Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 526 Comments

Buying A Bigger TV

I’m not sure any of you have noticed, but we have a tiny TV. Well, some of you have definitely noticed because you keep laughing at us and commenting about how overdue we are for a bigger one. And as the resident man of the house, I have to say I agree. Our little 26-incher made sense in the old house, where our den was so narrow that I could practically change the channel with my toe…

Final Den Take 2

But now that we have a bit more space in our current living room (we actually miss the cozy-ness of our first living room, but love having extra room for Clara to play/run around), the phrase “we really need a bigger TV” gets uttered anytime a subtitle pops up, a news ticker rolls across the screen, or we have anyone over to watch a movie with us. Yeah, we can’t read those things without standing up and walking halfway across the room. But a new TV is something we’ve just been putting off and putting off, which is surprising considering how much TV we watch.

Living Room1

But ever since we got the tip that February and March were the best times to buy a TV (supposedly these post-Christmas, post-Super-Bowl months are the television industry’s slow season, and when demand is low, prices can drop) we’ve been waiting for the right moment to seize the day and just upgrade already. And after a bit of research, a bit of chatting with my brother-in-law Martin (who went through a vigorous research process of his own a few months ago), and a bit of price checking – we narrowed it down to these two TVs – a Vizio and a Samsung, both sold at Target:

TV Decided Between Two

They’re both LCDs, both 1080p, and both in the neighborhood of 40″. They were also both eco models that only cost $17 a year to run, so they’re very low on the energy scale (the lowest we saw was $15 a year for a costs-double LED). The around 40″ size wasn’t any magic number that we calculated, it’s just what we arrived at after discussing that we wanted something big, but not crazy-big (and when we held up a tape measure at home, it felt right). Both had 4+ star reviews on Target, Amazon, Walmart and a few other sites that came up on our Google search. Any idea what we ended up choosing?

Naturally, we went for the $100 cheaper / 2″ larger Vizio. But that $449.99 wasn’t our final price. You know us and our coupons…

TV Coupons In Store

The reason we wanted to buy our TV at Target was:

  • They were having a temporary price cut – taking it from $479 to $449
  • We have a Target credit card, which gives us 5% off every purchase – knocking it down to $427
  • Target randomly sent us an “additional 5% off all HDTVs on top of the 5% for using your card” coupon (I think coupons like these go out to Target cardholders) – shaving it down to $406
  • We had a couple of leftover Christmas gift cards, which left our final out-of-pocket cost at $356

Which isn’t bad considering our much tinier TV was purchased for about that much five years ago (we think that old TV will either go into another room or get craigslisted). So after 15 months of staring at our too-small TV and saving up/stalking sales, we brought that baby home. And Burger couldn’t have been more excited to watch… the news? Seriously Vizio? You thought this lady was the most exciting graphic to show on your box? Can’t a guy get an exotic underwater scene with fish and coral in all colors of the rainbow? Or at least a charging bull or a running horse or something with a little speed/excitement?

TV 3 Vizio Box

Before we set it up, we wanted to try to capture exactly what sort of an upgrade we were making. So here’s a pic of our old TV:

TV 1 Before From Couch

Ridiculous, isn’t it? It’s a bit exaggerated because this is a small picture of a small TV, but you get the idea. So we broke out the new guy just for comparison’s sake. It’s starting to look a bit better, right? It’s also starting to look like we’re gonna need a bigger media console too (we’ve been planning to build something from scratch or retrofit something from the thrift store, so we’ll keep you posted).

TV 4 Both TVs On Stand

Here’s that view from the couch with the new TV on. Hey look, now you can actually tell that we were watching Cougar Town now! As in, all of the letters are readable now (again, this isn’t a life sized photo, it’s a small picture of a TV across the room, so in person it’s a lot bigger and reading small things like the subtitle are now no sweat). Whew.

TV 7 After From Couch

Oh and we tethered it to the wall with a wire that came with the TV along with a screw and heavy duty anchor (we may eventually mount it on the wall, once we figure out what’s going on under it so we can determine the height, etc). But for now this will at least keep it from tipping.

TV 5 Tethered To Wall

Hopefully this is just the beginning of updating that whole area of the living room. We definitely think it needs a bigger piece of furniture – preferably with more storage and a bit more height – to ground our big new TV friend. But until then, we’re just happy to give our squinting muscles a break… and of course we’re happy to have the Cul De Sac Crew back in our lives.

