Family Room Design: How Can We Have Our Cake, and Eat it, Too

In the layout of our family rooms, there are 3 strategic players vying for attention, and in true American fashion, we want ALL of them ALL of the time: (1) the View, (2) the Fireplace and (3) the TV. As long as there is flickering firelight in the general direction I’m looking, I am able to appreciate that ambiance, feel the warmth, and enjoy the mood a fire creates.

This is the thing we have to have directly in front of us at all times, and equally visible from multiple spots in the room.

Back when they were “fatter and narrower”, we used to hide them demurely in a pretty cabinet or piece of furniture, just off to the side of the beautiful fireplace.

The thing that helps in this design scenario where we are squeezing a TV (at proper viewing height) above a fireplace, is the contemporary linear fire boxes, which can be nice and wide, but short (one of my favorite sizes is 60” wide by 20” high, although wider is even better if you have the room!). This gives a nice amount of real estate to the fire, and still allows the TV to be at a comfortable viewing height.