06 December 2010

TV Mirror

We saw one of these really cool bathroom mirrors in a show home one time and thought it the perfect thing for our master bath; especially while I’m getting ready for work in the morning.  When the TV is on, the image shows through the mirror enabling me watch my favorite early morning news program, while at the same time see my reflection in the non-TV area of the glass as I brush my teeth,  apply my make-up and realize just how bad I look that early in the morning.

There are quite a few outfits that have developed these clever systems that combine an LCD television with a specially crafted mirror.   They can cost anywhere between $1,800 and $10,000.  Ouch!!

To keep within our budget, we are creating our own.  We had the architect draw it into the house plans.  An 18” niche was framed into the wall between the master closet and the wall in the master bath where the mirror will be placed.  

The opening of the niche is in the wall of the master closet; much like you’d create a space for a safe.  This is looking into the closet from the bathroom.

This is looking into the bathroom from the closet.  We'll butt the tv up against that opening.

We’ll use a two-way or see-through mirror. You can see through this type of mirror in either direction, but when looking at the front where the shiny coating is, the reflected light is much brighter than what comes through the back. As a result, you don’t notice what is on the other side of the mirror.  If you watch NCIS you’re familiar with scenes of Gibbs interrogating his suspect in a brightly lit room while Special Agents DiNozzo and McGee are in a dark room looking in from behind the mirrror so that the suspect can't see the light coming in from the back of the mirror.

The niche will be painted black and the TV placed flush against the mirror.  The remote control will work through the mirror and the sound will come through the wall just fine (or so we are told).

I love the DIY Network.

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