LEAF through the pages of Architectural Digest or Better Homes and Gardens and you are faced with a great mystery, that is, where in the world did they stash the TV?
Obviously, in an interior designer's aesthetically perfect world, there would be no electronic intrusion upon one's sense of peace and harmony.
Of course, reality is rarely that glossy. Most of us live with a television set -- if not two or three -- and what to do with those big impersonal pieces of electronic gadgetry presents quite a design challenge.
"Men usually don't care if the television shows, but women like to enclose it," said Allison Holland, owner of the Honolulu interior design company Creative Decorating. "A big black box is not appealing to look at and they're getting bigger and bigger."
Courtesy of Pilo
A Hi-Lo TV cabinet, above, that raises the television up and down
by remote control can be placed at the foot of
a bed, as seen in photo below.
Smaller sets in the kitchen or bedroom, can be tucked into a closet, cabinet or armoire, according to Charles Black, president of Furniture Plus in Gentry Pacific Design Center.Entertainment centers with fold-up or panel doors can mask the big set in the living room, and while this may be viewed as replacing one chunky piece of furniture with another, at Pilo European furniture store on Kapiolani Boulevard, the centers are sleek and can double as curio and bookshelves, or even a bar.
One black lacquer unit dubbed "La Cage," has glass doors that open by remote control to reveal a 36-inch television. Close the doors and you have easy access to the wine and martini glasses stored on a top shelf. It sells for $5,762.
On the lower end, Pilo also shows Muurame's Rulo cabinet with an accordion door that rolls up and down manually. Providing your own labor saves money; the unit sells for about $800.
Courtesy of Pilo
Hi-Lo TV cabinet encases the television at the foot of the bed.
This Italian model by Ello, can be ordered through Pilo.
The cost is about $3,900.
Modular pieces by Germany's Interlubke allows you to assemble a unit the way you want it. A basic cabinet with a pull out shelf for the television might run about $1,900. Unfortunately, because Pilo does not keep the various pieces in stock, you may wait six months for shipping.Most of these entertainment centers that will carry a TV up to 35 or 36 inches.
Pilo owner Anne Tuura said, "I buy furniture from Italy and Europe so it is very difficult to get entertainment centers for big TVs. The big TV is very American. Europeans do not have them.
"What they use in Europe are TV carts. It's always the case in Europe that they have a big bookcase and a very small cabinet for the TV."
Meanwhile, HomeWorld on Beretania Street is having a sale through April 10 and oak veneer entertainment centers with doors that roll in and out from a center closure are running $979 to $1,059.
Courtesy of Pilo
Modular pieces by Germany's Interlubke company,
shown in the photos above and below, allow individuals to
build an entertainment center or shelving up and down or
side to side. Even the basic cabinet must be assembled.
Its components run about $1,900 when ordered through Pilo.
The store also carries armoires -- a perfect apartment solution -- with a ready-made puka for your TV cord. A top shelf inside the armoire provides a place for the VCR and drawers below hide the video tapes.Waianae artist Maxine O'Neill can't see much reason for hiding the TV. "The ones they make nowadays are pretty streamlined, and they're black. Black goes with everything. But if I had a TV that was scratched up and messed up I would certainly try to do something."
Because she builds and decorates boxes and cabinets with found art, she said there's no reason one couldn't apply decoupage techniques to one more box.
She suggests using Modpodge, a material similar to Elmer's Glue (available at craft supply stores) to apply pieces of fabric or gift wrap to the offending boob tube "to jazz it up."
"You can get it in a matte finish or a gloss finish and it sticks to anything."
Other inexpensive solutions would be to make a simple screen of fabric.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Particle board connected by hinges is the basis
for a do-it-yourself three-foot screen.
If your TV is on a stand in a corner and you don't mind moving furniture around, an easel propped in front of the TV can carry a framed work of art.On the other hand, many appreciate visual media as art, and Black points out that an increasing number of people want their television set to be a focal point of their home.
"I'm seeing more people with media rooms that are treated like a second family room. They want their computer and television to go into a special place. If they're buying a big TV, it's that important to them.
He said people who do a lot of entertaining by hosting video screenings also are concerned about their guests' comfort and re-creating theater-quality ambience.
"They're going to think about where the speakers go, about having comfortable, large chairs, and not just for two or three people. They may have a floor that slopes down," he said.
For the MTV generation, he said, "There's no reason to hide the TV."