TV 6 After From Ottoman

Is anyone else making any television upgrades lately? Or just watching some good TV? Now that the book shoots are done, maybe we’ll actually have time to watch the boob tube again! So much catching up to do. But you know we’re up to date on The Walking Dead so nobody spoils that for us. Haha.

Comments

  2. AmberGale says

    Hey, can you give an updated review of Big Karl? We bought the same couch recently to go in our basement when my husband gets done renovating it — right now all the couch boxes are sitting on our back porch! (IKEA had a great promotion last winter for 25% back on a gift card for any Karlstad purchase, so we went ahead and got it, to get the $125 gift card). Are you still loving him? Comfy? Cushions holding up well? Thanks!

    Reply

  3. Andrea says

    I can definitely vouch for the Vizio quality! We’ve had a 37″ Vizio for going on 4 years and have loved it. We just upgraded to a 47″ Vizio on Super Bowl Sunday. And our box came with a giant picture of Seal’s face on it (the singer, not the animal). No offense to Seal, but that seems like an odd choice for a giant, High Definition photo…

    Reply

  4. stef says

    When my guy moved in he INSISTED we get a bigger TV.

    Have you guys watched Game of Thrones at all? I haven’t seen the latest Walking Dead but I’ve read the books so the series is tough to watch. As usual, the book is soooo much better! So! Much! Better!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We haven’t watched Game of Thrones but I hear it’s good! I keep hearing the girl with long blonde hair who is naked all the time looks like me, which is kind of funny slash weird. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  6. Lena says

    Congrats on the new tv!

    After living in Germany for three years and not watching much tv, my husband was excited to finally get the tv he has been saving for for two years. He bought a 60″ Samsung that was $1,500 off last week at Best Buy. A couple days later the tv was sold out. We were happy to hear the same tip you did.

    Reply

  7. Kimberly says

    Nice to know now is a good time to buy a TV. My husband and I are actually thinking of downgrading our 47″ to a more manageable 32″ in the only living area (think smaller than your old den) in our small two bedroom house. It is a bit overbearing in our crowded room, and seeing the picture of your old den (again) inspired me to go through with the change.

    Reply

  8. Elesea says

    Yeah for new t.v.! My husband bought a new one last year. Somehow after lots of research and a couple of returns, we ended up with a lot bigger t.v. that expected…

    Reply

  9. kathy says

    Ah, TV’s.. my husband can justify ANY TV purchase. I actually had to cap him on TV’s (none in the bedroom!) , otherwise we’d probably have one in every room, including the bathroom! Our next project was going to be to upgrade our den, including an entertainment center, but we just found out we have bats in our attic so other projects are going to be on hold for awhile (it’s an expensive removal process) =/

    Reply

  10. Hillary says

    Love it. I recently got rid of the TV in my room that I had had since I was in 6th grade (I’m now almost 27 years old. It was time for an upgrade)!

    Reply

  13. midlomel says

    We just upgraded from a thick, “old-timey” 36 inch TV to a 55″ Vizio. She’s a beaut! Got her a Costco.

    If you are looking for a new stand, check out Costco if you’re a member. (Or do like we did and tag along w/ a relative who is a member.) We got a great quality stand for a great price.

    What am I saying? John will probably build some fantastic TV stand.

    (Mad Men is definitely a must! Especially for anyone who used to be in the ad biz.)

    Reply

  14. bekah says

    Haha I redid an entertainment center out of an old dresser last fall, and mu husband likes it a lot, but says it makes our TV look ‘tiny’. Its a 26incher like yours was, and while I am fine with that size, I know he is….well…not. So…fathers day should be good for him. Thats all I am saying. Shhhhh

    Reply

  15. Claudie says

    I think the new TV looks much better, proportion-wise. You probably even could have went much bigger and gotten away with it, given the size of your room! I understand not wanting to have a giant TV, though. If my husband had his way, we’d have some monstrosity in our living room. :) With regards to the new TV stand, we recently went with the 3 drawer Hemnes TV unit in white from Ikea and we love it. Plus the $225 price tag (it’s actually on sale for less than that now) wasn’t that bad when we priced it out with other solid wood pieces from other places. It might not work for you since you said you might want something taller and it’s not that tall, but it works for us and our sofa so I figured I’d mention it.

