GOLD | MINE #1: MY FRAME TV
I’m not terribly materialistic, but I am a bit of a TV junkie. One of my favorite ways to unwind after a workday is to plunk myself down on my deep velvet couch and watch shows I’ve recorded.
My 36″ television from a Best Buy brand enabled that habit just fine, to tell the truth, and it moved into my bedroom after The Frame acquisition. But I wanted a digital television on my living room wall for its other features, like projecting videos from my phone and enjoying a rotating gallery of art on my wall. Yes, art!
I chose Samsung’s Frame TV after seeing it at my first or second CEDIA smart home technology expo a few years ago, and finally bought it for my 2021 birthday, also from Best Buy (with installation).
I love how it lets me take photos I snap on my phone, like these trees in Mount Rainier National Park, and digitally mount, frame and display them on my living room wall when I’m not watching a show. (If I don’t love the style or color of the mat, I can easily change it, something I can’t do with the artworks I have professionally framed.)
This ability to show art on my screen brings nature into my space without the need for watering, and lets me express my creativity with different matting styles and colors. (I can add a different frame to the TV itself, but haven’t found the one I want — a chunkier version in the same black.)
I can also take images I find online and do the same, though I’m always careful about asking for permission from its owner or sourcing royalty/permission-free images, like this one of birch trees from an artist who wanted her works shared. Birch trees remind me of my childhood summers in the Catskills, so there’s both a biophilia and “Comfort and Joy” benefit.
Samsung has a free art gallery for its Frame owners, and I have chosen artworks showing Yosemite, the coast and this one of a giraffe in Africa, inspiring my trip to Kilimanjaro (#KiliGoals), which I hope to make later this year.
Since I read, web surf and listen to music on my couch too, it’s great to have art that delights my eyes and soul while I do. If I’m in the mood for a beach visit, but can’t get there for whatever reason, I can call up a beach pic. If I need mountain or desert inspiration, I can call those up too. I can, but haven’t yet, display family or friendship photos on the TV.
Designers love that The Frame lets them prominently mount a large screen TV and not have it be a “black hole” when clients aren’t watching a show. I don’t care about the black hole effect if I’m not in the room; no one else is likely to be in there either.
