Matt, that sounds infinitely better than the situations I typically see.

I think this has come up before, but I also like my fireplaces up higher and mounted to the wall. Of course this is a more contemporary design.

Here's a room that's made to look horrific with a TV over the fireplace: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/tips-for-hanging-a-flat-screen-74713

They even bookended the TV with wall sconces. Holy shit. Besides the whole height issue, based on what furniture I can see in the room, it doesn't look like a TV belongs on that wall at all.

This one is from a forum (http://www.diychatroom.com/f12/ideal-tv-height-mounting-above-fireplace-44851/) Brutal.

Is it me or do these TV above fireplace people also like to sit perpendicular to the wall the TV is mounted on? It seems like every example I see, including the two friends I mentioned, have seating at a right angle to their TVs. Sorry, don't put a TV in that room at all if you're going to do that. Leave it as a sitting room.

I love quotes like this "Having it mounted above the fireplace is not ideal, but lots of people have it that way" - lots of people have medical/health issues too for which they (hopefully) seek treatment.

A Google image search will bring up a lot of spine tingling examples.

It amazes me that a lot of people build brand new rooms with the intention of putting the TV above the fireplace. If you're starting from scratch there's no reason for this compromise. Go side by side like the example below. It can easily be rescued by dropping the position of the TV - which is still way too high for some reason (can't tell from the photo what that black rectangle is under it)




Nice room actually, though I'd lose that sectional in favor of something different and more complimentary to the room.