Unlike their relatively bulky CRT and RPTV counterparts that have been known to swallow entire family rooms whole, thin flat screens are now beginning to influence furniture design. And some of the furniture costs more than the new sets.
Hulking, free-standing armoires with the hideaway doors (that still grace most hotel rooms) that are so effective at putting the TV screen in its proper place when not in use, are being replaced in more flat-screen homes with open, minimalist chests designed to show off the large widescreen all the time, not shun it. For wall-mounted screens, some consoles come with mountable back panels.
Sligh Furniture boasts six console models averaging about $1,400 apiece, according to The Washington Post, with Hooker Furniture offering a $1,400 Woodland Creek console made of pine with maple veneer--and an optional back-panel hutch for another $1,400. Inspired by a piece from the early eighteenth century, Baker Furniture is selling a "neoclassic" chest for less than $2,800. (No, that does not include a flat screen HD set, too.)
Meanwhile, the Eli Wilner & Company is now selling a framed television/mirror with a guarantee that no two clients will have the same frame. Eli Wilner is a resource for antique American and European period frames, and has reframed 27 paintings for the White House.
The Wilner gallery has about 3,000 frames that will complement any interior, for a price, and offers its framed television/mirror in any style that incorporates a 23-inch LCD flat screen. (The screen becomes a mirror when the television is turned off.) Depending on one's tastes, a packaged frame and television/mirror will cost you a minimum of $16,000.
