could you post pics of the rest of the room, including the large piece you refer to? How much room is there to pass by the tv now to the kitchen (the width of the passageway - like from the end of the piano to the tv wall)?

Yes, please give us a better sense of the space with more pix. Thanks!

The first thing I thought of seeing your layout is to mount the television on the wall. It looks like where you have to place the tv is a traffic flow area so anything you put on the floor there, like a table or tv stand, will be somewhat in the way, at least visually.

I can imagine the tv mounted, perhaps something with a very thin profile below and something on the walls on either side.

Good luck,
Ann

I would agree to mount it on the wall given that you seem to need traffic flow in that adjacent hall.

I have a similar problem.

If one does mount the TV on the wall, how do you deal with the cable box and other components?

I currently have a larger-sized TV on a sideboard. We removed one drawer and drilled a hole in the back, and have the cable box in the drawer recess.

We are considering moving the TV, but don't know what to do about the components? Any ideas?

Signed,
House Built Before TV Invented
(Julie)

Could you move the piano over to that wall -- and have the TV hang above the piano?

Then just add black accents around the whole space to balance out the visual "weight" of the TV area ....

Ok, here are some photos.

looking from the kitchen into the LR:

This one is from the same angle, but gives a better idea of how narrow the passageway feels:

Looking down at the room from the stairs (you can see here that there is a path from the kitchen in front of the piano to get upstairs. This is why the TV didn 't work particularly well in the piano's spot; people were constantly walking by):

Looking from the front door into the room:

The other part of the "L", used as an office:

We have thought about mounting the tv on the wall, but it would need to be able to both tilt downward and swing outward in order for us to see it from the couches. I guess this is possible, but I don't know where to start. I'd love to recess a bracket into the wall, but the opposite side of that wall is a shower and that makes me nervous. :)

We also did keep the piano in the TV's spot for a while, and sat the tv on it. This wasn't bad, except that the components like the cable box and xbox had to sit on the piano top and when I'm practicing or working on something music-related I really do use the piano top for multiple books, pieces of music, etc. I tend to make a big mess whatever I'm doing!

Also, it was hard to stay focused on music-related tasks when there was a gigantic tv a few inches from my face calling my name!

I should explain that we had the room painted over the winter (my first time hiring someone else to do the painting! It was FABULOUS!!!). We didn't want the furniture back in its old places, so we tried almost every possible combination in the weeks that followed. We'd arrange it one way, wait a few days, move it again, etc. This went on from the dead of winter until APRIL, when a family party forced us to just decide where to put it and leave it there! So I can honestly say we've tried almost everything in this weird little traffic-y room, and I no longer have to wonder things like "what if we just put the couch over on that wall and moved the loveseat 3 feet to the left."

So the furniture finally has designated homes once again. :)

Okay how about you keep the same set up and get a bamboo or wicker type box with a lid at HG or one of your choice. Measure the opening under the table to height and width. Once you have the box, cut out the back of it and place all the wires and cable inside by sliding them in. Then make a hole in the back of the top drawer so the wires come out the back and not the front, buy a cable cover at HD that will allow you to run them down the wall and again in to the newly purchased wicker box. I say wicker type to go with your blinds. It's an easy fix, I did it on my desk for my modem etc and it works fine.

Did you try bringing that piece of furniture in the office into the living room and using it for the TV? Then you could put the piano in its place in the office.

I think the problem for me is that the TV area doesn't look like part of the room but part of the hallway to the kitchen. It helps to see how deep that little cabinet is because I wasn't sure my idea would work. It looks as if the table there now is 20" - 24" deep?

I would try to make that wall look larger by filling it with shelves/bookcases (what's the opposite of un-deep? Narrow sounds like width, but I mean depth). I wouldn't fill it with stuff but add some decorative elements and books, maybe some artwork on the wall, etc. It would have to be thicker out where tv is and stepped in closer to the passageway to kitchen. Kind of on the order of this:

or this:

or even this:

Even Billie bookcases from Ikea are only 11" deep and there is a piece that could be used between 2 of them to put the tv on.

I think you need something bigger than the piano, not as bulky as the cabinet in the next room. I think the higher on the wall it goes, the better. You could even use something with a solid back that comes out past the wall to the office area so the whole thing could move to the right a bit, so the tall cabinet there would kind of tuck behind it.

