actually had a hole in the wall.

Really.

For nearly seven years, I put up with a ginormous ugly box TV in the corner of our living room. It was large enough to house a family of chimpanzees inside comfortably.

It wrecked Christmas tree photos and ruined perfectly good decorating space with its hideous space age looking stand and ugly speakers. It blocked an entire window! So when a friend of T's offered to sell us his old flat screen LCD HDTV (that's seriously a lot of letters and I seriously sound like a nerd typing them) for a ridiculously great price because he is young and single and rich and wanted a newer one, I told T to go for it.

Because I'm a good wife who wants her husband to enjoy fine quality television viewing. Not because I hated that ugly box thing in the corner and I wanted to open the space up. 


So here's another before:
(I think the overturned doll stroller in the corner of the photo only adds to the ambiance.)

You know what they say, right? Things sometimes get worse before they get better. Understatement of the century.

So we subtracted a big ugly TV and added a big ugly hole in the wall. I'm not good at math, y'all, but that's pretty bad.
T was so delighted with his craftsmanship of a perfectly shaped hole in the wall with wires poking out everywhere that he decided to leave it on showcase for the entire month of September.

To make matters worse, we could not agree on what to put underneath the TV. I wanted a nice, long media console that would take up most of the wall and really utilize it for storage. T wanted a tiny, dinky media storage unit. Or a hole in the wall.

So this is what it looked like for a month:
Yes, that is my DVR (the one T stole from me during our Verizon fiasco) perched precariously on top of a speaker turned backwards. A more classy media center you'll never find.

If there's one thing I have learned in 9 years of marriage, it is to keep my mouth shut until the right opportunity arrives. The right opportunity arrived on Friday afternoon when I realized that T was in a good mood and it was now or never.

I approached the situation with humor.

Me: Hey, can I talk to you a minute?
T (panicked look on face): Uh, okay.
Me: So, I don't know about you, but I am getting a little tired of looking at the hole in the wall and I thought it might be time to get something to put under the TV and I know you said you only want wood and something small and I think I found something that at least looks like wood and it is small and it fits the decor in here and it has glass doors. (Deep breath, because that was a lot of words)
T: What?! You don't like my hole in the wall? It was perfectly round!
Me: Um, so you seriously aren't tired of it? You've been staring at it for a whole month.
T: No, not really. I'm just happy with the TV.
Me: Okay, well let me just show you this picture of what I want to get.
T (passing glance): Okay, just buy it.
Me: Really?! Okay.
T: Wait a second. It comes already put together, right? It doesn't come in one of those stupid flat cheap boxes, does it?
Me (running out the door): I can't hear you!!

So after some minor cursing and banging on stuff, T put together our new media console thingie, courtesy of one of those "stupd flat cheap boxes" from Target. It's not real wood, or even great quality, but I wanted something to cover up that darn hole in the wall and he flat out refused to budge on my suggestion of purchasing something to stretch across the wall.

I haven't styled it yet, but I plan on introducing an item or two slowly over time. T doesn't want anything to detract from the star of the room, which is his TV. Since it is *his* room, I am being sensitive to his needs by decorating it the way I want slowly over time, as opposed to throwing it all up and scaring him off.

So...big empty space...what do I do with the rest of this wall?!

Your advice is greatly appreciated for this Decorating Dilemma! It's better than a hole in the wall, right?

Linked to Cottage and Vine.

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31 comments:

  1. I don't have any advice, but I think the TV and media console look great! I think the console is a great size for the TV and it will be nice to have a place to store things.

    Hannah

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  2. So way much better than a hole in the wall! Don't you just hate it when the hubs has...OPINIONS on the decorating?! I get so irritated! Seriously.

    Congrats on the new TV. I know (first hand!) how happy that makes the husband. And he did get that hole pretty perfectly round...

    It's difficult to decorate around a TV without distracting from the star of the room. I can't wait to see what you come up with, cause I have no ideas...

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  3. Amanda, I love it. And personally don't know if you have seen 320 Sycamore's tv wall, but it has to be one of my faves. I know you could come up with an awesome way to do something like it!
    http://www.housetweaking.com/2010/06/25/feature-friday-my-family-room/
    Good luck! I expect to see an after soon! (or you know, after football season is over if you have already pushed T too far for one season)

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  4. Ohhhh! I love that little console! The doors are so cute too. It would have driven me mad to see that hole in the wall for so long, haha! Nice work in buttering T up to get something you could work with. Maybe you can get some nice iron work peices to go about or on the sides of the TV? I know Kirdlands in CP has awesome sales on them, my sister just got some for her house about a month ago & some even hold candles too. :-) And a long, low basket (maybe w/ a lid?) might look nice under the tv to hide unsightly remotes when they're not in use :-) Can't wait to see what you do with the space! :-)

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  5. Lucky you getting a new TV! Mine is still an old boxy one made in 1991. But it works. I'd love to get a new one though. Because like you, I feel it's an eye sore in my living room. haha The console looks great. If T would have it, what about flanking the TV with just some white shutters and MAYBE putting a medallion or a scrolly piece of art above the TV?

