DOES THE HOUSE COME WITH THE TV?
Today the average American home has more TVs than people. Over half of all homes have at least 3 or more sets. Even in homes of families considered below the poverty line, televisions are plentiful.
Big screen, flat screen, everywhere a screen screen. Those dang outlets are everywhere and such an eyesore when trying to present a property for sale. Not to mention the sets themselves.
Not everyone who buys a set takes into consideration how it looks and where it will look and fit best. They wing it and many times end up with something too large for the space or too awkwardly shaped to fit against the wall leaving an eyesore of exposed cables and wires.
TVs are even being substituted for or presented as art. I guess that's ok, I am not really of that mind but they certainly are more stylish than they used to be.
You will see them over fireplaces like this. Many times they are placed too high, a common mistake made with art pieces also. You need to crane your neck to view the screen. I am not a fan of this placement, as in this photo, I think it takes away from the lovely fireplace.
I think the TV would look nicer in the big empty hole to the left. If a TV is to be wall mounted, mount it as art at eye level. As a seller, I would want to have the prospective buyer notice the beautiful stonework that stays with the house, not the cool TV.
How many homes have you been in where the very first thing you see is the TV? Funny how house hunters are put off by this but have the same going on in their own homes most likely. I always tell sellers to pack em up, all but one. The horrified expressions are mind boggling. It's like you may have told someone to pack grandma off to the old folks home. TVs in bedrooms and bathrooms detract and are huge dust collectors.
Buyers do like to be able to visualize where their set or sets will go though. If the spot where the set sits is awkward and cumbersome, consider moving the outlet to an area that makes more sense. Builders choices and prior owners choices don't always make sense. Moving an outlet is not a huge cost.
The local cable company charges $19.95 to move an outlet to another wall or room and will put it on the regular cable bill. A small price to pay for better flow and function. The whole look and balance of a room could change on simply moving one outlet. this applys to lighting as well.
Many times it is hard to talk a client into these small but effective changes but it is worth the effort and result. As a seller, you don't want the buyer wondering if the house or your TVs are for sale!
AccentPositives provides effective and economical Home Staging consultations on sight and online. We are located in Corona and service the Inland Empire area of Southern California. Call 951 833 8529.
Hi Ana, When we remodeled the lower level in our house (otherwise known as a basement), our contractor suggested constructing built-ins around the fireplace similar to those in the first photo in your post. It makes so much more sense for a t.v. to go in that empty space than above the fireplace as you suggest. Maybe the reason it ended up above the fireplace is that it is too large for the other space.
Very interesting post and very true, there are a lot of tvs in our homes today. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder with this one. Some people may like it higher up where the kids can't reach it and put their prints all over it and others may want it more close to eye level when sitting on the couch.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
You're right - TVs are everywhere, and they just don't add much appeal to a room. The worst we had was an enormous TV that was just inside the master bedroom door, and almost entirely blocked the view of the room. We were able to move it to a large loft that was right next to the bedroom, and a more appropriate location. I hope the owner kept it there...
LOL Ana!
I have a redesign client and we were all sitting in her living room around after a hard day working TOGETHER just yesterday. We are tackling her house one room at a time over the course of a year (she's loyal, but she has to brace herself for change, so it's a s-l-o-w work in progress!), and the room we were in wasn't on our to do list...yet.
So, she asks me about what my plans are for the living room, and I honestly hadn't given it much thought (it will prolly be a job next summer). But I did point out that I'd paint the paneling, beef up the mantle, and if she were selling, I'd make her ditch the BIG FAT TV. She looked at me like I said I was going to roast her grandchildren in the fireplace!
I reminded her about the kitchen tv, the office tv, and the tv's in all three bedrooms, and that a tv not in the livingroom was par for the course if she was selling.
We were being hypothetical, and I was freaking her out!
~Michelle
How true - TVs have taken over so much of our living space.
When a prospective buyer is looking at a property - they are looking for a place to escape from the noises of the world. A place to see themselves living in - uncluttered (both physical and electronic). Just look at Show Homes - TVs are not present in every room - and in some cases consealed.
One client that I worked with had a large swivel wall mounted TV in the tiny bedroom. In the small living room was a large rear projector TV. Both of the TVs took up so much room physically, that the eye was drawn to the TVs. Focusing on the features of the rooms were void. In the rearrangement of the rooms, both TVs were removed. One TV was placed in the redesigned room in the basement. This left the eye to focus on the large windows in the small living room and in the bedroom, the focus was bed.
Ana, maybe someday we will have real images by holographic projection that can rival flat images----then we won't have to worry about dealing with these black holes in the room sucking up our lives:)
Ana,
I completely concur with your message. It is typical for homes we do consults for (and stage) that they have a minimum of 3 TV's in various rooms. Most change the entire dynamics of the room they are in by taking attention away from the focal point (such as the fireplace or other architectural details) and overwhelm the space.
When we advise clients to pack them away, we often get those same horrified looks. As a society we are so used to being able to switch on the the TV in any room that not being able to is a huge inconvenience. Of course not being able to sell your home is a huge inconvenience too but its usually only after the house goes on the market and does not sell that the seller realizes that the stager had a point about the TV's.
All we can do is make recommendations based upon facts - clients may, or may not listen. We can't make them pack away the TV's however I always ensure that I mention the fact that buyers are not buying a seller's belongings - if said belongings overwhelm the room so that the buyer cannot get a real sense of the space and appreciate the house, then odds are high that those buyers won't be buying what the sellers are selling!
