Stylish TV living

Interior designer Michael Winegrad recalls how little his parents’ television set added to the design motif of his childhood home. The modest set sat on a flimsy metal rolling cart pressed against the wall.

Televisions have come a long way, stylewise, something Mr. Winegrad acknowledges every time a client asks him to help design a living space.

Modern television sets may be bigger and heavier than models of old, but they also offer plenty of style advantages over their predecessors. The latest sets can slip under a nearby counter or even hang on a wall. It all depends on the television model chosen and, more important, the whims of the homeowner.

Some, such as Stephen Winegrad, Michael’s brother, choose to integrate the television into the surrounding space. Stephen Winegrad’s plasma television, a slender, flat-screen model, is embedded in his family-room wall above the fireplace.

The planning took some time, he says.

“We were trying to get the TV and the fireplace in the same general direction to enjoy both at the same time,” he says.

The solution? He cut a hole in the wall above the fireplace, deep enough to insert his television set but not so far as to interfere with the fireplace flue.

“We’re embarrassed to admit it, but we enjoy TV,” he says.

So do plenty of people, but how they differ is how they want their television sets to be arranged in their homes.

Michael Winegrad, who runs I. Michael Interior Design in Darnestown, says some people don’t give much thought to how a television affects their living spaces, while others obsess over its aesthetic impact.

Plenty depends on the television in question. Flat-screen sets may represent the future of home viewing, but most homes still have bulky picture-tube models that take up loads of space.

In the latter case, Michael Winegrad might build a cabinet around the set so it blends with the rest of the furniture. That’ll make some clients happy, but vigorous TV watchers tell him they don’t want to open any cabinet doors to watch “Friends” or “The Bernie Mac Show.”

Male-female stereotypes suggest husbands don’t mind if the television set is front-and-center at home, while many wives bristle at the thought. The designer describes a variation on that theme when recalling how his clients approach him about television matters.

“Usually it’s the wife who has talked the husband into doing the room, and he’s made the compromises. That’s the scenario I’m gonna find,” he says.

Shari Hiller and Matt Fox, hosts of HGTV’s “Room by Room” design show, see a clearly defined divide between men and women regarding television size and placement.

“The women don’t mind the smaller TV in a living space, as long as it’s in a container of some sort,” Mrs. Hiller says.

Rooms specifically set aside for television viewing are another matter.

“We ladies like the theater idea in the basement or some other great room,” Mrs. Hiller says, “but does every room in the house have to have a television?”

Mr. Fox says men may relish watching “Monday Night Football” on the biggest screen they can afford, but they, like their spouses, understand the design ramifications.

“The main concern is there might be too many focal points in a room,” Mr. Fox says. “How do we place our furniture? What are we highlighting here?”

Deborah Shade of the Annandale firm Shades of Design, says questions regarding how to design around the television set crop up “pretty much daily.”

An interior designer has to be clever when working around some of the bulkier television models. Sometimes, furniture manufacturers help with the mental heavy lifting.

Ms. Shade says some companies are creating wall units that will hold massive televisions, leaving room for the monitor and speaker assemblies.

One of her clients painted a living room wall with a special coating that allows for projection televisions to cast images upon flat surfaces. The wall soon will be framed by red curtains, like a bona fide movie house.

Some clients might want to live large with their home viewing but must work around a condominium’s space constraints. For them, versatile, flat-screen plasma or LCD televisions are a popular solution, she says.

Plasma sets are said to have shorter life spans than conventional picture-tube sets, about 10 years with casual use, but her clients would rather design for today than look that far down the road, she says.

Gary Yacoubian, vice president of the local electronics chain Myer Emco, says technology is changing the design picture for television viewers.

Today’s high-end sets, both the flat- and projection-screen varieties, are “much slicker looking when they’re turned off than we’re used to,” he says. “A lot of people in the nicer homes can hang a TV on their walls. You’re not afraid to let people see it.”

Some homeowners have gone so far as to keep their television sets running while no one is watching. Some DVD manufacturers sell titles that mimic, say, a live aquarium, so people can use their flat-screen televisions to simulate a watery backdrop.

Tomorrow’s designers will have an easier time designing around televisions, Mr. Yacoubian says, because the familiar direct-tube sets “will be dead in five years.”

Among the innovations on the market or coming soon are wireless sets that work on a rechargeable battery system.

For homeowner couples, the debate over the television may not be settled by even the best interior designer, Mr. Yacoubian says.

“There’s always one partner in the relationship who’s more concerned about the home’s decor than they are about having the ultimate TV experience,” he says — unless the room in question is set aside specifically for some must-see TV.

“If it’s a dedicated TV room, you want to have the biggest, coolest TV set you can have,” he says.