Young House Love

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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

  1. Nicole says

    Drew and I have a 42 inch Vizio and absolutely love it. It’s a lot cheaper then a Samsung but does just as great of job. We added a HDMI cable that we got at Walmart for like $30 and it even made the picture clearer.

    Reply

  2. Brandi says

    How funny that after not able to look at your blog in the past 2 weeks (spring break, funeral, teaching . . . just a little busy-lol), my husband and I just bought a tv today. We ended up with the 60″ Sanyo Aquos LED tv. LOVE IT. We had an old projection tv that we had been slowly watching the red and green colors seperate on the screen for close to a year now. (yeah we are misers too- waited until we could not stand the 3-D effect any longer) Now we are debating recycling the tv or actually fixing it for the kids to watch in the basement. Hmmm $250 to fix it . . . . we are thinking about it.
    Enjoy your new tv! It looks great! :o)

    Reply

  3. Brandi says

    Hmm, after reading the comments on the 60hz and the 120hz; we were told that the 60hz, 120hz and the 240hz is referring to the refresh rate that the tv does automatically. The higher the hz rate the faster (and clearer) the picture will be when watching fast action scenes. Most people will not notice the difference in the 120 vs the 240 unless they are avid sports watchers.
    Hope that helps.
    If you like fast action movies- the 120hz is just fine.

    Reply

  4. eileen marie says

    We have a living room much narrower than your old den, & we have a massive 52″ TV above our 5 ft tall fireplace -it’s like craning your neck at an IMAX theater. It was a wedding gift to ourselves ~ 3 yrs ago. It’s a Sony & was ~ $2K, but I still have my Sony from college (16 years ago!) in my classroom, so we are brand loyal. Congrats! Great price -I bet you are thrilled w/ your new set!

    Reply

  5. Amber says

    ROTFL–I read too quick and I thought John wrote “Can’t a guy get an exotic underWEAR scene with fish and coral…” For a second I thought, wow he just got PG-13 with us! Haha…my bad!

    Congrats on the upgrade!

    Reply

  6. Kristen P. says

    We’ve thought about replacing our 27″ flat screen (it was our first big purchase as a married couple- $800 many years ago), but both hubby and I are “wear it out” type of people, and we have only one room we need a tv (no cable here, just netflix and movie rentals). So until it dies, it’s here to stay.

    And even if we did upgrade, it would only be up to a 37″ since that’s the biggest tv our expedit entertainment center can hold.

    Reply

  7. Kelly says

    Thanks for the TV tips! I had put a new one at the bottom of my list, but at those prices, I can actually afford one. I didn’t want to move my “fatty-fat” TV to my new house and then deal with getting rid of it. Now I can dump (read: recycle) the old one and buy a new one shortly without breaking the bank!

    Reply

  9. Chantelle says

    my favourite thing about our tv is that its hidden… in an armoire. It’s a 46″ but and it fits perfectly so it doesn’t even look like we have one!

    Reply

  10. Tara says

    I legitimately had to read this: “exotic underwater scene with fish and coral in all colors of the rainbow?” SEVERAL times before I realized you WERENT saying “exotic underwear scene with fish and coral in all colors of the rainbow?” haha

    Reply

  11. josh o. says

    Hooray TV – congrats on your new addition to the household!!

    seriously, though, when we upgraded we had no idea how much of a transformation it would be. no more leaning forward and squinting all the time – so much more light is getting into my eyes now that they’re unsquinted. unsqunt? whatever that word is.

    Also, good call on the non-LED – that technology has a ways to go yet – we have a tiny LED tv as well as our LCD main event, and the little guy has a constant “Flutter” that i think would be annoying on a larger TV.

    we watch justified, which is awesome, and we’ve already made a paper chain for dexter – it’s months away, but we’re counting down the days…..

    Reply

  14. Ann Marie says

    Totally off topic – where has the Clara rug gone from the first picture??? I really loved that rug! Banished to the playroom, perhaps…?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, it’s sadly banished to the playroom! We had so many 5 x 8 rugs from our first house but they don’t fit in many rooms here (too small for the most part) so it’s banished to the playroom with a few others! Here’s hoping we can bring it back when we makeover the playroom someday though (that’ll be Clara’s big girl room someday, so it’s fitting that she gets the Clara rug in there).

      xo,
      s

  15. Beth says

    Actually we’ve just made the decision *not* to have a tv in our living room. We couldn’t find a good place to put one in our room: it is long and thin (similar length to yours but ours is about a 1/3rd narrower and the only path to the kitchen) with awkwardly placed doors and only one electrical socket which is 4 ft away from the aerial cables. So the cost of fixing these issues plus upgrading my tiny 19” just didn’t add up. So we have placed the tv in a drawer downstairs (yes it is *that* small) and bring it out whenever we want to watch a movie or something.

    Maybe in a year or so will get a tv again – perhaps a fancy projector…but in the meantime we are actually enjoying not having a tv though we do always have the radio playing.

    Reply

  16. marie says

    we must have got a lemon tv…we bought a 42″ vizio at target and haven’t been happy with it. :o/ we ARE happy with the cheap (under $20) wall mount we bought at ikea, however. :o)

    Reply

  17. Lesli says

    Congrats on the new TV, but what I want to know about is the awesome green with white rug. did you guys make that or can you tell me where to find it? Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That was from jossnandmain.com a few months ago. That’s a flash sale site, so if it’s not on there you might want to try overstock.com, wayfair.com, or amazon.com. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  19. Kate in New Zealand says

    Congrats on squeezing in Christmas, a book, a toddler, a kitchen renovation, a blog and a holiday in a few short months!

