We've been hiding television's in style for over 10 years. The idea to take a motorized window shade and have an artist do a real painting on it was all Chris's and I'm sure wishing we would have patented it. I must say it's still the only one I've seen around that's original one-of-a-kind art and we think that's more appropriate in the middle of your home than screen printed stuff.

We've done this for HGTV's Designer's Challenge and it's brought alot of attention from people all over the nation. They still broadcast that episode even though we did the production over five years ago. I can tell you that much has changed since then. The shade rollers and internal motors have gotten smaller and the TV's thinner. This makes for a much easier install and improved aesthetics.

STEP 1: Gone are the days of us having to cut out the walls and recess the TV. Now that TV's are thin, we can hang them on a flat wall and do the frame and art right over the top. So, this is where we begin. Pick a TV and mount. Get it as thin as you can. Same for the mount. I like Samsung's 1.2" thick TV's. You can get them in plasma or LED and they are the best picture I have seen for the money. Believe it or not, Samsung builds a TV that's just 1/4" thick but be prepared to spend some big bucks to get it. Be sure to get a thin mount too. I like the Peerless Ultrathin series that places the TV less than 3/4" off the wall.

STEP 2: Buy the TV. TV's constantly switch models which will means the measurements will change. Don't want to wait to buy the TV after you've finished the frame and art because it may not available.

STEP 3: Now, we need to measure the TV so we can determine the dimensions for the frame and for the motorized "canvas". For our example, we will be using a 55" LED television that measures 50-1/2" wide by 30" high. We are going to make the inside edge of the frame 1/2" smaller than the TV measurement. So, the INSIDE opening of the frame wil measure 50" x 29-1/2". This will give the frame a 1/4" overlap all the way around the TV. The window shade will need to be ordered 2" wider than this dimension, or 52". This places an inch of canvas behind the frame so any gap between the artwork and the back of the frame will be shadowed out. The height of the shade material must be at least 12" longer than the height of the TV, or 42". We will be dropping the lower 1-1/2" of the material below the back of the frame and the surplus at the top will wrap the roller tube so there is not stress over time that could compromise the tape that secures the material to the tube.

The week of June 21st, we'll be putting up a video that explains in detail how to create the frame, whether you build it yourself or have a frameshop do it. That part is much easier to see visually. All the steps will be covered visually as well.

STEP 4: Now, Audio Video Artistry can take the shade measurements and give you a quote on what this will cost. Remember, the shade is a tube, motor assembly, material, and interface. The interface is how you will make it go up and down. Most people choose an infrared (IR) trigger with remote. It's simple and can be learned into your universal style remote or integrated with any brand of automation system. It DOES NOT have a painting on it. You'll need an artist for that. For our example, the complete shade assembly is $1500.

STEP 5: So far, we have the TV on the wall and we have a shade. We'll deliver the shade to the artist. What? You haven't got an artist? Oh, you should have picked an artist by now. No problem. Everybody worries about the artist but don't. There are plenty of local artists that will be glad to get a commission from you. I have included a couple of links at left to artists we know and use. We love supporting local artists and most have no problem painting this unusual project. It's much like canvas. There's one rule- no oil paint. We're going to use acrylics because they're elastic and we need flexibility since the art will be constantly rolling up and down. OK, there's one more rule- no heavy impasto. This is the big "glumps" of paint artists use to create texture. A little bit of this is fine, but heavy impasto will create indentions in the shade once it's rolled up. No oil. No impasto. That's all. The artist will charge you at least $2000 unless they're starving. Expect $3000 or more for the size in our example.

** Remember the image height on our example is 29-1/2" visible plus the 1-1/2" that gets buried below the bottom of the frame. Nothing of interest needs to happen on that bottom 1-1/2" because it wont be seen. The same applies to the outer 1" on the left and right. The artist will just continue the color to the edges. VERY IMPORTANT: The roller shade is 12" higher than we need. The artist in our example would paint only about 32-1/2" total height from the bottom. The remaining 10" or so would be blank. This is the portion that always wraps the roller as we discussed in Step 3. If they paint up there, it will be cut off and you will have some very strange art.

STEP 6: When the artist is finished, it's time to assemble everything. We'll have a video popping up here the week of June 21st. We'll visually review steps 1-5 and go through how to get one of these on the wall.