    Reply

  16. Kelly G says

    ahh, the target hudson tv stand! We had that same tv stand for years and JUST sold it last night on craigs list for $70. We have the same tv too, but Samsung brand and we just wanted something a little bigger/taller. I’d been searching CL for a few weeks for a buffet/dresser/sideboard then last week our neighbors put a beautiful 9 drawer dresser out on the curb for trash… deluxe! Painted it SW Zircon grey and left the bottom drawer-free for open basket storage. Maybe I’ll submit a picture for reader re-design…

    Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

    Reply

  17. Lesley L says

    You will love it. We just got the same TV back in Sept 2011 the day of Alabama college football season opener. We had an old ‘box in the back” TV from our college days. That is what my nephews call it.

    Reply

  19. Allyn says

    We’re like you guys. Our tv is really old, and super big and heavy (not in a good way), but it’s just so low on our priority list.
    I mean, adding to my shoe closet is totally more important, right?!

    Reply

  20. Eileen says

    That’s actually Hannah Storm from ESPN, one of the more regular female sportscasters. I suppose they’re trying to make a connection with sports enthusiasts? I watch ESPN, but I agree, they probably couldn’ve had something a little more exciting.

    Reply

  21. Stephanie says

    So I glanced away from the screen for a minute as I was reading, and when I looked back to find my place I misread “exotic underwater scene” as “exotic underwear scene”. Awkward…

    Reply

  22. Emily says

    We have the same tv at my house and the picture quality is amazing. People are always commenting on it, and how it looks 3D. My last tv was a tube tv so you can imagine the difference there!

    Reply

  23. Danielle says

    I would love to see how you guys handle mounting the TV if you decide to do it. We are debating that, but the idea of those cords hanging down sort of drives me crazy.

    Also – if you don’t end up mounting it, I’d love to hear your perspective on what to do with the wall above the TV. We’ve got this huge empty space above ours, and I’m always tempted to throw something up on the wall there, but putting anything above the TV seems like a distraction.

    Lots of questions for you guys today – can you tell I’m procrastinating? :)

    Reply

    • Penny says

      Danielle, Home Depot has flat plastic “tubes” (but FLAT) that you fasten to the wall and run the cords through. Then you just paint them the wall color. I think they have something like that on Amazon too.

  24. Sarah @ { rad: renovations are dirty } says

    Nice upgrade! It fits the space much better. :)

    My husband and I just upgraded our TV, too: from a 7.5 year old CRT beast. Our friends complained every time they came over to watch a movie. hah We ended up getting a big ol’ 50″ flat screen. I love it! We watch a ton of documentaries and it’s so much better than our old one. :)

    Reply

  25. Karrie says

    We just upgraded our tv, too. We had an old school 32″ that my husband has been wanting to upgrade forever. We found out about an energy star rebate our city was offering and jumped on it. The rebate was for 50% off the purchase price up to $500. We got a 40″samsung smart tv for $400. It’s pretty awesome. We don’t have cable so to be able to stream content without an extra box is really sweet.

    Reply

  26. Rebecca @ the lil house that could says

    We bought a Samsung back in October and splurged for one of those crazy thin, practically frameless ones since we also love to watch our Dexter, Homeland and Walking Dead. Here’s some pictures of our dear friend, though he’s now mounted to the wall to make sure our kitties don’t climb behind it and tip it over… http://thelilhousethatcould.com/2011/10/03/get-me-some-glasses/
    We get more compliments on our fancy tv than anything else in the family room! My parents even went out and bought the same one since they were so impressed with the image!

    Reply

  27. Lindsey d. says

    I got rid of my boat anchor of a television over Thanksgiving, upgrading to a 36″ LG flat panel. So happy! I was FINALLY able to rearrange my tv room into a furniture placement that actually works with the room! The old tv was a giant box that HAD to go in the only available corner, making it impossible for the tv to sit on the same wall. The new tv has created a much better arrangement! Also, the old tv was more than ten years old and the picture was slipping. Much better viewing, plus HDMI outlets so I can watch regular old Hulu programming straight from my computer on the tv.

    Reply

  28. Jeannie says

    Congrats on the new TV! Also- I get so excited whenever I find out someone is a Cougar Town fan. I didn’t think you guys could get any cooler in my eyes! ;-)

    Reply

  29. Tracy K says

    Only one other person I know actually watches The Walking Dead! So, I need to know…did you like Shane or not? He was my favorite. Hubs didn’t like him. He thinks I have a thing for bad boys. ;)
    I was teary eyed when he died. I think I just sat there in shock.
    Sucks that we have to wait until October! That’s almost like forever!!!

