Thanks for the feedback everyone; you make good points. We will also have a TV down in our rec room in basement which is great for our two teenage sons and our 12 year old too (not as easy to supervise as you have lebwhite). We will put their X-box downstairs as well. The TV on the main level will be our second TV. Our daughter just turned 6, so we don't want her watching what the boys do most of the time (although she does get exposed to big boy TV). My husband and I very rarely watch TV (I am too addicted to GW for that LOL) and he is always working. We don't even have cable, and just rent movies on the occasion. I would say the four kids do screen time in one form or another more than I care to admit. As porkandham suggested, I will be sorry not to have the fireplace in the same room as the TV, but we are to have radiant heat, so it will be cozy everywhere! The fireplace will be used, but is also wanted for design reasons. Also, I agree that it would be nice to watch TV in the large great room, but something has to give (i.e. find a new spot) as I am not finding an easy solution to squeezing the fireplace, TV, display shelves and window seat all into the great room. Suero, thanks for the sample furniture layout that would work if we use the playroom as a TV away room. When you suggested two chairs perpendicular to the couch, were you thinking having those chairs on the side of the big window, or nearer to the entrance of the room? If we do put the TV in this smaller room, would you recommend french doors and hall door to keep the TV sound from traveling throughout house. I know the author of Not so Big House is keen on this kind of closed in away room, visable but not heard from main room especially the kitchen (see Fun2Bhere your idea is in line with a famous architect you are not the only one who sees the benefits of a separate TV room). Also I really wonder what to do about the proposed railing between the foyer and TV away room. Should we keep it as a half wall, even though the railing will make the foyer seem larger?

I have one over a fireplace, and I love it. the rest of that wall is windows, so it was the only spot. My fireplace is gas, and there are clear guidlines about the clearence from combustibles and the like. There are heat concerns. It's commonly stated that you can't have the TV on when the temp there is 95 degrees. Easy for me to monitor, I just keep the fireplace remote there, sometimes programed to turn off the fire when the area hits that. If the fireplace is woodburning, controling the heat could be a problem and you might simply have to turn the tv off sometimes. I suspect that the 95 is a purely random number, though. Lots of homes get that hot, and we haven't heard many reports in the media about flat screens failing from it. To me, watching the fire or watching the tv are different activities that I rarely want to do at the same time. I love having the fire on for conversation, reading, playing a game, and those are times I'd rather have the TV off anyway. We do burn the fire to take the chill off the room on movie nights, but at a pretty low level. As to veiwing angle: it's about 5 ft above the floor, and the seating is about 12 feet back. It seems a little odd if you are used to a conventional set just inches off the floor, but you quickly adapt. It isn't at all uncomfortable for me or any of my family [so far as anyone has ever mentioned], and the kids and dogs don't block the screen everytime they walk by. Overall, I think its a good solution for many rooms. Just be sure to plan for power and signal up there: you don't want a lot of visible wires.

Hi there! It’s a bit hard to see what the room’s existing furniture layout is so if you want to add pictures great! Otherwise I might be making some wrong assumptions, but it looks like you have a white sofa facing the wall to the right of the doorway - would you consider mounting or just moving the tv stand over there? Then you could do an electric fireplace on the red wall and you could have both! Otherwise, if the red wall is where you want both I would recommend mounting the tv above the fireplace. I know, I know, you said you definitely don’t want to do that, but not sure why? The great thing about electric freestanding fireplaces is that you can get one low enough that mounting a tv above doesn’t force that whole miserable neck craning situation. I think placing the fireplace next to the tv would make for a very visually busy wall. If you want to post addition pictures of the room, we can keep brainstorming!

Have you considered modifying and enlarging the pony wall? Pre-wire it for the TV and get rid of the e-center entirely. Put the two loungers on swivel bases. That will give you a lot more flexibility with the furniture arrangement and two focal points. Here's an example, but yours could be larger and higher if need be to get TV at the right height for viewing.