Wall of Entertainment

No living room would be complete without an entertainment wall, center, or whatever you want to call it. We are definitely going to have one and it has sucked up a major amount of time. It all started a couple of years ago when we set out to design the living room. There were a few initial requirements; have some drywall niches to display art, a decent size gas fireplace and television above the fireplace.

Pretty simple but there are so, so many ways this can go. Because of the possibilities I started drawing them in Sketchup. We kept going and going, drawing everything we could think of. There ended up being more than 50 of them! We spent months going back and forth tweaking some of our favorite models and narrowing the choices, ultimately choosing one.

The image above is the basic design we chose. Stacked drywall art niches on either side and a slightly set back center area that contained a fireplace at the bottom and a TV above. Also notice the two windows in the niches at the top. The window size set the over all size of the niches. The lower right niche will have sliding glass doors that enclose the stereo system and various other components. From there we spent almost as much time refining the design, tackling some tough problems.

The dance between the fireplace and the TV became the biggest design challenge. Most modern living rooms have a TV above the fireplace, however, almost all of them have a TV way too high on the wall to be comfortable.  Research tells me that it’s best to have the TV centerline around 45-50″ off the floor. Many factors my change this number but the idea is to keep the centerline at eye level so the viewer doesn’t have to strain their neck to view the TV. I really wanted to tackle this problem but the fireplace manufacturers make it really difficult. Almost all of the units put out an incredible amount of heat from the face. So much so that they include a pretty unattractive mesh screen, which snaps on to the front, to prevent serious burns from touching the glass. Because of heat the fireplace manufacturers require that the television be placed 4-5′ above the top of the firebox. This puts the TV a minimum of 30″ above optimal viewing angle, which is a dealbreaker for us.

I decided there must be a fireplace that generates less heat and fits our budget, so I set out to find it. I created a spreadsheet with all the requirements and filled it out with all the makes and models I could find. This narrowed the search considerable, especially considering heat, price and attractiveness. We then went to the local shops and looked at the units. Most had fans that were very noisy and added significantly to the cost / complexity. Those that didn’t have fans were custom made and quoted for $60-80K!! I was starting to loose hope that a unit was made that fit our criteria. There was one last hope but we had to drive to Vancouver BC from Seattle to see it because no local show room carried it. So, we took a road trip and much to our delight the fireplace was exactly what we were looking for. Little to no heat out the front, no screen, very attractive, a bit over our budget but not bad and the TV can be placed right at the top of the fireplace opening. The unit we chose is the Regency New York View 72″.

One thing that I hadn’t considered before, which is necessary with this fireplace, is a vent system at the top of the chase. To keep the glass on the fireplace cool two panes of glass are used. Cool air is drawn in between them, keeping the outside pane cool. The Regency uses natural airflow (not fans) to draw cool air in at the bottom, across the glass, and up the chase where the warm air exits back into the room near the ceiling. The vent at the top can either be a louvered cap or simply an opening. We are going with the opening to eliminate the lines at the top of the chase. Details, details!

Once we had a design and a fireplace picked out it was time to frame the whole thing up. Nothing too complicated, just some 2×4 material and a set of plans. I left the studs out over the fireplace opening so the vent ducts could be put in. We will also need to cover the whole inside of the chase with drywall as a firestop.

Now it was time to get the fireplace installed. We placed our order from The Bellevue Fireplace Shop and a couple of weeks later they came out and installed it. The unit weighs 600 pounds but they were able to wheel it off their truck and right in to the living room with one small cart and two guys. I was really impressed. A few hours later it was installed and now we have to wait for everything else to happen before it can be lit up.

The fireplace is huge but only a small portion of it will be exposed. We’ll eventually cover the rest of it with a sheet of blackened steel and stone. I’m really looking forward to that day!

One thought on “Wall of Entertainment

  1. WOW!!!! The plot thickens. This is not merely a HOUSE…..this is a MANSION!! I do believe a book could be published from your copious notes. There is so much others could learn about the whole process. DON’T LET ANY OF THESE BLOGS GET AWAY!!!!!! I’m glad you bought something from Canadians….they’ve been taking a verbal beating from “Ronald Grump”!!!…..and deserve much better treatment. They’re our neighbors for Heaven’s sake!!!

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