Blend home decor with big-screen TV for room with an excellent view

Ahead of the Super Bowl, the Olympics and Hollywood awards viewing season, here are some tips. Mark Langos, who heads his own interior design firm in Los Angeles, reports that on the West Coast the big-screen television is treated as "a fact of life and work of art." Langos, who favors clean, contemporary designs, advises against putting the TV in a packed armoire where other objects may distract from the screen. He finds that clients over 45 want to hide the set, so for them he will design a custom cabinet or select one ready-made. In a media room he designed for a family in New Jersey, Salvator made the TV a star, hanging it above a fireplace and framing it with the surrounding paneling. Scott Salvator has a sofa facing a TV on a wall in his office so his clients can try out the viewing distance.

While a TV usually should be placed eye-level from a seated position, in bedrooms it generally should be somewhat higher, to be viewed from the bed without craning your neck. Langos recommends putting the TV on an adjustable mount on the wall that can tilt or swivel. When possible, make them disappear by running them behind the wall or, with the proper equipment, you can have all the apparatus in a different room or in a closet. For clients with a designated media room, Salvator has installed tiered seating like a movie theater.