Remember when Whitey bit the dust a few weeks ago? Within a week we replaced her with a fancy new 26" flat-panel. We hooked her up in Whitey's old home, the top of Eddie's dresser, got in bed to watch LOST, and realized we could not see a darn thing.
The problem, of course, was that a flat-panel television needs to be viewed from the proper angle. Up and off to the side and in the dark just won't work. But since we were flat-panel virgins, we didn't know that when I went to the store and picked out the new tv. So we had two options-- spend an additional hundred dollars to swivel-mount the tv on the wall, or move it to a new location.
Since we'd already spent way too much money, we opted to move it. If you look to the diagram on the left, you can see a rough-estimate of our bedroom's floor plan. Now we look at the tv straight on, which definitely works for watching shows from the bed.
I've watched enough HGTV to know that interior designers are big believers in trying to make a room work for its intended purposes. The bedroom, in its old layout, worked pretty well for its purposes. We could watch tv in bed. I could watch it on the treadmill. I could watch it from the bathroom (the door to the left of the bed goes into the bathroom). It was great for folding laundry, since I'd dump the clean laundry on the center of the bed, stand at the foot, and catch up on the DVR while I folded.
Now, I can't watch tv while I run. Or while I'm in the bathroom. The laundry folding thing sort of works, but only if I stand on the left side of the bed instead of the foot of the bed. It's forced me to rethink how we use the whole room. I miss Whitey.
The good news is that the big dead space at the foot of the bed is no longer dead space. It's great for yoga (I'd always get a crick in my neck while doing yoga videos under the old setup). I can now feel good about enforcing the "no kids on the bed" rule (yes, I'm anal about how it's made), since they can sit perfectly comfortably on the floor with a clear view. I've also found a great open spot on the floor for doing projects. If I actually did any projects, anymore, that is. At night, when Eddie's gone, I've taken to stealing a beanbag from the boys' bedroom, propping the laptop on my lap, and multitasking in front of the tv in the evenings. It's pretty nice. Between the sweet new tv setup and May sweeps, I'm not getting much reading done these days.
But now I think I need a bench or a loveseat or something at the foot of the bed to lounge on (a chaise?). It would be more comfortable than the beanbag chair. But it would probably be more expensive than the wall mount. That seems to be the story of my life-- I try to economize, and it just ends up costing me even more than if I'd just spent the money in the first place.
4 comments:
If you get the swivel arm, you can use the t.v. while on the treadmill again ;). That would be a big motivator for me, hehe.
you are such a reader you can justify a chaise-- I always envision peopel reading on a chaise
Have you considered putting the TV back where it used to be and then moving your bed to the wall opposite? Then you could put the treadmill in the corner next to the bathroom door and still have room for yoga as you first come in the door. (Alternately, and so you wouldn't have to walk all around the bed to get to the bathroom, you could also swap the bed and the TV, then put the treadmill in the opposite corner.)
i'm horrid at this kind of thing. one of the most generous things a friend did for me when we moved to utah was come over and suggest different ways of laying out my furniture. i'm all squares and rectangles, but she was all triangles and unique perspectives. i loved that!
Good luck with this.
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