    I really do think that your tv references are part of what keeps you guys so relatable. If I were you guys, my catch phrase would be “It’s for the good of the blog!…”

    Reply

  21. Blaine Stewart says

    LOL that’s Hannah Storm from ESPN. I guess it’s targeted to the sports watching crowd looking to buy big TVs. But hey… nothing wrong with watching the news :-)

    BTW, I still LOVE your old living room. Sooooo cosy!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, yes we have learned she’s a sports gal. We thought it was funny there wasn’t a picture of a team actually playing something (action) but someone mentioned it might be a rights issue or something. Too funny!

      xo,
      s

  23. Debbie @ Pink Texas Chick says

    Congrats on your new tv! You said that people have made fun of you before for having such a small tv in a large room? Well people make fun of us for STILL having a box tv, two of them in fact. Our answer is that we won’t buy a new one until one of them dies on us. Too many other things to pay for at the moment.

    Reply

  25. Andrea says

    Great deal! I love Tarjeet.

    Not related to this post, but can you share the name of the curtains in your living room? I know they are from Ikea, and I’ve been scouring ebay/ikea, but can’ seem to spot them. Thanks in advance!

    Reply

  26. SG says

    We also need a new TV – and I’m wondering if you could speak a little bit to your research process – any particular sites or articled you’d recommend reading? We still have one of the old clunkers (with the built in VCR) where you need the converter so this will be a huge step forward technology wise for us and it’s really daunting.

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We just checked the ratings for certain ones in our size/price range (on sites like target, amazon, best buy) and compared them to see which ones had the most good points. In the end it was just about which 4 star rated TV worked best with our budget, and since posting about our Vizio so many folks have said such amazing things about their company, we’re thinking we might stick with them for the long haul!

      xo,
      s

  27. Ann says

    Hi, I noticed your Greyhound statue and would like to know where you purchased it. We have a Miniature Italian Greyhound. Thank you.

    Reply

  28. Alice says

    Cool! I bought that exact same model two months ago – using $280 in gift cards (accumulated over several years) and with my parents paying the rest as a housewarming gift. So far, I’ve been very pleased with my choice and hope that you enjoy yours, too. :)

    Reply

  29. Lizzy says

    YES YES YES…. tie the tv to the wall, and super glue it to the table and whatever you have to do to keep it where it should be. Our tv (many moons ago – big old heavy 36 inch thing that was practically square and takes 2 people to move) was on an old printer stand (BAD idea) and our daughter was laying in front of it, pushing the stand with her legs. She pushed hard enough and the tv SHOULD have come crashing down ON her… SOMEHOW it defied physics and ended up crashing to the floor just above her head. Angels I tell you. She should have been crushed…. I’m VERY anal retentive about making sure heavy stuff is SAFE stuff!!!

    Reply

  30. Marla says

    thanks for the tv shopping tips. can you tell me where you bought the storage basket sitting on the floor next to the tv stand? it looks like one target sells online that i’ve been thinking of purchasing.

    Reply

  31. Melissa says

    Congratulations on the new purchase! I’ve been eyeing a Vizio as well to replace my 18 year-old CRT TV when it dies. I was wondering if you’re happy with the sound quality? I’ve read some mixed reviews on that aspect.

    Oh, and if you have not tried watching Breaking Bad, you must! I was hooked within three episodes and then ended up finishing all 4 season in less than two weeks, only to immediately rewatch them with my mother (who was just as hooked as I was).

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, we are very happy with it! We have muted it, put it low, and listened to it super loud (all in the name of quality control, haha) and it’s great! Thanks for the Breaking Bad recommendation, my brother just got his doctorate in chemistry and everyone keeps telling him (and us) to watch it. Can’t wait!

      xo,
      s

  32. Kate says

    ooh fancy! What are you doing with your old tv? Will you become tv in bed lovers? (I keep trying to stop my partner from bringing his laptop in the bedroom but every now and then I catch myself snuggling into the covers to watch it too!)

    Reply

  33. Jessica says

    My husband and I have 2 Vizio TVs — one for the living room and one for the bedroom — and we really love them.

    Reply

  35. Tipling says

    Now that you are thinking about getting a bigger tv stand I have a question regarding what color stand you would choose. I have dark brown couches (I realize yours are blackish but still dark) and am wondering if it is best to go with a black or brown tv stand (I am thinking a mid-century dresser turned stand with drawers to hold everything) or to paint it a color such as plumage blue. As designers, do you like colored tv stands with dark couches or do you think I should stick with black/brown? FYI: Apartment so white walls, no painting walls allowed, speckled beige carpet. Thank you for your thoughts!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re hardly designers but we vote that either could work! If you went with a wood toned tv stand you could add color and interest to the room with pillows, art, curtains, etc. or you could go Plumage (so much fun!) and tie it in with pillows in that tone on the sofa for balance. Good luck!

      xo,
      s

  36. Celia says

    We need to upgrade too and inspired by your post I actually went to Target to look at tv’s but we had too much going on at the time and still have that on our to do list.

    I like the tip of saving 5% with a Target card but don’t like the idea of giving them my social security number to get the card. Did that give you pause at all? I am very cautious when it comes to giving out personal information but I am also frugal :).

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Didn’t even think about it! I guess since we’ve never had an issue with using that info to get a credit card (or heard of someone having an issue with it after they did it) we didn’t think twice. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

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