With electronics changing so much so fast, I personally don't think it makes sense anymore to have built-in furniture to accomodate the stuff. For example, the traditional entertainment center no longer has an opening large enough for most of our TVs. Or, if we pick a smaller TV that will fit into the entertainment center, then a huge amount of space is wasted behind the flat screen TV - and one of the advantages of having a flat screen is lost. I figure the next generation of TV's will probably be even flatter and will allow you to choose a screensaver of some sort so that, when not in use, it looks like a picture or maybe an aquarium or a window - and not like a TV at all. Either that or there'll be some sort of small cube that projects a 3D image right into the air in front of you. LOL! We're going back to old fashioned book-cases (which will be nice since I've got about a thousand books!) and will hang the new TV (flat screen of course) on a wall. The rest of our electronics (DVD player, CD player, etc) will go into a credenza below the TV so it is mostly out of sight. And, all the CDs, DVDs etc. will go into a near-by closet. IF/when 3D-projecting-cube TVs come on the market, I'll hang a painting where my old fashioned flat screen TV used to be and not have to redecorate my entire house - or, at least that's the plan! LOL

thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. oaktown and writersblock, I love the idea of a projector! I hadn't even though about that. We're calling an AV person to see if they can help us with that. louisana, you're correct, the wall between the open kitchen/family/dining does not fully separate the living room, so there will be sound transfer. Actually, one of the bedrooms does not have a wall going to the ceiling so there is a lot of noise carrying around the space. Here's how the space is laid out (pre-remodel): ineffable, I'm a TV listener too. We have Sonos speakers we've installed in the house and I could be perfectly happy just listening to Pandora and watching Downton Abbey and SNL on my iPad, but my husband would be so lost without a TV of his own. tom_nwnj, thanks for the recs -- I will check them out. Good luck with the remodel! robotropolis, thanks! I like the idea of putting all the comfy seating in the formal living room and just making the den/space next to the kitchen just a "lounge" area -- for drinking wine, playing games, etc. I think it would significantly enhance our use of the house as we don't currently use the living room. That room is bathed in light most of the day and has the best views of any room in the house -- it seems like a waste not to utilize it. linelle, we were just visiting friends recently and they had a TV (LARGE ones!) in every room, including several of the bathrooms. The owners both work in the entertainment industry, but it was slightly overkill. karenseb, thanks for the nice words. In our upcoming kitchen renovation, we plan on replacing the double ovens with a pantry as we have no pantry and limited food storage space. A tv at the end of the bar is still definitely an option if we can recess it -- we're going to have an AV person come out to measure. If all else fails a TV in the master bedroom is an option, but I'm not generally a fan of TVs in bedrooms.

Lavender-lass. I'll try and see if I can get a screen capture of the kitchen in the Flip Flop episode for your TV Fairyland. That one episode caught my attention because everything they did cost 1/2-1/3 of what I'm being quoted for the exact same thing. I agree with Texas-gem. Custom to me means cabinets designed specifically for my space with quality materials and construction. It should use every space efficiently. It doesn't have to be long runs but not modular boxes. For example, I've designed a vanity for our powder room so that it's attractive but easy to use for my mother who is in a wheelchair. Someone who is "custom" but only assemble would not be able to make it. For the kitchen, I've sketched cabinet sizes and internals that need an actual woodworker. Blfenton - we had 36" drawers and they just fit some of the oversized pots and pans/ wok. 24" split would be too small. Fori, the all wood is truly all wood. I looked at two kitchens that he built. They were beautiful. The problem is that I have to go through his brother, the GC, who is as flaky as 90% of the GCs I've talk to. It takes up to 10-12 calls to get thru and talk to him. No matter the price or quality, I don't know that I can handle 2 weeks delay for each response. I'm so over budget from unexpected costs that I have to really shop cabinets now. I possibly have another $10-15k in structural engineering and concrete to pay for. By the end, we may end up with $35-45k in invisible costs that shows nowhere and doesn't include my out of pocket for the remodel/rebuild. That blew out our stairs, bathrooms remodel and landscaping. My husband suggests buying just anything as cheap as possible so we get a kitchen back and save up to replace the cabinets in a few years. This just doesn't jive with my thrifty soul. Scrappy25 suggested Omega and they look like a bulk mfg with many options to appear custom or semi custom in regards to sizes. I'm going to visit a dealer next week. Crl - I looked at Barkers a few weeks ago and was a bit overwhelmed. Also i think they didn't provide the depths I wanted. I'll have to relook. I checked out Scherr today and i went on overload. I think I burned out from putting my design into CAD the last two weeks. I had to learn more stuff than I wanted to after the city inspector decided to enforce all sorts of extra stuff. They approved over 200 homes including my next door neighbor's for the exact same work but decided to treat my house differently. They even rescinded approvals made 3 yrs ago. Kimberly, what city are you in? I'm the one hobbling from store to store at Tile Mile with a walker.

Mama Rachel You make a lot of good points. We have never used TV shows, or big games as a jumping off point for entertaining (kids have, but not us). For those wanting two main TV areas built for entertaining (basement and great room) our plan would not work. I am very pleased to get your suggestion on where to get a good arm swivel for the TV to improve upon the position for viewing. I have posted below a floor plan of the open concept space. As per glare, there are lots of windows in this area, so we will need to buy the best glare free TV we can find. The large window behind the couch is south facing. There are windows located directly across from the proposed TV location (as well as across from the cab on other side of fireplace), but they are over 36 feet away in the dining room (west facing windows). There are also west facing windows in the kitchen that might make the left hand side even more prone to glare. Also if we keep it in its proposed location, we of DS can see it when dishes are washed (yeah). MommyToc, Thanks again for your comments and for thinking through the drawer and shelf depth. I think we are going to increase the depth of the upper part of this built in to 11 inches so we can accommodate books behind the closed doors. We can put a false back on the plate display part as that part does not need 11 inches of depth. Glad you think the plate display will look good too. We are thinking of putting a grove in the shelves for the plates, and then leaning the plates against the back of the shelf. In addition to those blue plates I posted, we also have some brown Hummel plates (we own less of those than blue) but we will display both for some visual variety and put Hummel figurines in between the plates. We are also planning on lighting the plates shelves. There will also be can lights cross lighting the fireplace and possibly uplights near the base of the stone surround. Carol