    Reply

  30. Anne says

    We’re doing the exact opposite – trying to off-load (for free!) the mammoth tv we have, since we just got rid of cable and are going boobtubeless for the foreseeable future. If ours weren’t an ugly, business-in-the-back behemoth we’d love to have given it to you! As for this weekend, zippo got done on house but we did get to go Hunting the Ancestors (http://www.archiphotovist.com/2012/03/20/old-st-raymonds/), which was awesome.

    Reply

  31. Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says

    We too took advantage of the Target tv sales this weekend. After finally finding a nice tv stand on Craiglist (46″, solid wood, $75) we went out and bought the 47″ Vizio! We had a gift card for $100 left from the wedding and have been saving for awhile, so we figured go big or go home!

    Reply

  33. Nora says

    I just got a Samsung at Best Buy, and they price matched Target with an extra $50 off and a free link stick. Whoo!

    Game of Thrones is my new tv excitement, and I’m impatiently waiting for the third season of Downton Abbey. If you’re not watching it, it’s seriously awesome.

    Reply

  36. Leese says

    can you please tell me where the blanket in your basket next to the TV is from? Patrick Jane on the Mentalist has a similar one on his couch in the CBI office.

    Reply

  37. Amanda says

    Nice upgrade! And this question is totally random considering this is a post on HDTVs. :) But, did Clara take a 22 months pic for her photo project? I love seeing what expression she has in them.

    Reply

  38. Lucy says

    Ha – “this lady” is Hannah Storm, ESPN anchor. So while still a little lame, I think the idea is that guys will want to watch Sportscenter on their Vizio. An actual sports shot would have been better, but there is probably a licensing issue there.

    Reply

  40. Stephen says

    I have that exact TV and I’m fairly confident that you will thoroughly enjoy that little purchase. I’ve owned 3 Vizio TVs and they’ve all been great and for a stellar price.

    Reply

  42. Carolyn M. says

    We made a TV upgrade for Christmas, our TV in our bedroom was an old 1997 13 inch tube TV. Well we didn’t want to pay for a new TV just for the bedroom. My husband happens to be a genius at fixing anything electronic. My mother inlaw had a 27″ vizio that the screen would randomly shut off(she had just bought it 2 years ago) and all you had was a black screen and sound. My husband took it apart,found out what was wrong, ordered some 5 dollar parts for it, fixed it and its like new, haven’t had any issues for 3 months so far. So for 5 bucks we got an almost brand new flat screen vizio!!

    Reply

  43. Vicky says

    Congrats on the upgrade! My husband and I just downgraded from a 50″ to a 40″. We moved into our first home 6 months ago and the 50″ was just overwhelming in the space (and embarrassing!) 40″=perfect size!

    Our 50″ is moving to the family room in our lower level so my husband will get to enjoy the life size zombies there.

    The Walking Dead season finale had me curled up into a ball. The first 23 minutes were horrifying!

    Reply

  44. Kelsey says

    We bought a 47” Vizio two years ago (for a lot more…) and we love it! The first one we had, the light board or something went out, so we called and it was fixed by the next day. Then it went out again…uhhh. But, to no avail, Vizio just replaced the whole TV! Vizio was so easy to work with, and they totally stand behind their products! Just make sure to keep your receipts in that event, because I had to track down one from Costco!

    Reply

  45. Lara says

    We’ll be moving in the next several months, I would hate for our 2 big, old-style TVs to “accidentally” get dropped and we’d have to replace them. Oh, that would be so awful :-)

    Reply

  46. Anu says

    hi,
    we are the lookout for something similar. great price. could you share as to where you got the 5% off hdtv coupon ? thro’ postal target mail coupons or newspaper or somewhere else. we are red card holders too & might have missed that one..?
    Thanks!

    Reply

  48. Katie says

    We are big Vizio fans – we have 3 and 1 Sony(gift). In 7 years, we have only had a problem with one of our vizio’s(the dreaded red line), but it goes away after a few minutes of watching. (And to be fair, we have 7 people in our family so I don’t sound like a freak with 4 tv’s:)

    Reply

  49. Dennis says

    To be honest, I don’t think you need to change up the console at all, and I am not a fan of wall-mounted tvs. I think both would give too much weight to the television, and even big tv watchers (myself included) really don’t need to add any more emphasis to them.
    I would say that changing up the color of the console could be worthwhile, or if you are going to build one, keep it in similar dimensions.
    My primary recommendation is that you need something interesting–but without too much visual weight–on the wall over the television. Maybe a ceramic animal head or three?

    Reply

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *