Oh let me share....lol :) I love sharing something when it can benefit someone. We were lucky to be able to do our tv install as we tore out the old fireplace to put in a new one. Not everyone has this ability so one needs to get creative. We installed an HDMI cable to the tv. It is the only wire that goes to the tv. This then plugs into the receiver that all the other junk plugs into. So if you have your cabinet of junk in the room with the tv you only have to hide one wire. To hide the one cable you can do several things. Baseboards and crownmolding hide wires nicely. You would have to install a plate behind the tv which has a connector on it. The hdmi cable would go from tv to the connector on the plate. Then another cable would go behind that, up inside the wall, along the ceiling hidden by crown molding, then down the wall to another plate that sits in front of your media cabinet. The cable would run from the lower wall plate to the receiver inside. If you do not have crown molding but do have baseboards you can do the same process but you will have to be a little more creative. I actually ran my wire from the crown molding down to the floor by cutting a tiny hole in the drywall in the corner of the room. I crammed the wire in the crack and filled it with caulk. I had to do this because the wall had a window on it and the framing did not allow me to bring the wire down through the wall frame. HDMI wire can be really expensive. But there are websites that sell at tremendous savings. We got a $50 pc of cable for $6. With all the savings we took this install to another level. We ran the cable around the baseboards and into the adjoing room where we have an office. The media cabinet is in there. We used one of those radio remotes (infared or whatever you call it, it was less than $100) and now have no media in our family room. With simple programing we now hit one button to watch tv, listen to the radio or watch a movie on dvd player. The one button tells each necessary device to turn on depending on what we are doing. No need to turn on the tv, the dvd player, etc. Just click dvd on the remote and it is ready to go. Many folks put the system in a nearby closet also. This install would have cost us a lot of money if we hired out, but doing it ourselves with a little bit of research on what can be done and where to buy the stuff reasonably is what made this possible. You do not need to hire a pro every time. Another good thing to remember is that the viewing distance for tvs is really important. Too high and too close will make you miserable. Really sit in your room with the black paper on the wall before you do this.

kellilou, that is a lovely and interesting floor plan. You're right, you've got a lot going on in that room. Open floor plans are challenging. I can see why you want to put it above the FP, but really and truly before paper goes to reality, you should rig your TV to that height and watch it that way for a couple weeks. I suppose with a few changes you could move the fireplace into the foyer area, which could be very cozy. But of course you are going to want it to be the focal point of your family room. I'm stumped! I would not want to see you move the FP to the the right of where it is now (in the corner) and the TV where the FP now is. We have that situation in this house -- corner FP and no place to put the TV cabinet but on the adjacent wall. Thanks to a very talented and expensive designer, it has been worked out to look good. But it is not optimal!

PIcture didn't post. Can you include it? Thx.

The first thing would be furniture placement in the room. Without furniture placement, you cannot decide where to put the tv. Right now to me the best place would be the lower right side of the fireplace, but honestly you need to place furniture in the room to make that decision. What size tv will you be working with. Are you buying a new tv? Are you using furniture you already have? will you be buying a sectional? sofa and chairs? what furniture best fits this room needs to be decided. So many questions :-) Post all dimensions, walls, windows, doorways. If need be draw it out on paper and post a picture.