Fireplace vs. tv

Design Dilemma

This Freeport St. unit has a unique layout where the first floor is divided by a stone wall containing a glass fireplace accessible from both sides. This type of design can be challenging when you want your living space to include a focal area for TV and entertainment but you don’t want to detract or compete with the fireplace. The previous owner had mounted the TV to the stone wall adjacent to the fireplace, which didn’t work well for the current owners and their toddler. Instead, they placed their TV above the stone wall fireplace, which they knew ultimately wasn’t ideal for future buyers. My solution was to eliminate half of the seating that wrapped around the room (sectional was ganged together) and relocate the TV to the window wall, leaving room for a TV stand to be centered between the windows. We pulled back the remaining part of the sectional to make room for some extra seating and accessories, which ultimately left the space feeling much more spacious. I always feel that it’s important to celebrate your family (children and pets) when selling your home but it’s incredibly difficult to live in a staged environment where everything has to be tucked away. The goal is to show your potential buyers that you are able to live in the space with all of your comforts but to also show them that you have solutions for where all of your best-loved things go. In this case, the owners love their plants so I gave them all a centralized home. The living area also needed to remain a kid friendly space where their toddler could play. Staging a home that is currently lived in is also an interesting exercise in minimalism. Many clients purge, sell and store things away during the selling process, and in the end, wonder if they really ever needed all that stuff to begin with.