New Entertainment Unit...Needs Assistance!

[Mara]

i also like the idea of the big bronze stars on PB as well.

but i do agree that doing something too large is distracting, i also think that as much as i do love the ideas of the gilt and black letters, that would be distracting as well behind the TV....i''d be trying to read what it said instead of watching tv!! hehee.

so i''m thinking that i will try to build out the rest of the etagere''s with vases and similar and then see what the space behind the tv looks like at that point. i don''t want to overwhelm the room or end up with too busy of a look either...

if there are any more ideas let me know...at this point i''m almost leaning towards something that''s not too big or too small but maybe just one large piece...or something like the 4 square canvases all grouped together in a green that goes with our rug and pillows or similar. there are just so many great ideas!!

re: the lights on the etagere...it''s just a random idea but i dont know how to really make it look good, it''d be nice to have extra light but at this point it''d just be if i found the perfect thing i guess. hmmm..decor can be challenging!!

 

[BrownEyes]

I can''t believe you mentioned the bronze stars ... I was going to suggest them, but wasn''t sure whether they would be a little too ''folk art'' for you.

We actually have several of those larger tin stars in our home - - one leaning in a corner, one hanging on a wall and a grouping of several smaller ones in various sizes/colors on one of our fireplace mantels ... but in our home, the tin stars add to the folk art look and feel of each room.

Can''t wait to see pics of what you decide. Hope all of these suggestions help!

 

[gingerBcookie]

Have you looked at west elm? I think they're a sister company to PB. The stuff is bit more modern, some a bit tooo modern for me, but they've got some pretty cute stuff. I really like these wooden vases:

 

[gingerBcookie]

and i love how it looks with the single branch in it...more elegant than a whole bunch

 

[gingerBcookie]

they also have these bronze plaques that i love...but couldn''t justify buying...

 

[gingerBcookie]

...because I had just bought these wooden plaques. I have them lined up vertically on my wall with a tall brushed chrome vase with a single dark red amaryllis from PB sitting in front of the plaques.

 

[gingerBcookie]

I forgot to add, target is having their annual global bazaar. Tons of cute accessory type stuff. Furniture isn't great quailty though. Oh and I'm totally lusting over your new EC. I looked it up on PB and am trying to convince hubby to be that it's perfect for our place

. Luuuuuurve those wicker baskets...what an awesome way to keep the cds and dvds neat in a way that still looks nice!

 

[moremoremore]

I''m in the minority here. I say keep it simple. There is already a lot going on on the shelves...maybe a small vase with a branch or flower next to or even on top of the tv and stuff on the top shelves...anyhoo.., happy hunting.

 

[Mara]

hehe i hear ya mmm, that is kind of what i am warring with as well.

i have this driving need that the house look ''cozy'' and i think in my mind that doesn''t mean huge open wall spaces. our house is modern enough already and sometimes i feel like it''s too cold inside. but then i have friends who come to visit who say i am ''insane'' and that the house looks great and is very cozy. so who knows, maybe it''s some weird insanity i have, i also am always ''cold'' so i think i crave some sort of warmth around me..hard to explain. hehe.

anyway, funny ginger because i was just on west elm last nite looking for stuff and love those wooden vases for one of the inside shelves and also i looked at those 2 sets of plaques too. i really wanted that 2nd set you got to put downstairs outside of our bathroom on this skinny tall wall, but then i went a bit more french country downstairs and now i''m not sure that they work.

decisions decisions!! well so the first focus is the top shelves of each of the etagere and filling out the rest of the shelves a bit with more groupings...my baskets are arriving today so i''m excited about that. then we''ll see where we stand!

oh and ginger this EC is even prettier in person! when it came in the door i was so happy to see how it looked, we had only seen it online. the color is very dark and rich and it looks very well made and smells divine, like that new wood smell. i wasn''t entirely sold on it originally because it was a little bit modern for me, but it works well in the room and doesn''t close it up at all, keeps it open and airy and has so many decor possibilities!

the best part is that it''s 3 pieces so when we move in the future, if we end up with a house that needs a larger more commanding EC or something, then we can take this apart and use the etagere''s as design elements on their own and put the TV stand upstairs in the office or something OR we can use it in a gameroom or playroom if we have one in the future as a 3 piece set. it''s very versatile!

after we had it for a day greg said ''i love the new EC and am so glad you talked me into getting it''...HAH! tell your fiance that!

