Fire and Entertainment

Sometime toward the end of the summer, Greg installed the final pieces of out entertainment wall, the component rack and shelves to the right of the fireplace. It's taken me awhile to fill up the shelves. As you can see from my last post, my little collection of Halloween items has helped to fill some voids. After that, the Christmas stuff will take over. So, I guess I don't have to worry too much about styling the shelves for awhile. And, it should be an evolution anyway, right? I do need to take some time to update and fill up some of the picture frames though! That large purple one was a recent TJ Max find for $7.99. I think it's perfect for this room. 

You can also see that Greg got his speakers up on the wall next to the TV. We're still working on the cable management. We have some ideas. Just need the time to implement. He has the surround sound speakers on the wall now too, but hasn't had a chance to wire them.

We loved this wall mounted component from IKEA because it allowed us to get up over the baseboard heat, and it left room for Greg's new sub woofer (which I have additional plans to hide even better in a different corner of the living room). Greg did a little hack job to add some drawer glides to make it easier to access the back of the receiver. 

Another project that is in the works here, is figuring out a way to screen the glass in the left most shelf. Our old coffee table had a lot of storage. The new one has none. Now, all the unattractive stuff is behind the glass door and I don't want to see it. I am experimenting with different contact paper stripes, etc. to create a frosted look. More on that when I finalize the plan.

This Sunday, we also had our very first fire in the our fireplace, which was made possible by our conversion from oil to gas heat. I have yet to write about that process! And yes, it's Sunday, so Greg was watching football. 

Now, we need to work on getting a screen that isn't brass!

We Have a Fireplace!

Could you even tell? We can’t use it yet, due to some repair work that is needed in the chimney, which will take care of itself once we finally convert from oil to gas. But it sure is nice to look at, right?

Greg was able to put the TV up on the wall today, now that the wall has been painted. And you can be sure, that it’s not going anywhere. 

First, the bracket was bolted to the wall. It’s off center to be sure it’s in the studs. We’re not taking any chances with our TV! 

Here, you can see the way the bracket folds off the wall. This allows it to swivel in either direction. 

Jeff was kind enough to stop by to help life the TV up on to the bracket. I was grateful, because this had to be done several times to get the proper alignment. Because the bracket is not centered on the way, the TV was placed to one side of the bracket to compensate. This caused some deflection, which required some adjustment to avoid having a tilted, yet centered, TV.  

It’s a pretty cool bracket with lots of adjustability. We’ll be able to see the TV from the dining room table...if we wanted to. 

PS - in some of the photo, you can see the old brass fireplace screen. We decided to stash it away for now, since I’m not really a fan of brass. The fireplace is a little sooty, but I think it looks much cleaner and simpler without all the accessories. Someday, when we’re actually using it, we’ll find some black wrought iron ones instead. 

Comments transferred from previous Blog:

GINA

looking good

Saturday, February 5, 2011 - 08:37 PM

VP

Looks amazing. I love the swivel bracket. You are so lucky to be married to an engineer with such an accommodating brother. I am lucky, too. XOXXOXOXOXOXOXOO

Sunday, February 6, 2011 - 07:46 AM