Not sure if there is enough space, but since the tv isn't too big, I think I would mount it on the wall under the stairs with narrow (again, meaning depth) shelving around it to hold components. Can't imagine that there are so many people walking by that it would be awful having the tv there. Then, I would move the piano to where the tv is now.

If that won't work, any chance of creating an office/tv room in the other area? That little desk might look darling (and fit better than the piano) under the stairs with the piano where the tv is now. I would worry a little about lots of shelving there, as I imagine kids running through! :) Then, you could slide over the cabinet that is under the window and hang or sit the tv there. It looks like you have bookshelves on the wall opposite the window, so maybe a chair and couch in front of them. If space is tight and you need to get to everything on the shelves, you can always slide the sofa forward as needed and then push back against the shelves again.

Maybe try the piano in the office area?

And yes -- an Ikea Billy unit(s) would be the thinnest shelving possibility -- and add storage there too.

Okay, here's what I'd do.

Move the TV into the far corner where the two sofas are now. Place it diagonally into the corner.

Move the two sofas out into the room. That's right, neither one will be against the wall.

Move the long sofa across the room from where it is now, and face it in the opposite direction.

Move the short sofa across the room from where it is now, and face it in the opposite direction.

Voila, you have a TV room! The backs of both sofas are facing outward, not against the wall, and you have created walkways behind them.

I wish I could make a sketch... I hope this is clear.

I know exactly what you are dealing with. When we moved here, our living room had no less than 4 doors, one on every wall. Furniture placement was a nightmare, and no matter where we put the tv, it wasn't in a good sight line for the tv or someone was always walking in front of it, and with kids, that meant back and forth a few times.

I think olychick hit on something that would work really well in that space, and I'd go further and install a wall mount in one of the openings, one with an arm that allows the tv to pull out at an angle. When not watching, you can push it back in so it looks like part of a bookcase and not a tv in an odd place. wallwizard.com is a good brand and can usually be found at walmart but they are out of stock right now. A similar one there is $24.

And if you are like us, you need all the storage you can find.

Okay, here's a different idea. I would put a television armoire inside the opening to the office so that the front was flush with the wall that goes to the kitchen. You would want to get one with the doors that are on tracks so that they push back into the cabinet and don't obstruct the path. The back of the cabinet would show in the office, but you could obscure it with a standing screen, a drapery panel or the kind of standing bookshelf that doesn't have a back.

Now, the television is in front of the sofa, it doesn't block the path to the kitchen, you have a place for the components and you have a little extra storage.

I've added a link to a cabinet that is NOT your style, but I wanted to show you the kind of doors that I was talking about.

Here is a link that might be useful: For Door Style Only

Thanks for all these ideas! This is amazing! I started at it for months and got nowhere. :)

yayagal, I love the wicker box idea. Will have to look into that! It shouldn't be too hard to find something that fits. Heck, even if we don't use this piece of furniture for the Tv it would be a great way to add some unobtrusive storage

Natal and teacats, we did have the piano over in that spot you mention for quit a while, and it worked fine design-wise. However, the combination of the window, marginally-insulated outside wall, and the baseboard heater in that spot did not make the piano very happy. ;)

Olychick, that makes sense...that's probably why it never felt "right", but I couldn't figure out why not. It really does feel like it's not part of the living room. That was one of our Winter of '11 Experimental Furniture Arrangements, too! We tried sticking it in a bookcase and liked everything except the fact that we couldn't see the TV around the edge of the bookcase. But if we had a swing-out wall mount inside the bookcase like mati8a suggested...hmmm...that just might work.

cyn427, I LOVE the ida of the baby desk in the nook under the stairs. When I someday get a digital piano that can be placed pretty much anywhere I am SO going to do that!

mclarke, I wish I could find the photos I took of exactly the arrangement you are describing (also one of the entries in the 'Experimental Furniture Arrangement extravaganza)! I have them on an external hard drive somewhere in my house, can't put my finger on it right now. The TV placement there was fabulous and I loved it, but the couches...umm, not so much. They are too big for the space as it is, but when we floated them out in the room like you are describing, OH MY. They seemed to inflate, they felt so gigantic. Either the front door was hitting the end of the sofa or the back of the loveseat was almost touching the piano and the kids were pole-vaulting over the backs of both...it was funny! I wouldn't have believed it until we tried it. With more petite pieces it would totally work.

forhgtv, I get what you mean! Sometime in the next 2 years we're hoping to do built-ins (really "fake" built-ins made out of store-bought bookcases) in the office part of the room. Our current office furniture is a hodgepodge of hand-me-downs and Salvation Army stuff and doesn't have ideal fit or function. In figuring out how to do that, we realized that if we run shelving/bookcases along the office wall, we can continue around the imaginary "corner" and have a bookcase facing the office with it's back toward the living room. So it would do what you're saying, but with the "good" side facing the opposite way. The back of a bookcase would in essence extend the wall the TV is currently on. We could put another bookcase back-to-back, or a real entertainment center, or whatever! Gotta save up for that, but it's in the mix for whenever that project can get off the ground.

maybe if you could get another stand for the TV that hides all those cables, it might look better.

I found a few tilt mounts for our TVs when b/c we are putting them above our fireplace and I wanted them to tilt down. We found a cheap option and an expensive one!

I think mounting on the wall would look best personally. I don't know how to hide cable boxes though, the guy who ran our wiring is doing that part for us

Tilting TV mounts
Reasonable cost one

Expensive but cool

mclarke, I wish I could find the photos I took of exactly the arrangement you are describing (also one of the entries in the 'Experimental Furniture Arrangement extravaganza)!

Oh, you are too funny!

I'm sorry that arrangement doesn't work in the room. In my head it was perfect! (Just like all my re-arrangements of other people's rooms.)

I was going to suggest what forhgtv suggested. Wouldn't it be possible to do it now by moving the bookcase in the office down about 18 inches (to the right as you face it in the office) and then placing the TV and TV table into the space that opens up? waste.

Have you considered flipping the office and living room?

I bet the heat from the TV plays havoc with your thermostat.

I ordered our TV wall bracket from Monoprice for dirt cheap. I was a nervous wreck that our TV would fall off the wall....LOL, so I did tons of research first. The company if very reputable.

It was easy to install and is very secure. We only paid about $30.00. Here is one that tilts and swivels for $43.00.

Here is a link that might be useful: TV bracket

I would love to see pix of the 'office' area - all four walls - because I think I would use that area as the seating and tv space, and repurpose the LR space to keep the piano, but add the credenza in there, as well as a desk if you have one in the other room.

I would love to see pix of the 'office' area - all four walls ....

Ditto for me.

If you do not wish to hang the TV on the wall, then I would look for a piece of furniture that is solid no long legs to show off all the wires, you need to hide the wires, I grabbed a few photo's from overstock.com for ideas..it appears you do not have a large wall space so these are not huge:

I would float the loveseat with the back to the kitchen, opposite the couch, and put the TV where the loveseat is now.

You'd need a wider TV stand with no legs, like was said above. They make them with holes in the back to hide the wires.

I would float the loveseat with the back to the kitchen, opposite the couch, and put the TV where the loveseat is now.

That would work, maybe? That's half the plan I suggested...

I like the idea of the last suggestion of putting the tv where the loveseat is and flip flopping the loveseat--

But if you are comfortable with the tv location on the current wall, I agree with a wider tv cabinet with no legs
to hide the wires.

Cable outlets & wire location may also dictate where you have you can/can not have tv. Depending on if you want to have to move them.

Call your cable company and ask if they have a smaller more attractive box if you have had it for more than a year.

Can you post a picture of what you see looking from the sofa directly forward?

Could you just put the TV right there in that area, it looks wide and then put a screen behind it. I have added a link. You could put pictures across the top row and maybe just solid color paper or something in the others.

Good luck and please post when you decide what functions for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: photo screen divider

More cool ideas! My camera is dead, I'll take pics of the office when it's charged up.

I think I need to dig out my old Printmaster discs and do some mock-ups of various arrangements on photos of the room. I do actually own Photoshop Elements (Christmas gift), but I haven't really figured out how to use it. :)

Could you move the loveset to the other side of the couch and put the tv in the corner on a low corner unit? I always see them on craigslist.

Something shaped like this:

Here is a link that might be useful: corner tv stand

I agree with the suggestion to get a different and larger entertainment center, especially one that will hide the cords.