 

[tawn]

I love the wooden vases too! I want some...

They sell these little tiny round flat accent lights that come with little tiny little strings, and you can tuck the lights under the shelving and you wouldn''t even be able to see them. We put them on the underside of the cabinets in the kitchen and they were so awesome! They''re also cheap and you can buy them at Home Depot, Ikea, etc...You can get the ones that just plug in too, so they don''t have to be hardwired in! They look awesome when you have all the other lights in the house off, and they just sort of glow. Really simple and cute!

My inlaws put two glass scones on the wall on each side of their entertainment center, and it''s nice light that never reflects on the TV. They have some gorgeous ones on the higher end light fixture stores!

 

[gingerBcookie]

Mara - I dragged FI to PB to look at the EC in person and used all your arguments about versatility and openess and woohoo! As of 5 minutes ago I hit the submit button and you and I are EC twins...lol!

Now I''m trying to justify buying those cute wicker tray baskets...he put his foot down at $60 for two basket. I promised to shop around for something "more reasonable." THEN we can re-open the topic for discussion

.

Now I''M on a mad accessories shopping spree!

 

[Mara]

Date: 1/28/2006 2:34:55 PM
Author: gingerBcookie
Mara - I dragged FI to PB to look at the EC in person and used all your arguments about versatility and openess and woohoo! As of 5 minutes ago I hit the submit button and you and I are EC twins...lol!

Now I'm trying to justify buying those cute wicker tray baskets...he put his foot down at $60 for two basket. I promised to shop around for something 'more reasonable.' THEN we can re-open the topic for discussion

.

Now I'M on a mad accessories shopping spree!

LOL that's hilarious Ginger! Did the real world images of it in our house help the sale? hehehe....I love it! PS is not only addictive for diamonds but shopping habits and 'oh honey we must have this' too!! Don't we know it.

I spent a few minutes this morning foraging in my 'home decor' closet to see if I had anything else we could use in the meantime til I get my lazy butt to CB to look around...I found a vase we got in Palm Springs that is kind of funky with browns and reds in it and a bulb bottom and thin top, and also I put one of our orchids that are typically downstairs on top of one of the etagere's with a picture of Portia. So it's looking a little bit better and now that there are a few tall things on top I am thinking we may not need anything to go behind the TV...if the items on top are right they will fill most of the top of the space and then the TV open space can be uncluttered. So we'll see...in the next 2 weeks I am going to finish it up and then I'll post (hopefully) 'happy after pictures'.

Oh and Ginger the baskets came this week...interesting because the boxes they sent them in were stained with oil that smells like wood stain, so Greg thought maybe they stained them and then just packed them right up? Kind of funky, typically PB is meticulous with packaging and this was pretty sloppy and the stain stunk to high heaven so we had to take the packaging right outside. Also, I got 3 baskets (thought I got 2 but I guess I got 3) and they don't all match! The differences are slight, I guess in terms of variations in the stain but I'm not sure if it BOTHERS me yet that they don't match. Actually 2 match but one is darker. I put that one on middle shelf so it's not so close to the other two on the bottom but I don't know about it yet. They also don't seem as dark as they do in the PB picture but I guess we could always stain them ourselves darker if we had to! Oh and re: the baskets, $29 each is not bad actually..I thought about looking around BUT these were the ones used in the unit in the picture so I knew I didnt have to worry about them fitting or not fitting and I already knew they looked good. So I figured it was a smart purchase. Maybe that will help in your 'reopening of the discussion'..hehee.

So things are shaping up quite nicely around the EC..Greg is going to put the shorter wires and cables on and hide the connector behind the TV and also he is going to use a very thin cable wire to connect the back of the TV to the wall (thankfully it wont be visible) so that it doesn't topple over and smush our little white rat, esp since CA is prone to those pesky earthquakes.

