Buying a Home - Basement Fireplace & TV/Theater Dilemma

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

Hi everyone, We are buying our first home and love everything about it except we are having trouble with the floor plan in the basement. I've uploaded some photos for you guys to see along with a basic drawing. https://imgur.com/a/uZsO3

The issue I have is that the basement needs to be the TV room. If I put all my AV equipment upstairs it will look horrible next to the dining room and kitchen. That said, the basement is my only choice. The home has 2 fireplaces, one in the living room upstairs and one in the living room downstairs. So we are thinking about turning one of them into a permanent unused fireplace with LED candles or something. We have seen a few ideas we like online. Not sure which one we want to do that to though. The other would be converted to a gas or electric because we don't want a wood burning fireplace. As you can probably tell by my username, it gets cold in Minnesota and the heating vents in the basement are on the ceiling so we're thinking that it might get a little chilly in the basement in the winter.

All that considered, I need to figure out a nice way to assemble my TV entertainment area in the basement without making it look terrible. The furniture I'd like to bring with me to put down there is a 3 person sofa and 2 person love seat. In previous apartments I have created a 90 degree angle with them with a coffee table in the middle and the TV across from the 3 person sofa.

I have three ideas that I came up with so far:

1. Put the TV adjacent to the sliding door. This allows for the sofa to go on the opposite wall but it also creates an issue in that a love seat next to it would block the walk way to the sliding door. I'd like to be able to fit more than 3-4 people in front of the TV. I'm not too concerned about glare because the sliding door is under a deck and the back yard has pretty good tree cover.
Put the TV against the 16' wall. Part of the TV may end up covering part of the window in this instance. The sofa would then be floating and essentially create a hallway between the entry to the basement and the end of the sofa. The fireplace would then be off to the left of the sofa.
Put the TV against the 13' wall. The sofa would then be floating in front of the fireplace and the love seat would be against the 16' wall. In this case, do you think there would be enough room behind the sofa to put a couple of chairs in front of the fireplace maybe with a small table? Would this look horrible putting the fireplace in the background of the entertainment center way out of focus? Are there any other ideas I am not thinking of? Do you guys have any opinions what would look good and what would look horrible?

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Sync Systems

6 years ago

Hi Mnsportsgeek,

From the sounds of it you would like a functional living and viewing space without involving to much construction. Here is my suggestion:

1. Wall mount your 50" TV with a Chief TS525TU Thinstall Articulating wall mount just to the left of the fire place. This has a approx. extension of 24" with wide range of movement to allow you to center the TV on your couches viewing are when in use and put in back out of the way when not.

2. Power is located in the wall below to allow for an easy fish of power cords to conceal wires in the wall. Or leave them run externally if so desired.

3. Entertainment center and equipment can be placed below TV leaving plenty of room to walk through.

4. For internet: If signal throughout house is not strong enough look into the "eero" in Home Wifi System (link https://eero.com/shop). Extremely easy to setup and very affordable for the DIYer. Got to have that Netflix!

5. Set up couches and coffee table in the 90 degree layout with the focal point being the fire place. The TV swivel out and angled to the same center point of the couch layout.

I believe this will give you a great space saving setup with a great viewing area of the TV and Fire place. Couches can be placed in view of the fire place and TV. All without to much construction till your ready for the "big upgrade".

Hope this helps!

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Comments (10)