Hi Diana, built ins are really great and not to hard to do, of course then you have to make sure they don't become clutter magnets....like in my house!
Hi Kathleen, you may be right except in my experience (I have 4 kids)fingerprints seem to appear on everything no matter how high up or the finish LOL, thanks for commmenting :)
Laurie thanks for commenting, I think a law banning tvs in masters might improve marriages nationwide!
Hi Michelle, too funny! The only other thing that I find gets an even more horrified expression is telling folks to board their pets or remove them from the house during showings. Seems I am always the bearer of bad news.....:)
Hi Susan, those swivel wall mounted things are the ugliest. TV as so important though, I have seen websites with fake TVs to use for things like staging I guess.
Charles, you are right...it's probably a secret government project right at this minute! LOL
Hi Heather, it's hard convincing clients sometimes. As stagers we have to strike that balance between presentation and the seller being able to live a somewhat normal life during the process. That is why I like doing occupied. I just don't get why someone could not live without the extra TVs for just a short period, life is so full of other fun things to do! Thanks for stopping in:)
This is such a pet peeve of mine. I know those horrified stares very well! I have had more than one seller refuse to remove the tv from the bedroom. Every once in awhile you get that magical moment when you suggest removing the TV and the seller simply says "ok" and you wonder if you heard them right. I love the photo of the baby...related to you?
I also concur on the TV issues but I have backed-off considerably in asking seller's to stash them....like Michelle M. commented, those discussions always make for issues bigger than they should be.
Here's why the TV is up high in our viewing space (1 of 4 BTW):
It has nothing to do with small fingerprints or messing with controls. It seems that when reclined, husband can see it better in a high position....AHHHHHH! I want it to disappear into one of those motorized cabinets but since it's on almost 24/7, what good would it do?
Very cool. Learned something new today. Will check with my cable company and see what they say about the outlet. Thank you. :-)
Hi Sharon lol, baby? Borrowed baby photo it really said alot when I saw it and was the inspiration for this post.
Ginger, love the picture. Thought about snapping hubby with a beer watching the game in his Fraser chair (future blog topic) to get my point across but he wouldn't give me copyright authority!
C- they will hook you up so to speak! Thanks for stopping in :)
Well, I live in a home with 5 TVs and 2 people... I agree that some don't really think about the best place to put the TV when they move in, sometimes they go by where the cable is connected. And I agree, I don't understand the high-mounted sets over the fireplace. Maybe Ginger has explained that for me. i once asked a client to move a huge TV that blocked an entire bay window. They said no. But thank goodness for the flat screen!
We have one of those big holes to the left and much like your photo shown adding a TV there would disrupt our seating arrangement making the room feel awkward. We opted for above the fireplace as well. Adidtionally since we had a boring white new construction surround with black marble beyond that we decided to paint the fireplace surround black to make more of a statement (and help ground a really large disjointed space)....
As a family we enjoy watching movies together and yes, even plain old TV shows.... so we do seem to revolve our furniture arrangments around viewing pleasure and maximum seating... like so many other families.
On my prestaging recommendations: one TV in the home, preferably in the family room-store all others. This is hard for some homeowners-their children need to play games in their rooms!! ugh!! Great post Ana!!
Ana, I like to see a TV-free living room. There's usually some other place for it - a family room or something. Once I went into a place owned by a political campaign manager type, and he had six monitors built into the living room wall. That was a it much.
Hi Cathy, the last time we moved, we found we had four tvs. Little ones and two big ones. I wondered what we were doing with so many, it's like they sprout and you don't realize it. You buy a new one to upgrade and move the old into another room. I thinks lots of people do the same. Flat screens are great.
Melissa, the seating arrangement in that room above could be pared down and angled differently balancing the fireplace. Your hole to the left looks much smaller and lower, thanks for sharing your room :)
Hi Cathy, thanks. I agree with you that one is best too, that's my rule, and in a spot that makes sense, I try as hard as I can not to disrupt regular lives when recommending things. I am a practitioner of staging to live and it is funny how living with one tv can be viewed as a hardship. We here take our plentiful material things for granted.
Hi Patricia, that's a lotta TV! Men just seem to have a nack for watching multiple screens and channel surfing don't they LOL. I would pass out! I agree, family room is a great spot for the tube:)Thanks for commenting.
Ana, this post was a pleasure to read. you have a real talent in making a point in a pleasurable way. Never stop blogging, my dear.
featured: http://activerain.com/groups/RealWorldHomeStaging
Hi Karen, thanks so much for the complementsand the feature, I would say ditto to you too! I really like reading your blogs.
Boy you are right. The niche was made FOR the TV. And I think it's bad Feng Shui to have anything so high up you have to crane your neck to see.
I'm guilty of more TVs than people. We have a guest room for frequent visitors with cable/DVD and there's one in my office too.
I'm loving your posts so expect to see me around! :)
Hi Candice, I look forward to seeing you. Just remember if you decide to sell your house, choose your TVs wisely LOL!
I couldn't agree more. When I used to work as an interior decorator I use to curse the things. They so often destroyed a rooms potential, in my opinion. Now as a stager I have the same issues but people are people and are mostly unwilling to give them up, some are willing to at least let you hide or camouflage them a bit, that seems to be the best alternative at present.
Hi Kimberley, it's funny how TVs have become as essential as a stove or oven. Best of luck in your projects and thanks for commenting:)