I put the TV on a separate wall than the wall which will eventually have a wood burning stove. (The mantle and backdrop is already in place. Right now I am dealing with homeowners insurance that doesn't want me to have one.) I don't watch much TV at all, and I really dislike - for me - having an ugly black box being the center of living room attention. When I have guests over, we're here to talk. I can think of exceedingly few occasions I'd be watching the idiot box with guests. Probably if they were here several days, we'd rent a movie or two via Amazon Prime. (Moot point right now, COVID and all.... but hopefully that won't last...) And with a wood burning stove, the exhaust pipe will go up and bisect the view of any TV over the mantle. I sat down on the couch to figure out the best viewing height - which is well below what the mantle might ever be, at least on this couch. It would be fine if I could lean back and rest my head, to have something over mantle height - assuming I'd go with a regular fireplace. But at six feet tall - there just isn't a couch or sofa like that. Plus as others have said, what about decorations? I enjoy decorating my mantle for various holidays! After all, that's really what mantles are for, right? The thing is off to the side, and it does not get glare there, either.

Just saw your post regarding your fireplace mount. There's a lot of variables when mounting over a fireplace: wood, pellet, or in your case, gas - zero clearance insert or real brick built fireplace - then LCD or plasma (plasma generally has cooling fans w/filters that don't like smoke & dust) - smoke is attracted to the screen - temperature rising up to the TV (which usually in most cases is not as bad as you'd think) - height of the TV which should be at eye level at the center of the screen or worse case, bottom of the screen (but then that also depends on how much TV you watch) and yes a tilt mount helps with higher mounts. Next, is on a finished brick fireplace you don't know where studs are or what's behind them - any installations that I've done I have always gone through the mortar into the stud or header, as opposed to damaging the brick which is difficult to repair if the mount is taken down. And, the big next, is installing an electrical outlet behind the TV and then finding a way to route the A/V cables to the equipment - running across the brick really doesn't create the "Photoshop look" people see in magazines! I have done some installations where a remodel was being done and they could open up a wall so you could see inside where you want to mount and figure out a cable route (keep it expandable) and outlet installation. Having said all that it can be done but I have also have had customers who wanted me to take down an installation somebody else did over their fireplace. I won't do a fireplace installation unless I am very comfortable about the installation, the customer understands everything, and then it will often be much more expensive than mounting on a standard wall. So, just be sure about what you want and make sure whoever does it, does it all to code... you wouldn't believe some of the stuff I seen such as AC power cords being fed down walls, etc..

That's great, thank you! I don't have an outlet appropriately located for a lamp there but I like the idea of something tall, I will look for something to serve that role. Any comments/ suggestions on furniture placement, rugs, coffee table etc. We have just moved from a MUCH smaller space and arranging furniture here seems like it should be easy but it does't feel that way! as far as furniture goes, coffee table will be the first to go. This old ikea beast has served us well but time for it to become a basement dweller.

Normally the electrical is put in beforehand right behind where the tv would be. Where is the outlet the tv will plug into? Are there other devices that will be connected to the tv as well such as Blu-ray player or satellite receiver? Maybe there is some kind of wire cover and it can go across the stone and down the side of the stone where it meets the wall and over to the outlet? I think they call it cable concealers. Amazon has some.