Julie B
6 years ago
I would disable this fireplace and demolish the brick surround so you can put the TV above the fireplace. That would provide you with the most seating in front of the TV.
mnsportsgeek thanked Julie B
mnsportsgeek
Original Author
6 years ago
That may be the long term goal of the basement, but I don’t want to do it right away. In that case, option 3 may be the best short term solution and then I can spruce up the fireplace with some decoration or something just as a decorative piece that isn’t the focus of the room.
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To be honest, I'm only putting in the fireplace because it would look stupid without one, as EVERY new home in my area has one. (Most people try to convince me I need one in the office/den and master as well, which I am refusing to do). We will likely seldom use it, though maybe with a gas one I may switch it on some evenings for a bit. We live in California, though we are both transplants here, so we seldom find it cool enough to warrant needing it. Ideally I'd like the fireplace and TV on different walls altogether, but I can't do that without giving up windows, and that isn't an option! Currently our TV is over our fireplace and it doesn't bother me as our mantel is relatively low, and with those new landscape fireplaces it could be lower. For instance, in the second image the TV isn't too high, and I think the fireplace could even be dropped another few inches. I do think I solved my own issue as with the curtains it wouldn't be safe (or look good) to have a corner fireplace. So TV over the fireplace it is :) Also, now that I stare at all these photos some more I realize I like the clean look of not having a table beneath the TV, and if there wasn't a fireplace it looks silly to not have anything under the TV. So the decision is complete! Thanks for your advice, and helping me talk myself into a decision! :)
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Wow....some of those theater rooms are really neat! Here's our humble one in our basement. We didn't want to do a projection type because I sometimes like to read while hubby watches a movie, and I knew lighting would be a problem, so we got this 70" Sony a couple of years ago and have really loved it. It has some depth to it, so we had to move these standard built-in cabinets out about 5" from the wall to allow for clearance. They're just stock cabinets of the "office" type (they're not as tall as kitchen cabs). The two middle cabinets are individual ones (since office/desk units didn't come in the width I needed for double doors). We just had the installer cut out the side-walls between them to make it all one cabinet for the components and had glass doors put in. It does get warm in the cabinets, so I open the 2 doors when we use it. I've been meaning to remove those 2 top center drawers and add speaker mesh for ventilation. Behind the cabinets are all the necessary connections put in before we dry-walled, and we drilled an opening in the countertop for the TV wires to do down below.
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Hi Dee, Angc, Arcy and other GWs, I continue to struggle with how and if to place both a TV and fireplace in the same room. I also really want a window seat on the wall adjacent to the fireplace, and decorative display around the fireplace. You can see the room by clicking on the link above entitled great room floor plan. Thanks for the recent comments; your ideas are all helpful. Arcy, mentioned I should just mount the TV on the wall. Hmmmm, the best wall might just be the stair case wall. Then I could have my fireplace centred with builts-in for decorative display and also my window seat. Not having to squeeze the TV into the remaining space between built-ins and window seat could have visual advantages. The TV would have a 6 foot south window facing it in this location, so we would definitely have to do a low glare TV which I have learned are available. Not to sure what to do with the corner between the built-ins and the window seat -- any ideas here? Would this work at all? I would love your follow-up comments to this idea, please and thanks. Carol
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acm
6 years ago
Can't you just stand the TV on the hearth, right in front of the fireplace? Small cabinet to one side with components, and it should be easy to arrange a heap of seating down there. The arm over by the sliders can be a game table or something else separate.
mnsportsgeek thanked acm
mnsportsgeek
Original Author
6 years ago
That's not a bad idea. I'd have to think about that a little more though. I'm not so sure the hearth is tall enough to just stand a TV on. It might look awkward being so low. I was thinking that area by the sliding door could be a ping pong table or card table too. I hope to do something like that.

I think I'll have to accept that any solution won't be perfect as long as that fireplace is there, I just have to pick the option that is the best that I can work with.
Janie Gibbs-BRING SOPHIE BACK
6 years ago
Hi Mmsportsgeek!

As I have a hubs who is an audiophile, (and we live in a tiny space), what is the size of your tv and equipment?

What is the status of the electrical and wifi strength in your basement?

Will this room be a media room, home theater or your man cave?

P.S-Bears had it last night...all the way to the end, pppfffftttt
mnsportsgeek thanked Janie Gibbs-BRING SOPHIE BACK
mnsportsgeek
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Hi Janie!

My Tv is currently 50”. All the equipment I have is relatively small. The biggest thing being an AV receiver and all of it fits in an entertainment center that is about 50-55” long and about 2 feet tall. I also have some small satellite speakers that I use for surround sound that can be placed pretty much anywhere.

I can’t speak to the WiFi strength but I will make it work. I’ll buy whatever it takes to get good coverage throughout the home. I may end up putting the router in the basement. There is plenty of outlets to accommodate the equipment I need.

I wouldn’t call this room a man cave, exactly. Although it might transform into one over time if I get my way :) This is just the most logical place to put the primary TV in the home as the layout for the upstairs living room is even worse for an entertainment room.

That game was tough to watch last night for the both of us I’m sure! Sorry your Bears are having a rough year. Ours isn’t going too much better.
Janie Gibbs-BRING SOPHIE BACK
6 years ago
Hi Mnsportsgeek,

I would go with number 3.

Put the couch in front of the fireplace by a couple of feet, so you can still turn it on for warmth.

Just set it up like that and see if you like it. Give yourself the chance to change your mind after living in it for a while, don't do anything drastic like shutting down the basement FP right away.

Also, you need a bigger TV now that you have this great new space ;)
mnsportsgeek thanked Janie Gibbs-BRING SOPHIE BACK
mnsportsgeek
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I would like to upgrade at some point! There is a never ending list now that we will finally have our own space. A higher priority will be gettting rid of that ugly yellow paint :) We have to pass inspection first I suppose before I can start really planning!

I appreciate your feedback. If this was just another rental I really wouldn’t care what I did, but now that I can call it my own I want to do the best I can with the resources I have!
mnsportsgeek
Original Author
6 years ago
Hi Sync Systems! Thanks for the reply. That is a great idea! I didn't think about a swivel mount. I'll have to seriously consider that.

Buying a Home - Basement Fireplace & TV/Theater Dilemma

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