The work from home population changed forever in 2020, growing exponentially as a result from COVID. Now that many companies have learned how to effectively work remotely, working from home has become a natural part of nearly every business on earth.
As you build your home office, oftentimes by converting a spare bedroom to multi-functional use, adding a TV to the mix becomes a logical progression. Before deciding what TV is best for your home office, you should first consider whether or not it’s a good idea, where it should go, and how big it should be. Then you can move on to selecting the Best TV for your Home Office.
Should you put a TV in your Home Office?
The allure of placing a TV in the home office is obvious: it provides background noise, allows you to follow the news, track stocks, and enjoy whatever multi-tasking programs suit you best. Smart TVs have apps that might even increase your productivity depending on your line of work and position.
If your room doubles as a guest room it makes even more sense, giving your visitors a private place to rest and relax at their leisure. Televisions are among the most requested amenities for vacation rentals and guest rooms for good reason.
However, having a TV in your workplace can also be a distraction, severely cutting into your productivity by stealing a minute here, a minute there, and preventing you from fully focusing on the task at hand.
But someone who seeks distractions needn’t look further than their own computer screen or phone, where social media, games, gossip blogs, and streaming video await the darkest parts of their procrastinating hearts. Why put the blame on TVs?
Rather than punishing your lack of self-control by refusing to put a TV in your home office, set some healthy boundaries and limits, and use it as an opportunity to learn and practice self-betterment. One simple method is to play music videos on your TV rather than distracting TV shows and movies. Learn what works best for you and continually attempt to learn and grow.
Where to put a Home Office TV
Make no doubt about it: the most important component in your Home Office is the desk. Everything revolves around the desk. The decision of where to put your desk, and thus where to place your TV in the home office, depends first on which room you’ll be using:
- Dedicated Home Office
- Home office in bedroom
- Home office in family room
- Home office in living room
- Home office in small space
- Home office in dining room
- Home office in a closet
- Home office in garage
Dedicated Home Office
The lucky few who have a dedicated room for their home office will have more options with where to place their desk, TV, and other office furniture, but the #1 priority should be a view. Or at least a window.
The best place to position your desk in a home office is directly to the left or right of a window, never directly in front of you or behind you. Although it’s tempting to face a nice view, there are three great reasons you shouldn’t:
- The difference in brightness between your monitor and the outdoors will cause eye strain
- The office door will likely be uncomfortably at your back
- Looking directly at the outdoors can create constant distractions
You should also avoid having windows directly behind you when sitting at your office desk. The natural light will cause a glare on your computer screen and the ambiance of an outside view will go to waste.
Positioning the window at a right angle (typically) has the added benefit of facing a solid wall, giving you the perfect canvas to place functional office furniture and a television.
If you have the space, place your desk in the center of the room, creating enough distance between you and the wall so that you can comfortably see overtop your computer monitors towards a mounted TV. The window to your right or left will provide relaxing ambient light. If you don’t have a window in your office, don’t fret- make it a great view through creativity, for example with a colorful artwork or a TV that resembles a famous painting.
Now that you’ve got your desk positioned, you can safely decide where you’ll mount your TV. It’s best to mount your office TV on the wall directly in front of your desk in two scenarios:
- If your job revolves around or includes watching TV, or
- You’ve got a laptop rather than desktop monitors which are easier to see overtop of
You should otherwise mount your TV on an adjacent wall (left or right) or in the corner, providing background noise and entertainment without being a primary focal point or distraction. After all, this is an office: productivity should be maximized without completely depriving yourself of entertainment.
Home Office in Bedroom
The most popular room for a home office is the bedroom because it’s the most private, quiet room in the house aside from a dedicated home office.
If your own bedroom isn’t large enough to comfortably accommodate all of your stuff and a desk, there’s a good chance you’ve repurposed your guest bedroom into a home office combination- an excellent choice to get more mileage out of your square footage.
To make the most out of your bedroom and home office combination, make sure you position your TV so that it can be viewed from both your desk and bed. This is best accomplished by mounting your TV to the wall with a full-motion mount, but it’s not the only way: if you pick a portable TV or put it on TV furniture with wheels you can move it for both bed and desk viewing.
Home Office in Family Room
The work-from-home market has exploded in popularity and the family room has become the newest hot spot for the home office. The challenge here isn’t so much choosing a TV for the Home Office but choosing a desk for the Family Room.
The best place to put a desk in your family room so that it doubles as a home office and family room combo is behind the couch. It gives you a head on view of the television with an aerial view of the room so you can keep tabs on the kids and have plenty of room for family and friends on the couch.
If you’ve got a small family room and don’t have room for a desk behind the couch, consider buying an adjustable height table that can serve as both a coffee table and a desk, switching between the two at the press of a button.
