When a Television Is Suitable for Framing

By ANNE EISENBERG

MANY people like the look of a flat-panel television hanging on the living room wall — so long as something’s on. Turn the set off, though, and the blank screen becomes an eyesore to those who want a TV to disappear when they aren't watching it.

Fortunately for those consumers, aesthetic ways to camouflage that huge L.C.D. or plasma panel, and perhaps even enhance the room’s décor, are on the market.

Companies that traditionally frame mirrors and paintings are creating special frames for wall-mounted televisions. The artful frames, many of them gilded replicas of classic designs, may fool viewers into thinking they are seeing not a powered-down L.C.D., but a smoky gray antique mirror—or even a piece of contemporary art.

There are likely to be ever more L.C.D. and plasma screens in need of frames. Sales of flat-panel TVs are growing as they replace traditional tube-based sets. L.C.D. television purchases in North America will jump 59 percent this year, to 22 million units, and sales of plasma TVs will rise 18 percent, to 4.1 million units, said Paul Gagnon of DisplaySearch, a market research firm in Austin, Tex.

Sophisticated frames may help when couples struggle to deal with one partner’s desire for a big-screen TV, and the other’s desire for an unblemished living room. Jennifer Bastos, for instance, said that her husband wanted a 42-inch plasma TV in their combination living room-den in Midtown Manhattan, but she was worried about how it would look. “If there were a whole other TV room, I wouldn’t care so much,” she said.

As a solution, Mrs. Bastos has ordered a replica of an antique frame from a gallery, Balfour & Bankston in New York City. “Hopefully it’s going to make the TV more discreet,” she said. Television frames at the gallery (framefinders.com) start at $3,000, said Edward C. Balfour, a co-owner.

Mr. Balfour, the New York frame dealer, said that disguises for televisions have a guaranteed appeal. “People spend a lot of time decorating their homes,” he said. “But TVs can disrupt the feel of a home. The frame takes some of this disruption away.”