I received this email on Friday:
Hello Denise,
First of all, let me say, your ideas are just wonderful!!! The site is so very helpful for me and my friends when we re-decorate our place/ move to a new place!!
I recently moved to a bigger place and have been wondering about an used TV space in the living room since then!
This is above our normal eye level while sitting and hence we are not using it to keep our TV. Now this space originally intended for usage for keeping TV is left useless, and I really don’t have any idea at all as to what needs to be done! Its about 45 inches x 45 inches in height and width, and is about 25 inches to the inside. Below this space is a shelf which we are using for keeping the cable devices.
Could you tell me what can be possibly done for this, it would be really great to hear from experts!
Hoping to see a reply soon!
Warm Regards,
Rosh
Well, Rosh, I can certainly relate to your issue, since I HAVE THAT VERY SAME THING AT MY HOUSE! I guess I understand why it became popular for builders to create this stupid box on the wall. Only a few short years ago, televisions were giant, deep square behemoths. Someone must have had the brilliant idea to create a hole in the wall to hide their girth. And this was accomplished most easily by placing it above the fireplace. I am sure at first it was the hot new thing, judging by the high end model homes who were touting this as a desirable upgrade.
Well, televisions are now high definition, slim and rectangular, and above the fireplace is the worst possible place to put them, so we decorators must deal.
The space is deep, and putting anything inside it pushed all the way to the back will look odd. I purchased this shelf unit at Pier 1 for like 60 bucks when I first moved into my condo. The dimensions make it not an exact fit, but I think it is close enough. I put on it three little pieces of pottery that I got at Ikea for a buck each, and it has remained this way for 2 ½ years.
So creating a shelving unit is the first option, but a crazy second would be to hide it with a massive piece of art. (You may need to place something in the opening for support, like a heavy box…hey you just found a little extra storage space!) An interesting work of art at 4 feet square would certainly create a dramatic focal point.
And finally, to be honest, if I could, I would simply dry wall the whole thing, remove the incredibly tacky electric fireplace and forget about it.