There’s nothing wrong with putting unused space to work- if you’ve got a small space and small budget, get a tiny desk and put it wherever it fits. You’ve (hopefully) already got your TV in the room, finding an affordable desk shouldn’t be difficult.
Remember that your living room TV size should be calculated using the distance between the best seats and your screen. Measure the distance in inches and divide by 1.6 to determine the best TV size.
Home Office in Living Room
Let’s be clear: the Living Room is just another name for fancy Family Room that you’re not allowed to use unless relatives come over.
Living rooms are traditionally more formal and elegantly decorated, so there’s a good chance you won’t want a TV here. And if you do, no need to be pretentious: follow the rules for the family room and move along.
Home Office in Dining Room
The dining room may seem like an odd place to create a home office, but think about it: the dining room table is the largest surface area for work space in the house.
Here are some tips to making it work:
- Use banquettes, buffets, sideboards, ottomans, and other storage furniture to stow away your work and electronics when not in use.
- Get a dining room table with drawers to keep supplies
- Consider a high-top table to put you in a multi-purpose mindset
- Put a couple different chair styles around the table, some with cushions, so you can give your booty a rest during a long work day
If you’ve got a formal dining room that rarely gets used, try switching it up to an office-first mentality that can be converted back into a dining room when necessary. The name of the game is functionality and you should design your space how it’s best used for you, otherwise you’re just wasting square footage.
Now for the TV: your parents might say that a TV doesn’t belong in the dining room. After all, dinner and other meals should be reserved for good conversations and better company. But these days, TV is often what people talk about, and a popular pastime while eating meals, together or individually.
Modern families won’t mind mounting a TV right on their dining room wall: make sure it’s viewable from the most prominently used seats at the table, especially the head of the table and whatever seat will serve as your desk chair.
More discerning folks will want to hide their TV in a piece of furniture like a TV Lift Cabinet. It will conceal your TV when not in use and rise up out of the cabinet when you’re ready to watch TV, giving you the best of both worlds.
Another option is to make your TV resemble artwork, which is accomplished beautifully with high-end TVs like the Samsung Frame.
Home Office in Closet
Yikes! You must be desperate if you’re putting a home office in the closet, right? Absolutely not: a spare closet can make a fantastic home office space.
Small Closets are cozy, private, quiet, and free of distractions. They don’t, however, have the luxury of being spacious. After all, a spacious closet is really just called a room. If putting a big screen TV in a closet sounds like a stretch, that’s because it is: consider a 2nd monitor which you can dedicate to streaming video content.
Walk-in closets are a shoe of a different color. Putting a TV in a walk-in closet can take your getting-ready space to the next level. Wall-mounted TVs are the goto option, but for maximum impact, consider getting a Mirror TV for checking both your outfit and entertainment at the same time.
Home Office in Garage
Why would someone put an office in a garage? Several reasons:
- They work on cars
- They do woodworking
- They do other “handyman” work
- It’s the biggest and quietest extra space available
Don’t forget that some of the world’s largest and most successful companies started in the garage, including Disney, HP, Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Virgin, Amazon, Google, Mattel, MagLite, Yankee Candle, and Harley-Davidson.
Now that your fears have been erased, how should we set up our home office to build the next big company?
The most common layout for a home office in the garage is to put desks and other work spaces outlining the walls. This has three key advantages:
- It maximizes space in the center of the garage
- It provides plenty of surface area for desk work
- It frames the space above and below for cabinets and storage
The best place to put a Garage TV is on a wall adjacent to your work space. This prevents you from standing or sitting too close to the screen, which can cause dizziness, and keeps your focus on the work at hand. Use a full-motion TV mount so you can adjust the position of the TV for different activities and viewing angles in the garage.
Another great option for a Garage TV is a ceiling mount that sits flat against the ceiling and folds down electronically. Resist the urge to place a ceiling mount in the center of your garage, instead placing towards a wall where it can be viewed from a larger number of locations. Your garage setup may accommodate a center-mounted TV now, but garages – perhaps more than any other room – need flexibility in their arrangement and use.
Corner-mounted TVs are yet another garage option but should typically be avoided. Although corners are underutilized inside the home, garages make great use of corners for storage and large, vertical, and bulky items. Place your garage TV elsewhere unless you have an abundance of space.
Best TVs for Home Office
Once you’ve decided where you’ll put your TV — both the room and the location within the room — you can finally decide what TV to buy.
The Best TV for a Home Office will be a 4K TV with 120Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1, and HDR. Make sure to buy from a reputable TV brand like Samsung, Sony, or LG, and remember that OLED TVs have the best screens, QLED TVs have the best value, and LEDs are the most affordable.
Pick your TV Size by measuring the distance in inches between your viewing location and the screen and dividing by 1.6: this is the most comfortable TV size for most rooms.