“Now that I’ve seen it,” I thought, staring at photos of a vacation home some friends had rented in upstate New York, “I can’t unsee it.”
It was a gorgeous rental, but in the living room the TV was just … too high.
There it was, mounted mere inches from the ceiling, a black rectangle looming over an otherwise attractive space like some kind of alien invader.
And it wasn’t just that vacation home – I found myself checking the height of TVs everywhere.
The waiting room at my doctor’s office? Too high.
At the local pub? Too high — but perhaps that one is excusable.
The living room in a friend’s new home? Too high. (But did I say anything about it to her? Offer any suggestions? Reader, I did not. I didn’t want to be THAT guy.)
Why had I become so focused, so obsessed with the relative elevation of television sets?
The answer to that was simple: I had discovered a page on Reddit called “TVTooHigh.”
Launched in 2019, the subreddit is exactly what the name implies: A massive collection of user-submitted photos of TVs that are mounted too high.
It’s almost absurdly specific, and almost absurdly popular – TVTooHigh has more than 123,000 members, placing it in the top one percent of all Reddit pages by size. And that doesn’t take into account all of the casual browsers like me, who visit from time to time but aren’t members.
TVTooHigh is funny, to be sure, but even in its specificity, it speaks to a broader point: For some reason, in this era of Instagram-ready home aesthetics and “vibes,” we absolutely love to laugh at other people’s failed projects and poor choices.
Why is that?
To help answer that question — and to learn how one positions a TV so it doesn’t look ridiculous – I spoke to Kelly Munchel of KM Interiors.
Munchel is a degreed interior designer who has been designing residential and commercial spaces and consulting with clients on décor questions small and large for more than a decade.
“A lot of people can relate to it,” she says of the tendency to gawk at terrible design decisions. “They see their own issues.”
And there’s also something encouraging about seeing a home that looks worse than yours – “I’m not as bad as I thought I was,” as Munchel puts it.
For an interior designer such as herself, there’s also the fact that she’s constantly thinking about how to make spaces better or more attractive.
“If I’m out to eat, I think ‘What would I have done’” with the décor, she says. “In the waiting room at the doctor’s office, I redo (the space) in my head.”
That said, Munchel does her best not to be judgmental:
“Common sense is a gift not given to everyone. And that’s OK.”
That lack of common sense is especially obvious when looking at something like TVTooHigh, where some examples seem not only unattractive but outright dangerous.
Which brings us to the question of how to correctly place a TV in a living space.
Munchel says there’s definitely a problem with hanging a screen too high.
“If you mount them too high, your neck gets sore form looking up,” She explains. “It’s like you’re in the front row of a movie theater.”
But the most important points to consider are how you use the space and how you use the TV. For example, do you watch TV lying down or sitting up?
In addition to height, there are other points to consider as well.
Glare on a screen is a major problem, so be sure to consider the placement of your TV in relation to light sources in the room.
Getting a TV that’s the right size for the space is important, too – a point Munchel realized in her own living room.
“When we moved into our condo two years ago, the TV was, like, seven feet long,” she says. “WAY too big for the space.”
After removing the giant set and patching up the holes it left in the wall, she opted to place their new, smaller TV over the fireplace – which is an extremely popular solution nowadays, especially in the era of wireless screens.
“A TV over the fireplace is very on point right now,” Munchel says. “Entertainment centers are kind of passé.”
But remember the question of size there as well. Many people who opt for a TV mounted over a fireplace choose a set that’s far too large for the fireplace, and the whole arrangement ends up looking top-heavy.
Munchel’s advice is simple: Make sure the TV doesn’t extend past the mantel.
As my conversation with Munchel wound to a close, I asked if she ever feels annoyed by the fact that designers have to always incorporate these awkward black rectangles into spaces that might be more attractive without them.
Her response was succinct and pragmatic:
“TV is important to Americans. Deal with it.”
Very true.
But when you’re placing that ever-present black screen, please – for the sake of your neck muscles if nothing else – keep it away from the ceiling.
An interior designer’s pet peeves
TVs might be a simple fact of modern life to a designer like Kelly Munchel, but any designer has pet peeves. Here are a few of the ones that bother Munchel the most:
BAD LIGHTING – “You need the correct bulb. Some bulbs give a blue hue, which is too cold. And you need to have lamps, chandeliers and pendants that are in proportion with the space.”
DRAPERY ISSUES – “While some people prefer no drapes (sad face), draperies really do warm a space. Even a simple valance can exude warmth. Plus, it’s a nice way to bring color and texture into a room. However, draperies that are too short – just like pants that are too short – are never a good thing.”😉
ARTWORK – “Your artwork needs to be the correct size for the wall. I am a fan of ‘if you love it, you will find room,’ however artwork needs to be incorporated the right way. Maybe that could be a gallery wall of many different-sized pieces to create a more pulled-together look.”
LARGE ARTIFICIAL PLANTS – “A/K/A dust traps. Please, no.”
DESTRUCTIVE PETS – “I had a customer who barely had furniture – they had a beautiful home, but they said the dogs ruined everything. They weren’t going to get anything new until the pets passed on. I had another customer whose dog ate the sofa (yikes).”
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Source: lancasteronline.com