23 Clever Ways to Hide Your TV, According to Designers

In a room as traditional and cohesive as this, you probably don’t want a big black rectangle interrupting your aesthetic, so do what designer Lynne Uhalt did and hide your TV in a closet. This guest room is heavily inspired by European interiors and architecture, but Uhalt still wanted the guests to be able to watch TV and relax in bed. As a design-friendly solution, she put the TV in one of the closets that are still large enough to hold clothes.

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Designer John Wooden maximized limited square footage in his clients’ cottage by cleverly hiding items, such as placing their TV in a beautiful credenza. One of the simplest methods to hide your TV is by incorporating it into furniture that already complements the space. This wooden credenza fits perfectly in the room, making it an ideal spot for a hidden TV.

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In a maximalist, highly colorful space like this, Shazalynn Cavin-Winfrey couldn’t see how a TV could work in the room, so she decided to hide it in the green cabinet in the back. However, the designer took it a step further and covered the glass with fabric that pulls hues from the rest of the room.

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Everick Brown designed a statement wall encased in custom steel with walnut insets to create a “floating credenza” for a hidden TV. A console table behind the sofa helps separate the two living room zones.

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Designed to look like abstract artwork, Kristin Fine hid the TV behind modern paneling above the fireplace. It suits the neutral tones nicely and maintains the refined and grown-up atmosphere while also ensuring that it’s family-friendly.

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This living room sitting area revolves around the corner fireplace. To ensure that the TV didn’t take up too much valuable visual space, designer Denise McGaha invested in a Samsung Frame disguised it as a photograph that complements the blue and grey color scheme.

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This outdoor living room designed by Amanda Lindroth is the perfect place to entertain and unwind. Look closely at the pagoda-shaped cabinet above the fireplace and you’ll notice that it opens to reveal a hidden TV. It was based on a design from St. Michael’s Mount castle in England.

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What do you do in a busy kitchen where the children love TV and the mom doesn’t—but she does want to keep an eye on said kids? Enter the Samsung Frame, once again making it all work in family homes with competing interests and preferences, like in April Tomlin Interiors designer Sarah Rogers’s kitchen here.

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A bi-fold panel painting by Stuart Coleman Budd hides a TV, but the goal was to be transparent. “Bronze hinges honestly express that it’s a movable screen—that this is true kinetic art,” says architect Ken Pursley of Pursley Dixon Architecture.

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This formal living room designed by Mark Cunningham doubles as a more relaxed and casual hangout room. To ensure that it could do both well, Cunningham built a hidden TV into the back wall shelf that pops up when the occupants want to unwind with a good movie.

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Don’t hide it, just make it one with your wall. This gallery wall of various-sized framed prints blends in with the Samsung Frame TV, which has a wood frame and a rotating display of art images. “None of my clients’ guests realize its a TV when they first walk into the room,” says Natalie Myer of Veneer Designs.

Designer CeCe Barfield Thompson hid a TV behind a retractable antique mirror for max glam. “In an oak-paneled Manhattan library, I designed an antique mirror to hide the wall-mounted television,” Thompson says. “The mirror’s lower panels retract like a garage door to reveal an entertainment system behind. This mechanism allowed us to create a room that was incredibly functional, without sacrificing an ounce of beauty!”

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Here’s another example of custom cabinetry with a hidden TV. A sliding door flush with the wood accent wall makes this media room designed by Heidi Caillier extra discrete and pretty—that custom upholstery, drapery, and grasscloth are too good not to get lost in the entertainment system shuffle.

Designer Nina Farmer took the most elegant approach possible—hiding her TV in a custom mirrored cabinet atop the mantel. “The living room needed a concealed TV due to the formality of the architecture,” she says. “Hand-blown mirror was used on the doors so that the enclosure fit with the original 1850s marble mantel. It has concealed hinges and no pull, so when it’s closed, you would never know what’s behind it.”

If you can’t outright conceal your screen, the key is to avoid the “black hole” effect when it’s off. “I always try to blend them into the architecture of the house,” says designer, Eche Martinez. “We recently completed a project in Belvedere, CA where the homeowners were hesitant about installing a TV in their living room. To solve this, we decided that the best way to divert attention from the TV when it was not in use was to have an oversized, freestanding piece of art right next to it. Clients loved it, and above all, the piece looks great in the room.”

This LG OLED TV is a game-changer. When you’re done watching, switch it to Gallery Mode for gorgeous photos accompanied by mood-enhancing music. “The LG OLED TV is as advanced as they come. It’s extremely thin, and has the ability to look like a piece of art instead of a black hole,” says designer Sherry Hart.

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A sliding panel is a sleek, clean-lined way to keep your TV out of eyesight. “We opted for a more mobile approach and arrived at the idea for a sliding panel,” says New York design firm Pappas Miron. “During daily life as the family is together, the Venetian plastered and steel trimmed panel can rest in front of the adjacent bookshelf. As the hour strikes to host a cocktail party, the clients can easily slide the panel to cover the TV and reveal the bookcase and bar area.”

If you love anything and everything farmhouse, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to try barn cabinet doors. “The house had this great nook with barn doors that we knew would be the perfect place to hide the TV. It’s so nice when you don’t have to look at it—and this was a super cool way to hide it that’s different than a classic TV stand,” says Amber Lewis, founder of Amber Interiors Design Studio.

Designer Brady Tolbert mounted his bedroom TV inside a cabinet, then reinstalled the doors to allow them to open accordion-style. “Your grandma’s old hutch just might be the perfect house for your TV,” he says. “I used this vintage hutch and took out the shelves to make room for my TV to pull in and out on a mount. When I want to use it, I just open up the doors and pull it out, and when I am done, I can close it off so that it hides itself away.”