The other day I spent a bit of time perusing the site Normal Room looking for photos for a post. It’s a great site for ideas on how to decorate “normal” spaces on “normal” budgets. After some time digging around (why so many photos with Christmas trees???), I found a selection of photos that I think are far from normal (my favourites are above).

David, who has a 32″ flat screen TV, sent us an email about a design dilemma he has and it goes a little something like this: “Why does it seem that no one in the magazines or design sites has a TV? We have a micro-sized house with one living area. We like to watch movies every now and then on our couch in said living room, but we don’t want the TV to be the focal point of the room. We feel like a grouping could be done that would minimize the impact of the TV while still having it across from the couch, but I can find no inspiration in magazines or online to help me find the answer I seek.”

I personally think flat screen TVs are kind of nice to look at and don’t need to be distracted from, but hey, I see David’s point. My favourite is when the TV is positioned in a convenient place in the room in terms of design aesthetics, but you can’t view it easily from any given chair or couch. I saw this exact scenario this afternoon on an old episode of Home to Stay. Gimme a break people!!! So I went digging around my photo stash and came up with some photos to help David and anyone else out there with this common problem. Hope this helps. (I added a photo of my living room – I found that by filling the wall around the TV with photos, the TV was way less obvious.)

kontakt Magazine	Christopher Gaona
Form Architecture	Domino
Studio Ilse	Kenneth Brown
Robyn Karp	BKSK Architects
fernlund + logan architects	Jerry Jacobs
The Lawrence Group	Pappas Miron
PointClickHome	Domino
Nicholas Haslam	my living room

Thank you Tammy for sending in this photo of your Pulis. As Tammy says: “Two pulis are better than one, especially on an orange couch”. I couldn’t agree more.

Kemble Interiors is a design firm with offices in Palm Beach and New York. Celerie Kemble runs the New York office, and has been in almost every issue of Domino magazine (among many other magazines). Mimi McMakin runs the Palm Beach office and is her mother. I’d say impeccable design taste runs in this family. The furnishings are eclectic, the colours are bold and fresh and the patterns are to die for. Just check out the carpeting and wallpaper!