A Major House Project Underway, and My BEST Trick for Hiding the TV

I have always planned to put picture frame moldings in this room:

I bought these two moldings - the larger one will be the outside frames and the smaller will be the inside ones:

I know it is hard to see, but here are the boxes laid out in pencil:

Here are the best examples I could find of the double box moldings:

I'm really excited to be finishing this room!

But first, what to do with the tv. Here it is again in all of it's miserable ugliness:

I HATE the way televisions look in most rooms (except in game rooms or rec rooms or the like - there they don't really bother me). But in my most formal room? Yuck. Nevertheless, I gave in and let my husband put the tv over the fireplace several years ago because I have to let him win once in a while. But seriously, I want the kids to use the room and I want everyone to be happy, so it was the right thing to do.

It still makes me insane to have to look at it though. And I am therefore always on the lookout for new ways to hide it. So when I saw this image earlier this year, I knew what to do - paint the area around the tv black:

I know this probably doesn't make sense because the image I just showed you actually has white over the fireplace, with the dark paint around it. But seeing it made me think "Why not paint a black strip all the way up the wall around the tv?" So I started searching for that, and it turns out I am in no way the first to think of it. Emily Henderson has done it, and so have many others. I'm kind of embarrassed to say I didn't know about it though. (Or maybe it was in the back of my mind from seeing it and I didn't remember and it came out as my own brilliant idea? Who knows - I hear that happens and there are really no original ideas, but either way I'm just glad to know this trick).

Here are some examples:

This one doesn't have a tv, but it COULD:

I think I'd like this next one better in black, but it still really works:

This is not my favorite decor, but the stripe does it's job pretty well:

This one shows the inevitable light reflection, so it's not a perfect conceal:

Look how well this is hidden:

Via Primitive and Proper

This one is too contemporary for me, but again, what a great conceal:

Here, I'd make the gray white and really highlight the contrast:

I'm not sure what's going on here as those appear to be doors, but maybe they aren't used:

This is probably my favorite example:

Another favorite:

Again, there is no tv here, but I think there totally could be:

A quick side note before I move on. I wanted to show you my other favorite way of hiding the tv in plain sight. Although I have never done this, I do like the idea of incorporating it into a gallery wall like this one (although I would like to see the gallery a bit bigger to balance the tv, and maybe even with some larger frames):

So, that is what I am going to do.  Here is what it should look like, although this is just a mock up done with a tool similar to MS Paint and the black is just color boxes I laid over the image. And remember, the walls will be creamy white with the frame moldings:

Finally, a before and after of sorts. The black paint will definitely highlight the beam, which I don't like, but I'd rather notice the beam than the tv:

So that's what is going on here in the next few weeks. I can't wait to show you!

Images