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  6. Me again. haha OR you could talk T into letting you get bookshelves for each side. That would add height AND storage.

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  7. I love your angle of working your husband - we all have tricks like that, don't we? The media cabinet looks really great! Good luck with the wall.

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  8. It looks great, and so much better than both the old TV and the hole!
    How about some floating ledge-type shelves on either side to display things on?

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  9. Love the new cabinet. Sounds like you timed it just right with T. As far as the decorating part, I'll have to think about it.

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  10. It looks so nice now!!! YAY! The first weekend of November I am finally getting my wall unit from IKEA!!!! I CANNOT WAIT! It will open up our little living room and contain a ton of stuff that still needs a home (from my move here). You are like me...I always wait to decorate if it's something hubby wanted and sneak in things a little by little.

    Enjoy your new living room...it really does look a lot better!

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  11. ooohhh, smooth, girl....
    ok, what's to the right of the window? I can imagine a chair and a tree or something on the right of the tv, and a cabinet, book shelf, or something to the left with some pics on the wall above it. OR I can imagine two large wrought iron sconces on either side of the tv. Hmmm, I guess I really need to see the whole room. Got more shots?
    Looks great. I do prefer furniture over holes in the wall, also. Good call!

    Suzanne

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  12. LOL! We have a hole in our wall too, but luckily my hubby managed to make it high enough that the tv covers it up. It took me a while to find what I wanted to use for a console to and we have already changed it up once. I think some plants would look great on either side of the tv and you could also do some kind of baskets for storage too.

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  13. Great post Amanda!! And no advice...but it looks better already!

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  14. What is with husband's saying that the living room/TV area is their space? My husband says it ALL the time... Having a TV mounted on the wall is so nice and such a space saver, especially if you don't have a large room as a living space, it really opens everything up.

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  15. so funny...we had the same hole in the wall too - the husband covered it when the kids realized they could drop things in it :)

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  16. You are so lucky to get that dainty little flatscreen! For 10 years I have put up with a GINORMOUS HUGE TV that takes up massive amounts of space. The console under the TV looks awesome. Hpw about mirrors on either side or bookshelves?

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  17. Definitetely better than a hole! The console looks good! Wish I was better at decorating-my first thought was bookshelves too-like a previous post. I also checked out the link in the post above-great ideas there. Good Luck!

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  18. I hope you have some readers that actually have some decorating skill to advise you because I sure can't! And yes, that is much better than a hole in the wall.

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  19. Wow, what a transformation. I love the Target piece! Can't wait to see what you do with the space.

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  20. Congratulations on your new tv and console. I know you were glad to get rid of that huge tv that took up too much space. I would never guess that your console came from Tarjay.

    You sure do have a lot of empty wall space now. My solution to a similar dilemma was to stencil the wall behind the tv. I am planning to extend the stenciling that I did out a bit more. (When I don't know.)

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  21. I love this gallery wall around the tv that Emily Clark did:
    http://emilyaclark.blogspot.com/2010/09/building-gallery-wall-around-your-tv.html

    Or, I put an Ikea floating shelf above my tv.
    http://trappedinnorthjersey.blogspot.com/2010/06/tv-wall.html

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  22. I love the console. You could play a joke on hubs and put some flowers and butterflys all around the TV. Maybe a boa...

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  23. GIRL- you crack me up!! You are so funny with how you tell your stories!! I've also been known to run out the door after getting the "okay" to make a particular purchase:) For the wall, I also like Emily Clark's gallery wall. Or you could do like I did on either side of the tv and put two big woven baskets with large branches, they really bring the eye up.

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  24. TV console is sooo nice! Can't wait to see what you do with it! Much preferred to the hole (:

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  25. What's funny is that I tell my husband that I am home ALL day, EVERY day and so I'm looking at all his little "hole in the wall" (aka unfinished projects) constantly and so I start getting my creative juices flowing. He's at work all day, most of the day and so it doesn't bother him! I get it! Very nice...glad he got his new TV!

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  26. Wow - what a cool new tv. Ours is on it's last legs. I am excited to get a new one.

    I like the idea another commenter had about a gallery wall. I think that would look fantastic!

    I hope you are having a great week Amanda!

    xox
    Jen

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  27. Well at least that hole is gone right? Love the new look. Time to stencil the wall I think. That way you don't feel like you have to fill the wall with stuff to take up all the empty space. Then you can put a couple of extra chairs on either side of the tv cabinet for more seating when you need it.

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  28. Amanda,

    LOL LOL I love the way you tell stories! I can't help but chuckle as I read this one. Great job on getting the hole covered up. And the TV does look great over the console...do you think he would go for bookshelves? Good luck! :-) Thanks for the chuckles!

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  29. Thank goodness for flat screens! We just got rid of a ginormous tv that was in the playroom. Your arrangement looks great Amanda and thank for linking.

    -Rene

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  30. Very nice! I would put a chair (sort of like a dining room chair) on either side of the tv and cabinet. It will look great and provide extra seating for those bowl games, etc. A painting, print, whatever would look good over each chair.

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