Anyway we are SO happy with the unit which is a positive since buying large stuff like this online can be risky but it was a really smart purchase for us in multiple ways so we are jazzed it works out so well in our room. Keep us posted on yours!!!

 

[tawn]

Mara,

Your pesky earthquake comment made me laugh after what I was doing last night. We got a new computer (Yaaaayyy), so the old one got passed down to my 12-yr old, and we had to move his room around to make room for the computer stand. His entertainment center thing is like one tall side of your EC, but larger so there is enough to fit a 27 inch TV.

The very first thing I did was secure it to the wall!

Gotta love CA!

 

[tanuki]

May I suggest grouping the four pictures you have on the shelves on the wall over the TV?

Oh wait - that's the catalog

 

[Tacori E-ring]

So what have you decided?

 

[Mara]

Well I rummaged around in the house closets and stuff over the weekend and put some new stuff out in the EC shelves...also we hid 99% of the cords and filled the new flat baskets on the shelves. So it looks a bit more 'finished' and inline with the rest of the room but I actually do think that we either need a bigger TV or something behind the TV that goes with the room.

But we may get a new TV this spring or so, so I don't necessarily want to buy something for behind the TV if the new TV fills up more visual space. So we'll leave it like this until that point and then see! Oh but I do want to get those two CB vases anyway. Just have to get over to the store!

I took a picture of the revised EC with hidden cords and filled baskets...I'll post it later and see what you guys think!

 

[Mara]

okay here is the revised EC pic from the other day, please ignore my huge magazine pile (and PB invoice) in the forefront of the image...I forgot to clear off the ottoman while taking the pic.

anyway this picture is really not the best...it seems to emphasize the space behind the TV as so huge and white...the look in person is MUCH better and more ''filled out'' than this image shows because i took this head on rather than from the side which is how it''s viewed from a casual viewer (aka from the kitchen or walking by)...but this does show we need a larger TV and MAYBE some stuff on the back wall depending on what the larger TV looks like.

i really like the idea of just sticking with my same thin black frames and white mats images behind the TV to kind of tie it all in together...but again this will come about AFTER we eventually get a larger TV (LCD) to fill the space more.

but it looks better than before, eh? a bit more filled in with the baskets etc. still need to get the vases from CB though for the top shelf.

 

[gingerBcookie]

looks fab! I really like the pedestal with the green ball things, but that shelf looks kinda empty. maybe prop one of your B&W pics behind it to give the arragnemet some height? I''m saving all your pics for inspiration yanno

The EC is back ordered until end of feb. i hope it comes through. i usually have pretty bad luck with backordered items.

have you thought about using track lighting or some such to backlight the wall behind the TV? It might be a subtle way to bring more light into the room without glare, and add texture to the wall without being too busy. just a thought.

 

[eks6426]

Mara

I like the orchid on the top left. It''s definitely getting better. I agree on the lighting idea. Maybe some uplights or the little hockey put lights? Here''s your 2 pictures next to each other.

 

[Mara]

ginger, i agree im just waiting for the right thing to come up for that green ball shelf, i dont want them all to be ''the same'' aka pictuer or candle or balls or vase, so hopefully something unique will come up. ballard has some cute wire eiffel towel statue things that i kind of like for something like $29 so maybe that would be cute. also PB has those little wooden set of miniature chairs that are on sale too.

re: lighting, seriously i am a dunce when it comes to that kind of stuff, i would have no idea where to place it or what to do with it...hmm.

ID the picture comparison is great, it''s definitely ''better''...we''ll see what it looks like in another few months. but we are very happy with it!

oh and ginger mine was backordered too to first week of feb, and it ended up shipping a week and a half EARLIER than they estimated (so instead of first week of feb it shipped in the middle of jan, ~jan 17th, so im sure yours will be similar! after it ''shipped'' i got the call to come and ''install'' it about 3-4 working days so it happens pretty quickly after it ships. i was very pleased! the baskets were backordered too with an estimated ship date of BEFORE the EC, and they showed up almost a week AFTER the EC!