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TVs Over Fireplaces: the Greatest Evil Ever Faced by Humanity

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Over on Curbed National, the debate rages on regarding the key issue of our time: whether it's OK to put a TV over a fireplace. As far as we're concerned, the idea is not just a bad idea, not just wrong, but actually evil. It's like Ted Bundy and Aileen Wournos made a flat screen baby of evil and hung it on your wall.

But don't just take our word for it. We polled some noted tastemakers, people whose opinions we admire and trust.

Charles Eastlake says, "Not only is siting a TV over a fireplace a bad idea ergonomically, it's also bad technologically. That heat is not good for a flatscreen. I'm afraid this is not in good taste." And remember, Charles Eastlake quite literally wrote the book on household taste.

Elsie de Wolfe says, "When the TV is off, it's a shiny black hole. The fireplace should be the center of the room—so either you have a shiny black hole in the center of the room or there are some Real Housewives yakking away up there. This is not in good taste." Elsie de Wolfe ought to know a thing or two about the house in good taste.

And according to Mary Haweis, "The focal point of the living room should be the fireplace, not the TV. In a den, sure, make it the TV, but the living room should be about something other than huddling in front of the tube." Mrs. Haweis, of course, knows all there is to know about the art of decoration.

Case closed.
· What's Wrong With Putting a TV Above the Fireplace? [CN]